NOZ Catering

NOZ
118 St. Marks Place
646.228.4992

Founded and operated by two New York based Portugiesse sisters, NOZ is always a safe bet. Generous portions that are always laid out meticulously on banana leave lined dishes, addictive breakfast peanut butter covered apples, and thumb sized personal tobasco bottles are just some of the perfectly executed details performed by one of New York's best onset caters.

Today's lunch is a Fresh Buffalo Mozzarella with Cherry Tomatoes, Basil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Cracked Pepper, and Sea Salt. Classic Cobb Salad with Grilled Chicken Breast, Avocado, Bacon, Blue Cheese, Tomatoes, and Hardboiled Egg . Seared Tuna Loin with Eggplant Caponata. Two Roasted Garden Vegetable plates. Tender Braised Beef Short Ribs with yellow rice and a vegetable lasagna. Desert is a chocolate cake, modest in garnishing, yet still aesthetically pleasing.

The only cause for complaint in NOS's epic delivery of today's lunch is that there appears to be no menu with the meal outlining contents of each dish, a possible concern for anyone with allergies, and there's no salad dressing. The wax lined to go boxes are subtle, perfectly sized, and will most certainly be carrying the contents of leftovers in my bag once we wrap today.

9 out of 10

D'Orazio

There's no middle ground with D'Orazio. No one shrugs when D'Orazio is onset, everybody has an opion, and they will defend it tooth and nail. There are those that would happily be catered on a deserted island by D'Orazio for the rest of their lives, this, ironically enough, tends to be those that opt for dessert before, and after lunch. After all it goes without saying that D'Orazio puts the vas majority of it's efforts into elaborate deserts.

Then there are those that wouldn't feed this catering to their dog, their friend's dog, their friend's dog's pet pig, or anything in between. These tend to be the 'run and gun' types, the people onset who don't have time for a decadent chocolate cake. This onset hustler generally opts for a sandwich and green bean salad (which they eat standing up of course).

I have my qualms with D'Orazio, the major one being that I have never been on set when they properly put out salad dressing, it's always in a tupperware container & teetering on the brink of falling over. But if we're picking teams here, I'm going to opt on giving D'Orazio my seal of approval. What D'Orazio may lack in logistics, namely how to get the food on your plate, they make up for in showmanship, namely with memorable lambsicles and veal scaloppni, and cakes that at least one person is always raving about (I'm not much of a desert guy, so I've just taken their word for it). 6 out of 10

D'Orazio
403 West 13th Street, New York
(212) 691-1866

Feast On Us

Feast On Us
645 Hudson Street
New York, NY
(212) 242-8231

My call time was 9am, breakfast arrived at 9:15am, and by the time I was done turning on the computer, prepping the camera and saying good morning to everyone, I was making a B-Line for the breakfast table. Apparently 'Feast On Us' didn't get the memo that Sterno candles are available at Family Dollar, because my microwaved bacon and 'at some point fresh' eggs over-easy were frigid cold only 20 minutes after the food had been set out. The eggs however, despite being cold, for some reason reminded me of the late-night diner runs I made as a youth growing up in Connecticut. While they were runny, overly greasy, and grossly out of place on-set, I thought to myself while debating seconds 'not a strong start Feast On Us.'

Lunch options included an open-face herb grilled chicken and roasted pepper focaccia with sun-dried tomato and fresh basil sandwich, pasta salad with baby spinach, sauteed summer green beans almondine with carrots, smoked mozzarella salad with grilled eggplant, shrimp salad and an organic mixed greens salad. The focaccia was fresh and was by far complimented best with the pasta salad. The smoked mozzarella salad was presented well, and would have been the strongest dish had it not met its demise by an overly ambitious serving of olives.

'Feast On Us' takes pride in their work and provides a colorful arrangement of dishes that are aesthetically pleasing for a consumer. This balance between aesthetics and function is unfortunately where Feast seems to struggle. The dishes felt over thought out and drastically over seasoned. Additionally, while the coffee may have stayed hot all day, it's time to either upgrade to 'Mud Truck', or simply stop advertising that you're serving 'Chock Full Of Nuts' on set.

6 out of 10

Green Catering

Green Catering
212.254.9825
www.greenbrownorange.com

Standard breakfast with coffee, tea, orange juice, and little, if any, attention given to presentation. Fresh fruit, yogurt & granola for those keeping it sexy. Egg, cheese & zucchini burritos for those keeping it real. I had both.

Day two lunch decor was reminiscent of breakfast’s past, and presented in a ‘drop & slop’ style. Protein options included flank steak with plum tomatoes, avocadoes & cilantro or crab meat salad with baby mizzuna, roasted red bliss tomatoes & roasted red peppers. Veggie dishes were a chickpea salad with julienne zucchini & roasted tomato, snow pea salad with julienne peppers & grape tomatoes, and a baby spinach salad with citrus vinaigrette dressing.

During my three days on-set, none of the dishes were much to look at, but they totally redeemed themselves by having complimentary flavor profiles that made for a positive dining experience (ie. as I shoveled it in between shots, it was okay that dishes mixed). As for food layout and general pressentation, pull it together and buy a table cloth Green, we know you can cook, now it's time to take a little pride in your work.

7.5 out of 10