All of our catered dinners include all disposable dinnerware necessary for any of our meals. This would include things like salad bowls for a tossed salad order. We do not provide dessert plates or beverage cups unless Raffel's provides the dessert or the beverages. We do provide cake plates and forks when we provide food for wedding receptions with more than 125 guests.
We require a $250.00 Non-Refundable deposit on all orders of 100 guests or more for catering off-site. If booking an event at one of our banquet centers, we require a different deposit process. Please refer to our Banquet Center page for the deposit procedures for our halls.
We include chafing dishes with our Attendant Service but not for standard delivery orders. If chafing dishes are requested, we offer disposable wire frame chafing dishes with water pans and sterno heaters included for $20 each.
We will deliver normally within a 50 mile radius but we are capable of delivering to locations outside of this distance. Delivery and service fees will be arranged according to the time & distance necessary to deliver your order.
We require a minimum of 3 days notice on delivery orders but we realize that some events can pop-up for our clients and we have reacted to orders in much less time. Just give us a call and we will do our best to accommodate your needs if it is possible. For events in our banquet halls, we suggest reserving your date as early as possible to make sure you don't lose it to another guest.
Of course! Your order may be picked up on the way to your function hot and ready to serve or you can choose to pick it up cold and ready for the oven for serving later. We can prepare most menu orders as much as two days in advance for use during certain holiday functions when we are normally closed. All orders are picked up at our Evendale Location.
If Raffel's has staff remaining at your event, once all of your guests have been served and have come back for seconds, our staff will package up any food left on the buffet in pans and trays that we bring along for this purpose. This refers only to buffets that our attendants have stayed to service. This does not refer to meals that Raffel's has only delivered and dropped off at your location. It is the responsibility of the host to provide for proper food safety and handling for any food delivered to a location or for any leftovers that Raffel's has left for the host after an attended function. We do not provide leftovers at events held in either of our banquet halls.
Yes! We offer tastings Monday through Friday between 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM and on Saturdays from 9:00 AM and Noon. At least one week’s notice must be given for scheduling purposes. We allow up to 6 people to attend and to try up to 10 different items. There is a $25 per person charge for the tasting but if you go ahead with your event booking, half that amount will be transferred as a credit to your event balance. If a different time needs to be arranged, please contact us to set up a custom appointment.
Raffel’s accepts most major credit cards and does charge a 3% service fee on those charges. We also accept cash and personal checks with some restrictions. Personal check usage will need to be approved by any of our office staff prior to the delivery of your order. Checks that are returned for any reason will require a $50.00 service fee on top of the actual bill amount. Our banquet center fees and payments are listed with all of the respective menus.
Our normal minimum order for any of our meals is 25. Some of our corporate clients have need for servicing smaller groups and those need a special quote. If your group does not fall in this range, please call our office and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.
The gratuity for our banquet center packages is included in the pricing. Offsite wedding receptions also have a gratuity built into the already listed per person price. Deliveries with or without servers to stay and maintain the buffet are not generally charged a gratuity but the delivery staff would certainly appreciate any modest tip that you would care to offer. This may be added to the bill prior to delivery or handed to the staff directly, whichever you prefer.
Since we are first and foremost a full service caterer, any food in our banquet center will need to be ordered from Raffel’s. We do allow people to provide their own wedding cakes and we sometimes allow people to bring their own specialty cakes for birthdays or retirements. All beverages, especially all alcoholic beverages, have to be provided by Raffel's. If you have specialty ethnic dishes that you would like at your event, please contact our office and we can discuss options for you.
We have several service companies that we feel comfortable in recommending to our clients. We can provide those names and in some cases their services can be found on our Preferred Vendors section on our web site.
Raffel's allows at least an hour and a half from the serving time contracted. This allows plenty of time for your guests to come back for seconds and even thirds before we begin to pack up your leftovers for you to take home with you. It is important for the host to give Raffel's an accurate serving time to keep from going beyond the 1 and 1/2 hour serving time allotted. If our staff have to stay beyond that time frame an additional service fee could be incurred.