Skip to main content
Weddings

Madera Kitchen Reviews

Madera Kitchen View more information

Reviews

4.2 out of 5 rating
10 Reviews
  • Quality of service
    4.2 out of 5 rating
  • Average response time
    4.1 out of 5 rating
  • Professionalism
    4 out of 5 rating
  • Value
    4.6 out of 5 rating
  • Flexibility
    4 out of 5 rating
90% Recommended by couples

Awards

10
  • Seth
    Seth V. Sent on 05/19/2021
    5 out of 5 rating
    • Quality of service
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Average response time
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Professionalism
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Value
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Flexibility
      5.0 out of 5 rating

    I had a great experience working with Madera Kitchen!

    I DJ'd for a wedding at Madera Kitchen earlier this year (on 04/30/2021). I've performed for many venues throughout Southern California, but Madera Kitchen stood out as one of my favorites!

    The venue has a beautiful, welcoming atmosphere. It also has the perfect location in the heart of Hollywood. After their wedding ceremony at a nearby church, the couple was able to fit in wedding photos at Griffith Park and throughout Hollywood, all before cocktail hour started at Madera Kitchen.

    Madera's staff was professional, friendly, and helpful as well. They were very conscious of all the details that make a wedding perfect for a couple and their guests. Jennifer in particular was great with her communication, and she made the planning process way easier for me as a wedding vendor. The couple was very happy with their wedding as well!

    I recommend Madera Kitchen to anyone who's looking for a great atmosphere, location, and service for their wedding!

    -DJ Seth Vitál
  • K
    Kyan Sent on 09/11/2019
    5 out of 5 rating
    • Quality of service
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Average response time
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Professionalism
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Value
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Flexibility
      5.0 out of 5 rating

    Kyan & Amer

    Absolutely love this venue and the staff that comes with it! It’s not only delicious food, but the vibe and decor here transform beautifully. This was the best venue we could have ever hoped for!
  • illustration stars

    Are you interested?

    Send a message
  • L
    Leslie O. Sent on 09/02/2019
    5 out of 5 rating
    • Quality of service
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Average response time
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Professionalism
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Value
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Flexibility
      5.0 out of 5 rating

    Beautiful Wedding & Venue!!

    Planning a wedding can be very stressful and overwhelming so it definitely helps to have someone with experience to help. After searching around for a venue, my wife and I came across Madera Kitchen. We decided to have dinner there one night and shortly after, we decided that this is where we wanted to get married. We fell in love with the whole vibe.. the rustic, winery setting with an outdoor patio. It was perfect for us. We immediately contacted Jennifer Laskey who is the director of special events for Madera. She answered all our questions, offered suggestions & advice, recommended vendors based on our likes/dislikes and style, and kept everything within our budget. Jennifer is a busy lady but she gets the job done! We started communicating with her 1 year prior to our wedding and after all the late night emails, text messages, and meetings...it was all well worth it! Jennifer a is very organized coordinator and will have your timeline on point! On the day of our wedding, everything ran so smoothly and we had no worries. Our family and friends still compliment us on how beautiful the venue was, the décor, the delicious food, and of course the open bar with the amazing bartenders! We even got up and started dancing a bit earlier than planned but Jennifer was cool about it and still kept us on track lol. We had non-stop fun that evening and our guest did not want the night to end! They told us that our wedding was the MOST FUN ever!! My lovely wife and I will always have wonderful memories to talk ,laugh, and get teary-eyed from our special day. Thank you sooo much Jennifer!! You truly are the BEST in what you do!! Leslie & Madai
  • Kelly
    Kelly Sent on 07/30/2019
    5 out of 5 rating
    • Quality of service
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Average response time
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Professionalism
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Value
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Flexibility
      5.0 out of 5 rating

