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| - Cafe Hollander and I have a love-hate relationship. Having been to the Milwaukee location before there was one in Madison, I was so excited to see it open at Hilldale! Yet if there's one thing that's consistent at Cafe Hollander, that is its inconsistency. You can order the [great] tomato bisque, and sometimes it will arrive lukewarm, sometimes scalding hot. Today it arrived as if by boat on the Bering Sea; the rim was splattered and the soup had soaked the paper napkin that the bowl had been set on. The bread we ordered was so buttery you could write your name on the top of each bun. It came long, long after the soup was finished, because who could have imagined one might actually like to eat bread with the soup? The Benelux salad was so drenched in dressing one could hardly taste anything else, and the skin of the cherry tomatoes was shriveled as if the chef was telling me "here, YOU throw these away." (In the past this salad has arrived dry, with barely any dressing, and crispy fresh cherry tomatoes: Again, inconsistent!) Of all the times I've been to Hollander only once has anyone refilled my coffee without me having to ask (I remember it well exactly because it caught me by surprise that someone bothered to check without being prompted!) Sometimes you could read a book before the check comes; this time it came very promptly. Today was extra special because upon being seated, the table top had crumbs on it. I asked the hostess to wipe it down and she wouldn't do it; she said that was just paint peeling from the tabletop (as if that makes it ok). Never before have I asked someone to wipe a dirty tabletop and been denied! But it's not her fault. Nor the servers' fault. Nor the kitchen's fault. It's the management's fault. Obviously Hollander staff receive lousy training and hardly any supervision--but it's someone's job to make sure that doesn't happen. That someone is out to lunch, and until then going to Cafe Hollander will be an experience one tolerates rather than enjoys.
Addendum: As an aside, Hollander's customer survey URL printed on the receipt leads to a dead site. If you're persistent and google the company, then go to the feedback page, the "comments" section limits how much you can write. And if you do write something, don't hold your breath for a reply. Lousy.
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