Rania's Catering

Rania's made my mother's 80th birthday incredibly memorable. All my relatives and I raved about the quality and were so happy to have leftovers! The staff were wonderfully communicative, wanting to and succeeding in making the day perfect. Thank you Rania's!

Incredible food and catering. This woman gets things done. She catered our wedding in 2018 at a venue that you had to bring your own rentals, alcohol, caterer, etc. she coordinated everything--because of her and her team, we didn't need to hire a day of coordinator. She is one of the most hard working, responsive, organized, detail oriented people I have encountered. She made she everything went off without a hitch. She even handled an issue with our DJ the day of so we didn't have to.Aside from her amazing coordination, her food is delicious. Our guests are still talking about it. Hire her and her team--you will not regret it.

We host an annual FriendsGiving Party. We have catered from Rania's three years in a row. The past years the catering was great. But, the last year, we ordered a 20.22 pound turkey and followed the instruction. When cutting the turkey we found the giblets inside with the plastic bag. Also, if you are hosting a party after they are closed, it is hard to get hold of someone in getting additional instruction or help. But, overall the food is good. Next year, we are going to be a little thorough with them.

I cannot say enough good things about Ranias catering. For this review, the few things I would like to highlight are 1) the food 2)the level of detail to which Rania plans and 3)the amazing staff.The food at our wedding was unbelievable. Rania cooks on site to ensure the food is fresh and hot when it is served to your guests. When choosing your food, Rania provides a long list of appetizers, salads and entrees. I absolutely loved the unique options she provided. It was a little intimidating to choose before tasting just because everything sounded so good (because there are so many options, you select initial meal choices before your tasting then can refine your choices after the tasting if needed). Our guests have not stopped raving about our food since the wedding, especially the unique appetizers (lamb skewers, grilled dates, Thai chicken curry tartlets, and crab cakes to name a few). Also, her baker is out of this world. Our cakes were delicious and I really liked how I could customize the flavor of each layer of the cake. He also decorated the cake beautifully with fresh flowers.I do not know what I would have done without Rania help and expertise in coordinating everything for the event. We had to rent everything for our venue and also had to bring in the liquor and bars. Rania coordinates all of this. At our first meeting, she was able to tell us exactly what we would need in terms of rentals down to the bread bowl. She provided invaluable guidance on timeline, djs, and other vendors. She also provided day-of coordination between all vendors to ensure that everyone was aware of the timeline and on time. I honestly didn't have to worry about a thing and everything ran so smoothly. It was truly a perfect day and that was in large part due to Rania.Lastly I would like to talk about Ranias staff. The coordinators, waiters and bartenders were so polite, professional, and attentive to us and our guests. They could not have been any more helpful and made sure everyone had a great time.It was truly a pleasure to deal with Rania. She is an extremely impressive business woman and I have the utmost respect for her and her business. I'm sure you could get good food from another caterer, but Rania provides a whole experience that I'm sure is unrivaled. I don't know what we would have done without her. I can't wait to have another large event so I can use Ranias catering again.

Being new to Pittsburgh and in the midst of planning a wedding at The Mattress Factory, I visited a million sites like this one in search of high quality, reliable catering companies. Rania's Catering consistently popped up as the highest rated in food quality, planning help, and the ability to work within different budget ranges. They were spot on. Rania and her staff always responded to my inquiries promptly and professionally. The variety of menu options and how much help Rania and her team provide with all of the coordination -- from tablescapes, to recommendations for entertainment, floral, and overall flow -- was amazing. We didn't want to hire a wedding coordinator as I like planning parties, but we also didn't want to be responsible for a bunch of wedding day details that would keep us from enjoying our friends and family. Combining Rania's expertise, experience and talent with the Events Coordinator, Amanda, at the Mattress Factory was the perfect solution. We were very impressed with the range of china, glassware, and silverware options Rania showed us (and I can be snobby about this), and we were blown away at her menu selections. We created a gorgeous menu for 70 ppl that accommodated lots of dietary needs -- gluten free; vegetarian; non-dairy; and carnivore -- where every plate was full and plentiful. We had 6 passed hors d'oeuvres followed by a sit-down dinner, served buffet style with beef tenderloin, crab cakes, and veggie risotto as our main courses. It was awesome. Rania gave us a bar list for us to purchase, and it was spot on. And, our cake was unbelievable! We chose a smaller two-tier cake with a dessert bar, and everyone raved. Lastly, the service was IMPECCABLE! Rania's team is fun, friendly, and professional. Our guests wanted for nothing. And the staff was extra attentive and kind with our older relatives who need a little help. I genuinely can't say enough good things about Rania, and she's definitely catering the next event we host.

We ordered appetizers for a cocktail party. On the day of the party, we picked up everything and refrigerated the pans of food as directed. When we went to pull out the pans to warm the items, we found that the chicken skewers were raw, not cooked at all. This left us scrambling to saute chicken as guests were arriving. I got in touch with them afterwards to complain and was told that this was standard, for safety reasons. They refused to refund the cost for chicken that we ultimately had to cook ourselves.

