Tacoma's Landmark Catering & Convention Center Reviews

The roof top garden ballroom was great. Our guests enjoyed the views of the bay and cocktails on the patio. The food was beyond excellent and the staff was wonderful. We are so happy we booked our reception here, it was easy, affordable and magical!

I ditto the post below. I too got married outside on the roof this summer, and it was amazing! Beautiful views of the sound and Mt Rainer.
Let me start by telling you, its a great value. Especially when you start looking around at what other venues charge to rent the space. The food is very resonable as well. I worked with Michael and he is wonderful. You just need to trust what he tells you. He will be completely honest, and will come up with different ideas to help you cut costs and save if you are on a budget (like myself.) You never feel like he is taking advantage of you, and trying to run you dry. Thats what I liked most about him. He can come up with all sorts of different ideas to make anything work.
The compliment I got several times was that my food was " the best wedding food I have ever had!" I heard that several times. I opted for the chicken mascarpone buffet, and then had the live pasta chefs making hot fresh pasta. It was absolutely delish! I also went to the big fancy food tasting event, and it was wonderful. They had rooms and rooms full of food, and you are able to try literally everything they offer. Everything! Thats how I decided on the pasta station, because they even had all there different "live station" options at the tasting event. Im glad I decided to go to that, rather than do a private tasting.
They have a few different bar options, and we went with an open bar. It was great, we even added a bar outside on the deck which I highly reccommend. The bar outside was not a little side bar either, it was the full set up. The only negative at all about my whole experience, is they ran out of Bud Light 2 hours before my open bar closed. We had plently of regular Budwieser left, so Im sure had I warned them that my crew will drink more Budlight, then I am certain they would have stocked more.. But when its open bar, you would hope that wouldnt happen. Again, probably the only negative thing I can say.
I used the DJ that the venue uses, and it was a great price. I was a little scared to be honest, I didnt hear from the DJ til the week before. Music is really important to me, and will make or break your reception. But, he actually ended up saving the day. My slideshow music wouldnt play from my computer, and he was able to find all the exact music and played it exactly perfect with the show. The DJ plays there often which is a great benefit. He knows the ins n outs of the place, and what works well, what doesnt. So I would reccommend using their DJ service, and you will save a ton doing so.

My husband and I had our wedding on the Rooftop Garden back in June 2016 and we loved it! Karen was extremely helpful during the whole process, budget was extremely important to us and while the venue itself can be a little pricey, she did everything she could to accommodate and make it reasonable for us. (We saved $300 dollars just cutting out the "Cake Cutting Fee"! ) The food is OUTSTANDING and we still to this day get compliments about the food at our wedding. The DJ was professional and played exactly what we want. The venue was clean, the staff was nice and everything was ready and done for us which made set up quick and easy. Overall, we had a very nice wedding at the Landmark and everything went just about perfect!

I got married on the rooftop of the Landmark Convention Center on the 20th of August. It was an amazing experience. They understand the stress of planning a wedding and were very patient with me throughout the entire process. They handled the linens, chair covers, and ties and did all in a low pressure atmosphere. They also catered the wedding. The food was amazing. Instead of a tiny tasting, they held a huge open house and previewed all of the items on their menu. It was terrific! They were very helpful and offered good suggestions in an effort to lower my stress. We would definitely get married there again and will think of them in planning future events.

The land mark convention center was wonderful experience for our wedding day. We rented out the Roof Top Garden and it was so beatiful. the place was so glamours i barley needed any flowers. there was enough dance space, open bar, the service was awesome.

I had my wedding and reception at the Landmark and it was a great experience. The food was excellent and everything was set up perfectly. Dealing with Karen in the office to arrange our event was really easy. She made it a stress free!

The Landmark was a joy to work with - only a few minor things went wrong on the day of but to be honest, they were barely noticeable. The Roof Top Garden was my dream come true - I was super picky on finding a venue but they were helpful and honest and I am so glad I was able to book them. The food was DELICIOUS - My mom even tried to buy the leftovers from the tasting. In fact, I still talk about the food to this day!

We had our wedding here. It worked out so well. Mike was very helpful but sometimes a little unprofessional. I was a bit set back by the way he was flippant about colors not matching. Like I wanted plumb and he kept insisting I should just go with husky purple even when I explained I was a cougar and found that ridiculous. But other than that they were amazing. Our day was beautiful the food was delicious. Several guest expressed how magical and beautiful our event was.

The staff was professional and friendly, the food was SUPERB...my family is still talking about it - 4 years later....and the location was unique and spectacular. The staff was very helpful in the special requests we had, and managed to accomodate most of them! They had an open house where we had an opportunity to taste the food, see the different rooms, and browse some of their recommended vendors. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with their staff, and would highly recommend them for your special occasion!

Wonderful location, staff very friendly and willing to help and give recommendations. Many rooms/halls to choose from. All areas have their own appeal, style and set ups.. all based on size of party. This is an older building so has very beautiful structure and archetecture.

