| rev:text
| - We were in Hilldale Wednesday night. We drove past Cafe Hollander and decided to give it a try.
Pros:
It's not often that I rave about the building and atmosphere but I really like the Cafe Hollander building. Lots of wood, glass, and metal. We sat in an atrium like room where a tree was growing and it appeared one of the glass walls could be opened. Bike themed memorabilia galore. Appeared there was seating on the roof as well as a second story overlooking the main room. Large bar area. It was modern, but comfortable, and very pleasing to the eye. Felt like a really great spot to hang out alone or with friends.
I was also impressed with the drink menu. A variety of Bloody Marys, cocktails, coffee drinks, etc. We tried a couple of the Bloody Mary varieties. Mine was spicy with avocado, asparagus and cucumber. Very tasty.
The beer menu was impressive. It emphasized Belgium beers, but also included an excellent selection of draughts and bottles. I could drink here for months and constantly try something new. Very nice.
I also enjoyed the uniqueness of the food menu. There were items you just don't find elsewhere such as the dutch bitterballen, and short rib poutine. The salads, sandwiches, burgers,and entrees all had twists to make them unique and not run of the mill. Whether it was a pretzel bun or gouda cheese, it was interesting. However, since we were in a Belgian restaurant I decided to go traditional and ordered a pound of classic mussels and frites. My partner ordered the tasty sounding grains and green salad.
Cons:
Service was not the best. Our waitress showed up immediately, before we'd even had a chance to glance at the menu. We asked if we could have a few minutes to look at the menu. When she returned we ordered drinks. Eventually she brought our drinks and we ordered food. Then we waited. And waited. I was hoping to ask her a question about what kind of chaser she had brought with the Bloody Mary but we didn't see her again until she brought the food. Our entrees did come but it was after that point where you're starting to wonder if something happened and if they will be bringing it or not.
I was happily overwhelmed by the amount of mussels. My partner commented the there must be more than one pound but we decided perhaps they get new mussels the next day and they were getting rid of the surplus. (Note: wrong -- see later in review.) The grains and green salad was tasty w/arugula, rice, quinoa, cashews, carrots, cranberries and mint. However the portion size was small. Luckily we had frites also. Oh wait, the frites had not come. We would have flagged down our waitress but she was nowhere to be seen. About ten minutes later she showed up w/the fries so she or the cook must have realized we had not gotten them. The frites had good texture but again European portion-size. The broth on the mussels when I got down to it was also tasty and it came with bread and a spoon so I was able to slurp it all up.
When our waitress brought the bill, we realized why there had been so many mussels. She had put it down as two pounds instead of one. My partner agreed that I had only ordered one. However I did eat them all, so we didn't bring it up.
Conclusion: I'd definitely go back. I loved the space and want to try more of their beverages and dishes. I do hope they improve their service. It was pretty slow and they did not appear that busy. Our waitress was nice but just didn't seem particularly competent.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)