Easy to talk to and very specific, but also very high non-negotiable prices making our wedding go up about 25-30% ($20-$30) per person. Good for wealthily people looking to spend $$$$.

Rania is the best of the best, and I could never imagine recommending anyone else for your wedding caterer. After booking our venue, we explored the preferred caterers. I had a strong feeling we'd end up selecting Rania from the beginning. Her prices shocked me until I realized the difference between booking Rania versus another company. With Rania, you don't just get true homemade food (nothing frozen or pre-cooked) - you get Rania herself, and she is an absolute dynamo. She is someone who knows the wedding business like the back of her hand, and she doubles as your caterer and event planner/organizer. I'm still so impressed with how efficient she is with the amount of things she does in a day! Whenever I needed advice, she was easy to reach, very responsive, and extremely helpful. If I had an issue with another vendor, she even took it upon herself to contact them and settle it (this stunned my mother and I the first time she did it!). She made our floor plan, designed a very cool king's table for us, and organized all of our vendors a few days before! Rania's food is incomparable and *unbelievably* delicious. We had some dietary restrictions (many vegetarians), and my extremely picky husband, and she was sensitive to everyone. So many guests filled up on the amazing hors d'oeuvres before dinner, including myself! We had several guests tell us throughout the night it was the best wedding food they ever had, and I enthusiastically agree (and not just because it was my wedding - it was spectacular). I wasn't sure about our wedding cake selection because her pastry chef was going to do our wedding cake as well. So, I showed her pastry chef several peacock-themed cakes I liked. I was honestly surprised when she picked one of the most elaborate ones! The cake was stunning and scrumptious! The staff at our reception was also extremely pleasant and professional. I give Rania my highest of recommendations. You are in excellent and VERY capable hands with her.

Rania is hands-down the best caterer in Pittsburgh. She has coordinated and catered several events for our family. Each one has been flawless, delicious, well-managed, and over-the-top in service. Her chef and staff are excellent, professional and highly experienced. I can't imagine asking anyone but Rania to create our family's weddings and special celebrations. She is soup-to-nuts, the whole nine yards: venue, flowers, linens, dish ware, crystal, menu. Amazing desserts. I'm at ease and confident when Rania is at the helm, seamlessly and graciously providing her culinary magic. If you haven't already, hire Rania now for your next event. She's often booked out over a year in advance.

I went to the holiday wine pairing and tasting dinner last night at the Rania's location in Mt.Lebanon. The tickets were $65. First, the table clearly sat 16 people, at most, but they sold 21 tickets. There was plenty of room where they could have added another table to the end, or even if they had separated it and made it 2 tables so you'd have additional end seats (the "table" was a group of small tables put together so that could have easily been accomplished, but no). There were THREE chairs at the end of the table that was no more than 4' wide. You were literally shoulder to shoulder with people you didn't know. The "silverware" was plastic. The cups were plastic. Only the wine glass was glass, and as we came to learn, you used the same glass throughout for all of the "tastings" - not ideal at all. Now for the food...first they brought out loaves french bread style bread, unsliced, on one big platter. You had no choice but to manhandle this bread - there was no napkin, no knife, no tongs - you were just expected to rip off a hunk. So now I'm eating bread that's been touched by 20 other people. Then they brought out 2 clams Rockefeller that were very good. (To be honest they were VERY good!!) And a portion of 2 was fair I felt as an appetizer. Then, after the bread was gone and the clams were eaten, only then did they bring out butter. Which, whatever, I don't even use butter, the timing was just questionable. Next came one slice of turkey stuffed with sausage. Very tasty, but one thin slice? This event was touted as "dinner" mind you. Oh, these foods are being served on, you guessed it, plastic plates...anyway, the turkey was good but a very small portion. The next course was a beef skewer. Now I'm cutting beef with a plastic knife - as you can imagine, it didn't go well. The first piece of beef on my skewer was a solid piece of fat and inedible. To be fair, the rest of the skewer was very good. Lastly was a piece of chocolate something...it wasn't cake, it was sort of like fudge...? Very dense. And it had some type of sauce drizzled over it - I think it was white chocolate but it didn't have much flavor. And now for the wine, the gentleman who was explaining the wines droned on and on telling stories (we're talking 10-15 minutes) before pouring each wine. Bearing in mind it was only about half information about the wine and half story telling. In my opinion it would have been better to give a brief explanation of the wine, pour the wine, then explain further and tell the stories, etc. Each tasting was small (it's a tasting after all) and the final one was a port that I couldn't drink. So to review, for my $65, I drank about 2 total glasses of wine, ate the equivalent of about 1/2 of an entree, served on picnicware, in a very cramped environment. Overall not a great experience. In case you're thinking "well maybe she's just overly fussy" some of the comments that I heard from others were "How soon can I get out of here?" and "Is this over yet?" - no exaggeration. Overall the food was good, so I'd consider stopping in for takeout (that's the only reason it got 2 stars, otherwise it would have been 1), but I wouldn't go to another one of these events.