The staff is completely professional and organized. Being in the hospitality industry, I really appreciated this. Our menu was over the top, and they mastered every Asian dish we requested. The amount of food for the price was fantastic, and the servers were great. The facility is older, but the Grand Ballroom was just perfect for the number of guests we had. Parking is a little bit of an issue, especially when they have multiple events happening, but we had the option of buying parking spots for our VIP guests just across the street. I would have my reception & catering done again at the Tacoma's Landmark Convention Center.

Working with Tacoma's Landmark Catering and Convention Center was a great decision. When my husband and I began planning our wedding, we knew we would need a large venue since both sides of our family were very large. We found the Tacoma Landmark and new that the Temple Theatre Ballroom was perfect. The room had enough personality and architecture that we wouldn't have to decorate the venue all that much.

Karen and Donna took very good care of us, and responded within a reasonable amount of time to our phone calls and emails. Since they work in a business that works weekends, they can be tricky to track down during the week and their email system sometime can be glichy and your emails don't get through, but when you do go in for your meetings and discuss your vision and hopes, they are very helpful and have lots of good ideas.

The food there is OUTSTANDING! Everyone kept talking about how good the food was and how much they enjoyed everything. The catering team and all of the workers, especially Lief took SUCH good care of us on the day of our wedding and everyone was extremely professional and helpful.

Overall, we had a positive experience with them and enjoyed working with the team greatly. The cost of using the space and, using the decorations was pricey, but in the end, the management was friendly and always did try their best and on the day of our wedding my husband and I were very pleased with how everything turned out!

The catering here was excellent. I heard all night how good the food was. The only downfall at the Landmark was the dressing quarters for the bride was not very private on the same floor as the Ionic and the Gothic room. Other than that I had a great experience.

Let start by saying this place is a nice place to have the wedding, but you need to have some trust worthy people that works there, our wedding person at they beginning during COVID was Karen but she retired. Then a lady named Joy was cool at 1st until the owner Larry got sticky fingers. I paid for everything at my wedding so you would think a person would say some money by doing that? But no they found a reason to tax me for stuff they didn't pay for. I just needed a venue since there was only a few open. I got married on Aug 20th 2022 so a month ago. They waited 12days to send me a bill for 18k when we started off at 6k. There reason for saying that is because we went from 60 to a 132 people which still didn't make no sense to me. If we did have a 132 you would just think the food cost will double which I added that in. So now their talking about we need security which is there maintenance man and janitor. We end up having about 90 people which they said they would refund me if I didn't have a 132 people but they kept it on paper as if I was going to have that many. So the elevator broke down on my guest. The elevator from the 1930's and it's hard to find parts for. They told us the other elevator should be fix before our wedding date which was a lie. When I was there to get my things from the venue after the wedding I heard the elevator people who came out to fix the elevator that was broken they said the elevator can't hold weight. I ask them when did the venue know this they responded to me when we did our 5yr check. If I knew this I wouldn't have rented this venue cause I knew I had people over 60yrs of age coming. The security was supposed to tell people not to over pack the elevator which never happened so why would I pay for security? Our names was supposed to go on the billboard which never happened. Then they was trying to open the parking lot to get paid off my guest and charge the bride to park over there. It was a real shit show. Again Larry's a crook they practice bad business. Now 20days went by I'm trying to get my refund and now there talking because my guest broke a 1930 elevator and they had to fix it that would come out my refund. So be careful who you do business with theirs way more I can say but now where taking them to court for our deposit. But the roof tops nice view.

the venue was great the food was great the only complaint that i had was the ever time i came in i talked to someone different, also they tell you 8 days before the wedding to give them a final count but they do not let the final count be below the estimated count you give them in the begining

The Landmark Catering & Convention Center is an absolutely beautiful venue. We had our wedding on the Rooftop Garden Ballroom and the view is breathtaking. The venue is old and unique, yet outdated in aspects, but everything came together so perfectly. The view on the rooftop made our ceremony one of a kind! The food was outstanding!! Michelle, Karen & team worked with us to build the menu exactly how we wanted and on our wedding day the food was even better than our first tasting! There were so many compliments given on the food, & venue from our guests even days after the wedding. We were blown away with how perfect & beautiful our wedding was.

However, everything leading up to our wedding day was a complete pain. Unfortunately, there were many many points throughout our planning process where I wanted to break our contract because the experience we were having almost didn't seem worth it. COMMUNICATION was 2/10. We sent so many unanswered emails. Majority of our emails actually. Any phone messages went unanswered. Most of the questions we had were only answered by showing up at the venue; we live an hour away so it was extremely inconvenient. Our coordinator couldn't get in contact either. Another issue we had was certain information was a constant back and forth. There were many things we were told (before signing a contract) that later on changed and we were given different information, then again different information. There were things that we were told would be fixed, that were never fixed & took multiple confrontations before it was done. Everything was just so unorganized and no one was on the same page & it made our experience really frustrating. Their red chairs also stained our white chair covers.