    June Wedding at Madera Kitchen

    We had our wedding at Madera Kitchen this past June. From the time we toured the location and tasted the food for the first time we knew Madera was the perfect venue for us! We received so many compliments from guests about how beautiful the venue was and how wonderful the food and drinks were. The food and drink presentation was out of this world, it felt like foodie heaven! They re-designed their vine wall this past spring which made for an amazing backdrop for our ceremony. The venue is so versatile and flexible, the staff at Madera were incredible and the coordinating services provided by Jennifer Laskey were amazing! We couldn't have imagined our special day going any better.
  • Michelle
    Michelle Sent on 06/10/2019
    5 out of 5 rating
    • Quality of service
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Average response time
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Professionalism
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Value
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Flexibility
      5.0 out of 5 rating

    Such a dreamy place to celebrate love!

    Madera Kitchen was the best find! We absolutely loved our wedding and everything went so perfectly smooth thanks to Madera + team! Our guests LOVED the food and drinks and so did we! Staff was so friendly and helpful. Couldn’t have dreamed of anything better!
  • Kirsten
    Kirsten J. Sent on 12/05/2018
    5 out of 5 rating
    • Quality of service
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Average response time
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Professionalism
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Value
      5.0 out of 5 rating
    • Flexibility
      5.0 out of 5 rating

    Goal accomplished: guests full and happy

    Our goal for the wedding was to have A) guests full, B) (if applicable) as tipsy as they wanted, and C) surrounded by awesome decor. This venue accomplished all. Affordable, an amazing coordinator that comes with the package (Jen Laskey- Hire her as coordinator!!), and the other staff were so amazing. We only did florals and a few personalized touches, otherwise, you don't need to touch the space. Everyone was accommodating, and we actually ENJOYED ourselves. No nightmare story about how we had to troubleshoot and keep a smile on our face. The food is also delicious. No after-party fast food runs required.
  • Nikko
    Nikko S. Sent on 01/01/2021
    2.8 out of 5 rating
    • Quality of service
      3.0 out of 5 rating
    • Average response time
      3.0 out of 5 rating
    • Professionalism
      2.0 out of 5 rating
    • Value
      4.0 out of 5 rating
    • Flexibility
      2.0 out of 5 rating

    Beautiful Venue but please BEWARE

    First off, had a wonderful wedding day! The atmosphere was beautiful and our guests, for the most part, enjoyed everything and we only paid $7,000 for 30 guests with a 4 course dinner, due to Covid -19. WOW!

    However, for those of you looking at this place when Covid is over, you should know our concerns for the amount this venue generally charges ($16k). We have concerns...

    VENUE COORDINATOR CONCERNS:
    For the most part, worked with the woman in charge of the venue for events. Her name is Jennifer.

    - Very unprofessional who talked down to us when we pointed out what was wrong (my husband is a well trained cook). She called us “perfectionists”, which we found strange because we were just calling the venue out on some food items that didn’t seem quite right for the price...
    - She texted us twice on our honeymoon about feedback. The first text came THE MORNING AFTER OUR WEDDING.
    - She sent very unclear and unprofessional emails filled with speak text that was hard to decipher, also emails that came in bright colors and odd fonts.
    - She never got back to us after we reached out to her with our concerns a few weeks after our honeymoon.


    COVID AND SAFETY CONCERNS:

    -No temperature checks that we were promised. No host. A VERY HIGH PROFILE GUEST WE HAD HAD TO LEAVE BECAUSE THRY FELT UNCOMFORTABLE.
    -No one guarding the door, so anyone could have just walked in. We saw hosts at another persons event when we had our tasting, and were told it would be the same for ours, but no one showed.
    -We had an unwelcoming, poorly timed, disorganized and rush tasting. We didn’t even get to try some of the items we chose days before. Jennifer, barely came to speak with us. We felt rushed and they weren’t being as timely with the food... it took forever. Our tasting was from 1:30-3. But I was there till 4:30... We also received FULL portions for each item we tasted, which we found strange.

