Quoting Michael T. Halligan (michael@halligan.org):
I have not called any of these places. perhaps the banquet room is a good feature, in my opinion it's the only feature. I'll admit I have no concept of the difficulties related to finding a group friendly venue. On the other hand, perhaps it would be more effective to find a company with a large meeting room to donate a few hours of its' time, and then the meetings could be restaurant neutral.
Take-out? ;-> (I see we get to that, below.)
I have, however, been to the Four Seas outside of balug, and not been impressed.
Eh, I've tasted better. I think the tourist food is pretty bad; the downstairs regular menu's decent Chinatown-standard.
Every few months the same conversation rears it's head on Balug.. Why is it so quiet?
I'd speculate that it's quiet because most people who attend are sufficiently happy with their available options:
o Fork over a tenner; eat the tourist food. o Order downstairs, eat better. o Eat elsewhere, then join the meeting and don't eat.
Anyhow, do you speak of "hiring caterers" from experience? Is that likely to be tricky/uncertain/expensive/time-consuming, or not?
You could be right, however. I'll be interested to see what you find.
Or you could convince the other admins to do that stuff for you. (I'm just a guy on this mailing list who helps out occasionally. I don't run the joint.)