With some additions like new chairs, tablecloths (that fit the tables,) a little updating (water stains, paint, curtains,) and MUCH MUCH better communication & planning on their part, this venue could be booked solid because it is very beautiful and so unique. Everyone that works there are very nice people. And despite all our frustrations everything did eventually get worked out for the day of our wedding and our wedding was perfect.

This has been a long road with the Tacoma Landmark. One that we are so glad is over.

Let’s start at the beginning. We were to be married on 1/2/21, which unless you live under a rock, you know this was during covid. We started planning as normal in 2019, pre-pandemic. Since our first couple meetings I was not impressed with the sales director Karen. She wasn’t very knowledgeable about her own venue, couldn’t answer a lot of my questions and on more than one occasion took us to the wrong room to tour. Every time we spoke or met in person it was as if she’d never spoken to us before. I chalked it up to having a booming wedding venue. But follow up was a pain. My calls rarely got returned, emails went unread, all being blamed on the phone and internet systems never working. I eventually came to the realization that if I wanted anything done I would need to call multiple times until I got Karen on the phone. If I could have walked in I would, but that wasn’t really practical given that we live in Central Washington.

We ended up having to reschedule our reception and have a very private ceremony on our actual wedding day. So the new date was 1/2/22. Had I known what I was in for I would have just cancelled the entire contract.

July of 2021 was when we got back in touch to nail down details such as menu, table placements and various work orders that the Landmark would be completeing for us. We chose our buffet, decided on a simple red curtain as our backdrop for our Christmas themed reception and discussed having our head table up on the stage so that we weren’t taking up dance floor space. Three weeks before our event, we were given the bad news. Part one was that they would not be putting our head table up on the stage because despite multiple conversations, Karen never realized there was a rule against eating on the stage. Part two was that we would not get our red curtain, we would be getting a Grecian Villa scene that matched nothing of our vision. Why? It was supposedly an insulation issue and was meant to keep the room warm. Part three was that the prices of the food could change at any time and with three weeks left to go, now was the perfect time to tell us that the buffet would be going up $16 a person. Which meant that for our expected group of 200, we would have needed to scrounge up an additional $3000. Karen let it slip that the prices had actually changed back in July, not long after we spoke with her and started planning again, she had simply forgotten to mention anything about it! We eventually worked out a deal that was only half the increase, but still an increase we weren’t expecting.

Fast forward to our reception day. I had asked if we could use the dressing rooms downstairs just so that I could change out of my wedding dress that I was wearing for family photos and into a different dress for the reception. During previous conversations with Karen we were told these rooms were commonly used for the bride and groom to get ready so we were told it would be fine to use them. We found out the day prior that the rooms were under construction and taped off so I ended up changing dresses in the bathroom. We were told the insulation curtain would be down and the heat would be started early in the morning to make sure the guests were comfortable. The guests were not warm and most kept their jackets on all night. We had agreed that appetizers would go out at 2pm and dinner would be out at 4pm. Not only were the appetizers half an hour late going out, but half our dinner menu was served with the appetizer buffet. I asked Karen why half our dinner was out with the appetizers and if that meant our dinner would be out on time. I was met with attitude and being reminded that WE agreed on dinner at 4pm so of course it would be out on time. Spoiler alert: dinner was also a half hour late, and what was left of it was cold.

You may be wondering why we delayed writing a review for over a month. Well our last step was to wait for the damage deposit to be returned so that we could wipe our hands clean of the Landmark. After reading the rest of this review, did you really think that was going to go smoothly? Per our contract terms, we were to have the deposit back within 21 business days of the event. On day 20, my husband called to check the status and make sure they had everything they needed to be able to complete the transaction. This call seemed to serve as a reminder as it appeared to us that no work had been done on the matter. It took multiple follow up calls to resolve the issue. We were told the accountant only works one day a week. We were told no one is sure how to refund on to a credit card. We have finally gotten our damage deposit refunded, but I’m not confident it would have gotten done had we not called.

I would not recommend this venue to any couple. The Tacoma Landmark admittedly has a beautiful site, which as far as I’m concerned is their only selling point. Communication, customer service and organization are not a priority here. If you want your wedding/reception to feel well planned and feel like you are in good hands, this is not the venue for you.

Due to lack of responsiveness, communication, and high number of hidden fees, we decided to pull out of this venue. The venue itself is gorgeous, but the main gal is harsh and unapproachable.

If I was considering this location for my wedding, I'd want to know the odds that a sudden closure might affect my plans and part. On Monday, Feb 5, 2018, I was en route to a public meeting at the Landmark Convention Center and was appalled to hear that the ownership had cancelled the event with less than 24 hours notice! What a waste of the day I took off to provide public comment at a meeting organized by the Federal Government (Dept. of the Interior).

I've emailed the Landmark manager and events coordinator for an explanation, but it's been two days with no reply. All I can discern for their rationale is from this notice they posted on their door. It said "Due to the concern for public safety, The Landmark Convention Center will NOT be hosting The Department of Interior or Sierra Club events."