Rocky Top Catering - Raleigh, North Carolina

Sonia and Michael

We LOVED working with Rocky Top for our wedding. The food was great, and they were really easy to work with to schedule the tasting, make adjustments if needed, and ensure dietary restrictions were handled. We elected for a sweetheart table and family style catering, and they knocked both out of the park. We had a great experience with Kevin and the team!

Crystal Wilkerson

We are clearly in the minority in our experience with Rocky Top, but nonetheless feel the need to convey our feedback so they can continue to improve.

We had several issues with Rocky Top for our September wedding. At our tasting, the appetizers were great, but the beef and salmon entrees were both served dry, like they had been under a heat lamp all day. We had to have the beef cooked to medium rare and sliced for our wedding day just to ensure a somewhat medium texture. We liked the chicken option and asked for a sauce modification to be served on the side (some of our guests can’t handle spice). The day of the wedding, the breading was completely and undeniably burnt (see photo), and the sauce was on the chicken. They served my husband (the Groom) a burned piece and when we asked for something less charred, they brought out an almost identical burned piece, because they batch fried them and they were all burned. All the guests who ordered chicken complained to us that the breading was inedible. So disappointing since it was our southern food option for out of town guests who were looking for good southern fried chicken.

We asked our coordinator to give the feedback to them and they refused to take any accountability, commenting that it was “blackened due to the seasoning”. If that’s the case, it would have had the same appearance at our tasting, which it didn’t, and it wouldn’t have tasted burnt. We paid for quality and simply just did not receive it. But to not acknowledge the obvious on their end was a bit unprofessional given the price point.

On top of the above issues, there were several cases of lack of attention to detail (after many discussions, they still somehow missed that we wanted soft drinks and a coffee bar until the last minute, they wouldn’t confirm our rehearsal day until 30 days out when they knew most of our guests were coming from out of town, on the rehearsal set up day, the rooms were set up wrong, etc.) When we signed with Cross + Main / Rocky Top, the general sentiment from them was that they were here to make things easy for us and were happy to accommodate really anything. The reality once we signed the contract was that it was difficult to get any real support on even just the basics.

All in all, we got through it. But it was a lot of back and forth on our end to confirm and reconfirm things we had discussed multiple times, and added a fair amount of unnecessary stress to the planning process.

Lucy Barber

Rocky Top Catering (RTC) was fantastic to work with as the caterer and bar provider for our rehearsal dinner! Their menu offers a huge range of options, and the staff (I worked with Carley and Ainsley) were incredibly accommodating, answering all my questions and providing me with various quotes based on different selections.

We ended up choosing an elevated BBQ-style dinner with their Southern Pickin' station as an appetizer and wrapped up the evening with a dessert bar featuring easy-to-grab cookies and cupcakes. Everyone RAVED about how delicious the food was and how top-notch the service from the RTC team was. The staff was courteous, attentive, and the bartenders were on point, ensuring everyone had exactly what they wanted.

One of the many things I appreciated was that their team also handled set-up and tear-down for the event, which was a huge relief! A particularly touching moment for me was with our bar options. We went with Michelob Ultra as the light beer, but I wanted to provide a case of Bud Light just for my dad. I was so impressed when Carley offered to take care of it for me—one less thing on my plate during a busy weekend. It was just another example of how much RTC truly cares about their clients.

Another story that really touched my heart involved my mom, who has late-stage Alzheimer's and faces many physical challenges. She came to the tasting with my dad and me, along with her nursing assistant. The RTC team was incredibly considerate, ensuring our table was accessible for someone with her disabilities (no high tops and plenty of space to maneuver her chair). On top of that, they comped the meal for her nursing assistant, which was such a kind and unexpected gesture. Their thoughtfulness meant the world to me.

They even boxed up all the leftovers for us to take home—something I wasn’t expecting but truly appreciated. Those leftovers kept us fed well into the next week!

Being from Durham, I know for sure that any future event I host that needs catering will be with Rocky Top—hands down! I’m so grateful to them for helping make our rehearsal dinner such a wonderful and memorable experience.

Becca Fox

We were so impressed by our experience with Rocky Top and had multiple wedding guests tell us it was the best wedding food they ever had. Working with Vicky and her team from curating the menu to the final decisions the week prior was seamless. I would highly recommend them for your next event as their attention to detail and quality of food was top notch. Even a close family member who is a chef in a major city complimented us on the food as he's been to a lot of weddings where it is inedible. High praise that made us so happy!

Laura Goodman

We attended the 2023/24 Rocky Top Catering New Year’s Eve Gala at the Raleigh Museum of Natural Sciences and thoroughly enjoyed every minute. The food was delicious, the drinks were fun and abundant and the DJs and overall atmosphere were great! This was our first year attending the event and we are already planning on returning next year. The staff was gracious and did everything they could to ensure everyone had a great time! Yes, some of the lines for food were a bit long but that is to be expected with this type of event and they moved surprisingly quickly. We never had to wait at the bar for a drink. Oh, and the hot dogs at midnight were awesome. We highly recommend the event and Rocky Top Catering!

Elizabeth Jackson

I have had a couple of unpleasant experiences with Rocky Top, and would not recommend them for your event.

The first was when we scheduled a tasting as we searched for a wedding caterer. Our tasting was last spring, and I mentioned to the team multiple times that my mother and I had allergies and dietary restrictions that we needed accommodated during the tasting. They promised each time that we would be accommodated. We were not, and my mother and I either could not taste items that we wanted to try (as we picked out the menu we would have ideally wanted for our wedding) or we were given completely different items we did not pick out. The food we did eat was fine, just fine. The staff were quite rude to us during our tasting as well. We immediately went to a tasting with a different caterer, and it was a complete 180 - we immediately chose that caterer for our wedding instead due to the vast difference in care and service we experienced.

I also attended a wedding where Rocky Top was the caterer. My friends, the bride and groom, had chosen a menu that was heavy on the inclusion of nuts, which is what I am allergic to. There were two items (rice and one protein) that did not have nuts in them. I asked the servers to confirm that serving utensils had not been cross contaminated, and they could not. Hello? This is food safety 101. Their advice was to eat the salad instead (which by the way.... also had nuts in it). A nut allergy is not uncommon, and not only could they not accommodate it, but they also couldn't care less about it.

As a heads up, Rocky Top services a ton of the football teams in the area and told us they do dozens (if not more) events every weekend. You will not be the priority for them and their attention will be split with many others. I highly recommend looking elsewhere for a catering team that will actually take care of you and your guests, and that can follow food safety guidelines appropriately.

Nick V

We had Rocky Top cater our wedding at the Stockroom at 230, and they were perfect. All we heard that night and the day after was how good the food and service was. They also did an amazing job managing the open bar. Would highly recommend them for any wedding for Raleigh.

Karl VanRoekel

On the day of our wedding they spilled our food, made an embarrassing scene then still charged us for it (see photos). The food didn't taste anything like it did during out tasting. Do not hire Rockytop as their customer service and food service is horrible.