The Hollander On Main — Restaurant in Lima

Highly disappointed with my overall experience on Saturday night (4/22/23). Based on other recent reviews, this is not an isolated incident. My baby shower was earlier that afternoon so we had planned a nice dinner for later that evening to celebrate. The other women I had with me were from out of town and I was excited to take them to The Hollander as it is a newer restaurant in Lima and because I had two previous meals there that were pretty good! I was a little cautious because the last time I had dinner here, I found a piece of glass in my lobster ravioli. I did not want to eat the rest of the dish in case there was more glass in it, so the server rectified the situation and the kitchen made me a new dish. I was happy with that.

So back to our latest experience-I had made a reservation for 7pm for myself and four others. We arrived a little before 7pm and did not get seated until 7:25. It started off rocky but I remained optimistic. I used to work in the service industry-so I understand there are sometimes hiccups. It happens! Our server came by about five minutes after we were sat. She told us she was slammed and would be back for our drink orders. We told her no problem, we understood. About 10 minutes later, she came back and took our drink orders as well as our food orders. At this point it was nearing 7:45. We were frustrated, but we did not blame our server. They were clearly understaffed/kitchen running behind/seating more people than they could handle. It was not her fault at all. We did not receive drinks until about 8:15. Yes, that's right... it took about 30 minutes after we had ordered just to get our drinks (50 minutes after we had been sat at our table). We got our food shortly after but my side of mac n cheese was missing as well as another friend of mine's side of mac n cheese. The other 3 women had received their mac n cheese. We asked the server and she said they probably just hadn't brought it out yet. A couple of minutes later the manager came to our table and asked what food we were missing. We told him and he went back to the kitchen to check on it. He came back and told us the kitchen had used the last of the cheese sauce for the other three sides of mac n cheese. Not a huge deal, but when added up with the other issues, we were pretty frustrated. He offered to get us a different side. I had already eaten most of my pizza and the other woman that didn't get her side had eaten most of her meal, so we declined. He then offered to get us some dessert. We knew we wouldn't eat it, so again we declined. He offered it again and we declined again. Then he said, "well now you're making me feel bad". Excuse me??? I was not impressed with this response. Maybe he should feel bad as his restaurant was not running smoothly whatsoever. We did not ask for anything comped, we simply wanted to get out of there. When we received the checks, 2/3 of the women that ordered mac n cheese had their side of mac n cheese taken off the check. This was a nice gesture.. but the third woman still had the side of mac n cheese on her check. We found this quite rude...but again, just wanted to leave at this point, so we signed our checks and left. Overall, the food was bland and not impressive. The mac n cheese needed salt and pepper and still lacked flavor. The cheese sauce was also gritty. I ordered the street corn pizza. The crust was good but the flavor of the pizza was just alright. The other women in my party weren't impressed with their meals either. Also, there is a service charge for credit/debit cards. It isn't a huge charge if you aren't spending a lot, but I think they should make it well known.

Based on our experience and the quality of the food, it's overpriced and not worth it. The service was absolutely horrendous and we were never offered an explanation as to why. The manager didn't even offer an apology. We felt horrible for the server as she was doing her best but could only do so much with as many tables/people she was waiting on. Unfortunately, I will not be returning. Not worth my...

New information has been added to this review following the response from the establishment and is included at the end I went with my family for our second visit and were surprised by the number of strange issues that arose. On our first visit the service had been slow and while service was better this go around and overall the food was fine there was a major issue concerning menu items and their descriptions in the menu. My significant other ordered the Chicken Caprese, which based on the menu is served with capers, parsley, white wine reduction, a pesto demi glaze, and angel hair pasta. What came out was chicken with tomato, cheese, and a balsamic glaze. When we asked our waiter about it, she said yes, what was served was the caprese. We said there were no capers and no pesto. She took it back to the kitchen and they added pesto over the balsamic and then brought out a small cup of capers. The chicken solely tasted like balsamic glaze and when a manager came by we were told what was given to us was the correct item even though it did not match the menu description at all. We were also charged for a side substitution, when the waiter said that a substitution could be made, even though we had asked about the cost difference and she stated we could make the substitution regardless of the menu. We also had ordered a beet salad which was advertised as coming with regular and golden beets and what I received solely had canned pickled beets and goat cheese. I was not told they were out of golden beets at any point. The manager did remove the chicken from our bill, but this was the only correction that was made. No additional food was offered to my significant other, who wound up eating leftover sliders from other members of the party. Do not trust any descriptions on this menu and if you want to order anything. Just stick to appetizers or pizza, those at least seem to fit their descriptions.

