Basikneads

We emphatically do not recommend Basikneads as a caterer, because of their terrible business practices. Our daughter selected Basikneads based on food tastings and their promise to provide the wedding buffet dinner she requested. We paid Basikneads over $10,000.00 in advance to keep that promise. Here is what happened on the night of the wedding and the several weeks afterward.

• There was clearly not enough food provided on the buffet for 1/3 of our guests. The buffet table ran out of four items before those guests were served. In a subsequent phone conversation two days later, chef-owner Cornell Coulon said that he had planned 1-1/2 each of the salmon and chicken satays for each of the guests. On the night of the wedding, as the mother of the bride took a chicken satay, one of the servers said that there was “only one per person” and asked that another server come to those plates to oversee the distribution. Each of the satays barely had any meat on them to begin with, so it was surprising to the bride’s mother that only one was being allotted to each guest. Cornell blamed the lack of sufficient food on children at the wedding. However, the employees of Basikneads served the items on the buffet, so they were in charge of how much each guest received. One and a half of these items was simply not enough for guests at a buffet dinner at a wedding. In addition, the buffet ran out of two other items.

• The bar table was disorganized and sloppy. The bartenders did not even put out all the wines that were brought in. They turned guests away who requested merlot, saying that we didn’t have any. They simply never opened all the boxes of wine to look at what was in them. The father of the bride had to go into the back room to bring them out. In addition, the bartenders opened an excessive number of bottles of alcohol in advance, causing the parents of the bride to be charged for wine and liquor that was never served.

• The mother of the bride contacted Basikneads the day after the wedding via e-mail to express disappointment with the lack of sufficient food. The next day we called Basikneads and left a message to contact us. Lena Muhtadi returned the phone call later that day, and the mother of the bride described how upset and embarrassed we were in front of our guests to both Lena and Cornell. Ultimately, after listening to their justifications, we asked for restitution of the individual costs of the four items multiplied by 33 guests. The total came to $330, which Lena promised would be sent.

• When no check arrived after two weeks, we sent a reminder e-mail. Receiving neither response nor check almost a week later, the father of the bride called Basikneads twice in one day. Whoever answered the phone acted rather strangely, first offering Lena’s and Cornell’s voice mailboxes to leave a message, then saying, “Oh, we don’t have voice mail.” The father of the bride left messages with this person both times and asked for a return call. The calls were never responded to by anyone from Basikneads.

• A couple days later, we received an e-mail sent by Lena saying that Cornell was on vacation and stating, “I assure you that he has not forgotten about your refund, and this is a priority to him.”

• Two weeks later, not having received the check, we sent three separate registered return receipt letters to owners Cornell Coulon and Kristen Coulon and their manager Lena Muhtadi. They all signed for these letters, but it is eight weeks after the wedding and we have not received a check or an acknowledgement from anyone at Basikneads.

In dealing with this matter, both verbal and written promises were broken by Basikneads. Thank goodness everything else about our daughter’s wedding was wonderful, but our experience with Basikneads after the wedding has left a bitter taste in our mouths.

Terrible. Careless and thoughtless. Although we made a point of designing vegetarian-friendly side dishes, they served all those dishes underneath the meat in the same trays on the buffet. We specifically said no champagne toast, yet they poured glasses of champagne for everyone (most of whom were nondrinkers that didn't touch it). Also, they stole our chocolate fountain. When we wrote to complain, they ignored us. Stay away.