    FOOD CONCERNS:
    - Our VEGAN guests were given EGG noodles!! Our guests said they had to eat around them in their “vegan pasta”. Unacceptable. This comes even after we specified to Jennifer and the chef that the noodles we tried at our tasting for the vegan items looked and tasted like egg noodles... We asked them how they make the vegan noodles, since they apparently make them in house. We were never given a clear answer as to how the vegan noodles were made. Very disappointed!
    - Weeks before our tasting, we informed Jennifer of a HUGE nut allergy we had. We arrived at the tasting, and was served not only a flatbread we didn’t choose to taste, but a flatbread that had NUTS ON IT. ABSOLUTELY NOT. Jennifer was apologetic about this, however, it did leave us concerned about how the kitchen deals with cross contamination as it relates to allergies... very concerning.
    - ZIP LOCK BAGS were used at our wedding to box up our guests food... we were told they were out of Togo bags! Who does this????
    - Served Poor oysters With some small shells still in them
    - Served a Poor cut of steak (very fatty) and they charge $33 for this on their menu!
    - Jennifer and the chef at first DIDNT want to work with us on steak temps for our 30 guests, 13 of which, ordered steak. Very strange that the kitchen was unwilling to cook 13 steaks to temp. Understandable for a party of 100+, but not for 13...

    All this to say, just be AWARE of these things going into your event. Overall, this space is gorgeous, the location is amazing (right in Hollywood), the photo booth was to die for, basically, we enjoyed our event, but unfortunately we did not enjoy working with Jennifer. Whoever was there facilitating our wedding on the day of our event was amazing! I don’t remember his name, but he was on top of EVERYTHING since Jennifer had another event to attend...
  • P
    Paris Sent on 10/19/2021
    2.2 out of 5 rating
    • Quality of service
      2.0 out of 5 rating
    • Average response time
      2.0 out of 5 rating
    • Professionalism
      2.0 out of 5 rating
    • Value
      3.0 out of 5 rating
    • Flexibility
      2.0 out of 5 rating

    Kind of a mess

    Venue coordinator is disorganized. Had to chase her down for responses. Served us the wrong dish. She sent in the wrong photobooth logo and the day-of manager almost refused to fix it. Staff cut the drink menu sign that we made without telling us. Who knows if we were really served top shelf (that's what they cut off). Servers looked like they didn't even want to be there. Our wedding coordinators left some of our personal items and Madera staff tossed them before we could even come pick them up.
  • B
    Brittany Sent on 11/08/2021
    1.8 out of 5 rating
    • Quality of service
      2.0 out of 5 rating
    • Average response time
      1.0 out of 5 rating
    • Professionalism
      1.0 out of 5 rating
    • Value
      4.0 out of 5 rating
    • Flexibility
      1.0 out of 5 rating

    Cannot Recommend Due to Poor Management

    Unfortunately, I can't recommend Madera for a wedding venue. Despite it being a charming location with good drinks and food, the event management soured the planning experience for us.

    We hired the restaurant's in-house planner, Jenn, but had to fire her and hire someone else a month before the wedding because we weren't satisfied with her planning services. We paid her her whole fee anyway without argument. Nonetheless, she still showed up at our wedding, despite saying she would not. It was awkward to say the least.

    Additionally, the photo booth that we paid extra for, which was central to our guest party favor, did not function properly for most of the night.

    We also paid a mandatory 20% service charge (over $3K) that was supposed to go toward gratuity according to our contract, but we were told the day before our wedding that if we didn't allow tip jars on the bar, the bartenders (who were wonderful) would not get any tip. It put us and our guests in an awkward position.

    Finally, we also rented the house owned by the restaurant owner to get ready in. While nice, the day after our wedding we got a call asking for more money to clean, despite paying a cleaning fee already, because we left two boxes by the garbage can.

    It was just one thing after another. There are lots of beautiful venues in LA. Just make sure the management is up to the task of not ruining your experience.