Update following The Hollander's response* Admittedly at this point I wish you just hadn't responded. I literally moved out of state the morning after this event and had no plans to ever return to your restaurant in any of my visits back to Lima. I would not have written this review at all if the manager had offered a replacement meal. The waiter/waitress did come back after the manager left to offer a free scoop of ice cream, but my family had already planned to get going away dessert at a separate location. My SO also has a relatively severe tree nut allergy and as some of the ice cream did include tree nuts there was a fear of cross contamination, which was mentioned. The beet issue was also discussed and I personally said it's fine I don't care about the lack of golden beets at this point. We also discussed the broccoli up charge with the waiter, she and my dad had the discussion about sandwiches based on this element of the bill. He decided to just pay and leave because we just wanted to get out at that point. I am sure your manager is a lovely person and did her best, she seemed very flustered and our waiter did note she was dealing with another issue. Again, if she had actually offered to bring a different meal or even to give some form of dinner like food in exchange for the dinner that did not match the menu description everything would have been fine. Just as a general thought, why would your menu differ from what is given to the kitchen? Our waiter did say that the POS system listed food much differently than in the menu as we discussed what constituted a sandwich with her based on how the menu is laid out and how side substitutions work. Good luck with your expansion, make tons of money, and maybe get new menus. I'm sure you will have plenty of happy customers who actually live...

I really wanted to rate this place higher than 3 stars. The service was fabulous. The restaurant was very well organized, very clean, and had such a warm and welcome atmosphere. But then we get to the food. This is only concerning for their lunch menu as my party and I went in at about 12:30 (3 people). The service started with a manager (presumably) seating us and notifying that our drinks will be fetched shortly. In a few minutes time a server was out to greet us and take drink orders, then a prompt free minutes later to take our food orders. Now to say we were cautious about the prices beforehand would be an understatement. We had looked up the menu online before we had decided to go, but having heard so many great things about the restaurant, we decided what the hell, to give it a try. I ordered the bison burger, one person a cheeseburger, and the third in our party the fish platter. The food definitely was not worth the prices they were labeled, neither in size nor flavor. The cheeseburger itself appeared to be frozen/pre-pattied, and not the decent sized ones you could get at Walmart either with what seemed to be a 5/6 oz. portion of fries ($9). The fish platter had a seemingly normal amount of fish, (few pieces of perch with another 6 oz. portion of fries) but was described by that member of our party as "okay fish" (giving the notion it was overcooked) ($11). My bison burger really was good. I ordered it without mushrooms and really wasn't disappointed with the choice of cheese, peppers, and onions to cover the burger. However, my complains come in just a few forms. Usually, with a separate type of meat being chose for your burger, you want that to stand out a little. Season it differently or beef it up to make sure that flavor is dominant and every flavor around it complements that meat. I wouldn't expect as much with a hamburger, but bison? The burger was two really thin patties smothered in cheese and vegetables, with a really nice pepper aioli. Again for a hamburger I would have no problem here, but for a bison burger, it just wasn't anything special. And I can place that part of the blame on myself for thinking I'm getting a different meat, it's going to be something different. But it was essentially a Patty melt in a brioche bun. However it was a perfect temperature and juicy as it could be ($14 also with fries). I would love to give this place another try, possibly on dinner service, where it seems more flavor and value will come out...