HollyHock Hill — Restaurant in Indianapolis

My family and I have been going to Hollyhock Hill for YEARS for family dinners celebrating special occasions. I can remember going as a child and being in awe of all the twinkle lights at Christmas time, enjoying the delicious food, and old fashioned family bonding experiences.

That will NEVER happen again.

My family of 5 went last night to celebrate my grandmother's 87th birthday. We even drove from Ohio and made a reservation especially at Hollyhock for this occasion.

Our waitress (Sherry) was wonderful. Even though she said she had only been there a short time, she was attentive, polite, and wonderfully caring.

The food itself is generally the same. Great fried chicken, delicious sides, and what you would come to expect from this Indy staple.

I would also like to add that in years past, the sides were plentiful and you got PLENTY of food for your party. Last night, we asked for more sides as the dishes brought out were not nearly large enough to serve 5. The second round were drastically smaller. Come on y'all. I shop at Kroger.... I know how much a pound of potatoes and canned corn cost. At $20 a person... there is still plenty of profit to be made. My husband ordered the shrimp and received 6 breaded shrimp for $23. WHAT?! Yeah... that's not a typo.

The real problem lies with the new management (or possibly, new owners).

The woman who seemed to be a helicopter manager, started the evening by directly coming over to our table prior to ordering and corrected Sherry about what "family style" meant right in front of us. Very unprofessional.

We ordered 5 dinners, drinks, and an extra side. We asked that our waitress take back the Mac and cheese. After which, helicopter manager came over and interrogated us as to why we sent the Mac and cheese back. We informed her it simply wasn't good. She then further asked what specifically made it not "good." Now, if she was asking to perhaps make a better product, I get it. But the reason she asked was to see if we were "trying to pull a fast one and get some free noodles." This was made apparent when she asked if we were still taking the side home with us. I informed her we told the waitress that we didn't want to take it home.

Now, knowing we are a party of 5... ordered alcoholic beverages, and take home sides already... one familiar with the menu would know our bill was well over $150. Do you really think I'm trying to pull a fast one and get some free $1 a box spiral noodles? NO. The side just plain sucked.

Never in my life have I been interrogated like that by a restaurant. I felt like I did something wrong. A manager should NEVER make a customer feel like that. It was just unbelievable.

Also, I'm sure that since you're such a helicopter manager, you probably stalk Yelp and other websites to see the reviews. So, yeah, you made our experience pretty crappy. I understand you're trying to run a restaurant and make a profit... but you seriously need to get a grip.

So, if you want a dining experience with good food... and are willing to put up with a Spanish Inquisition during your meal... go here!

If not, Indy has so many other options to make your family gathering just as memorable.

And that's all I have to...

What happened? Hollyhock Hill has always been our family go to place for special occasions. Granted this was our first post-pandemic meal there. It was always crowded. Even with reservations you’d have to wait. We were shocked when we pulled into the parking lot to find NO other cars there. We worried that the place was closed (now I wish it had been). When we entered we found our group to be the only patrons there besides two ladies at another table. Where were the linen table cloths? Where were the waitresses in their look alike aprons? We were greeted by a waiter who took us to our table and quickly got our drink order. After delivering our drinks he proceeded to take our food order. He appeared to be the only one working. There for the first time, some in our group weren’t aware of the process for ordering. The waiter snapped and said he just wanted to know the meat order. My wife and I were still in shock. What happened to Hollyhock Hill. This didn’t resemble our many historic visits in any way. We waited for the customary tomato juice. It did not come. We ordered Shrimp and Fried Cod. When the salad came it was not the traditional sliced iceberg with the salad dressing already added. Instead we received salad that you find in a prepared package like you get at the grocery store. The dressing was in a carafe on the table. We couldn’t believe our eyes. Where was our Hollyhock Hill? Unlike previous visits where they keep your meal process moving, we had to wait a very long time for our entrees to come. First the sides came. The mashed potatoes came with gravy…they were great. The green beans were delicious. Then came our entrees! We were shocked. The presentation could not have been more unimpressive. My wife’s shrimp came on a big plate, 7 of them. They looked lost on the plate. I received my 2 pieces of fish again, lost on the large plate. We looked at each other and immediately said, omg, these are frozen packaged seafood. The shrimp was tough with little meat inside. It looked EXACTLY like what we got at Perkins a few weeks earlier. My fish was no better! Both were flavorless except for the cocktail sauce and tartar sauce. Where was our Hollyhock Hill? Lastly came the traditional ice cream. It was pre-dished and then frozen. The sauce came in syrup containers not the traditional carrousel we had always experienced. Sadly, and I mean very sadly we paid $24 for the shrimp and $25 for the cod. Both were not worthy of more than $12.95. There house favorite, fried chicken, is now $28 and $32 if you want all white meat. Again, where was our Hollyhock Hill? This restaurant was a jewel for the city of Indianapolis. A tradition for many, many families. We will not return, in no way would we pay that money for those meals. It is a tradition that our family will put behind us as so many wonderful...

This came really highly recommended (with chicken fried in real lard!) as an Indianapolis institution, but I have to say it fell short. Take my review with a grain of salt, because I actually don't really care too much for fried chicken, but it's nice on occasion and a few times in my life (most recently at Screen Door in Portland) it's been transcendentally good.

The salad course was very 50-years-ago. Chopped iceberg lettuce drizzled with vinegar is a house salad? The splash of paprika on the lettuce added far more color than flavor. The biscuits were good, light, and fresh, though.

The chicken, which is supposed to be what they're famous for, was decent but not special or outstanding, in my opinion. It was lightly fried with a pleasant but unexceptional skin that was honestly a bit bland. The meat was OK but a touch dry in some places. (In comparison, the one I had at Screen Door was wonderfully spiced and exceptionally moist throughout even the thickest cuts.)

The sides of green beans and corn were both edible but forgettable as well--which is too bad, because there is so much good, fresh corn all over this state right now. I wonder if they are using canned vegetables.

The star of the show for me was the macaroni and cheese (available for a slight upcharge to the regular dinners, though I didn't actually get charged for it). The perfectly-cooked spiral noodles were drenched in a slightly tangy melted white cheese blend that was quite flavorful and interesting.

The assortment of toppings for the ice cream course (including mint sauce) was a fun touch. The coffee was decent.

I will say that the value is quite good. The amount of food I got for my $20 fried chicken dinner was bordering on excessive. Perhaps that's because I stopped in as a solo diner (they serve family style), but the other tables around me saw no shortage of food and most left with several to-go boxes.

Service was extremely attentive and friendly but in an oddly-not-quite-perfect-attempt-at-being-professional way. The hosts and servers were all young, and it reminded me of dining at a community college's culinary arts program's restaurant, where they had obviously taken a class on how to properly serve at a high class restaurant but had little experience doing so, right down to the overly forced holding the napkin draped over their arms. Still, I would classify service as very good, and I tipped well.

This place may have been here for nearly 100 years, and maybe it was a special destination when Indy's food scene was much more Middle America 20 years ago, but now it's mostly of interest to me as a throwback to what much of American dining of the boomer generation's childhoods consisted of. If visiting like I am, I wouldn't prioritize...