On Fridays and Saturdays, they will serve you food until 12 a.m. making it the perfect place to grab a bite to eat before you go out or just before you are about to go home, depending on how you like mix it up on the weekends.

Last Saturday night, I actually had fun on Downer Avenue. I sipped on a couple of drinks, enjoyed great conversation with a few friends and ate some pretty decent food.

I was at Café Hollander until about 1 a.m., and I am thinking about going there again.

Here’s my thing with Café Hollander, I think they are overrated. They can’t make a waffle to save their lives, yet waffles make up more than half of their brunch, lunch and dinner menus.

Raise your hand if you like soggy waffles before you douse them with syrup. Raise your hand if you think it’s cool for a restaurant to charge you for every coffee warm-up you receive. And raise your hand if you enjoy receiving consistently rotten service. OK, you get my point.

That Saturday night, however, we had superior service and pretty good food. I couldn’t believe I was at Café Hollander and actually having a good time and not writing little tips on the bill at the end of the night on how to improve their service (yes, I do that).

Hollander keeps their regular dinner menu in full swing until they close every day of the week. On Fridays and Saturdays, they will serve you food until 12 a.m., making it the perfect place to grab a bite to eat before you go out or just before you are about to go home, depending on how you like mix it up on the weekends.

Anything on their dinner menu is fair game for ordering. I had a big pretzel with tear-jerking Dijon mustard ($3.50) and it was just like any huge baked pretzel I’ve ever had, which is a good thing. I don’t trust Hollander’s seemingly innovative creations and if they were to screw up the giant pretzel, they would have serious issues.

One of my dining companions ordered the frites cone ($4.95) which are thinly cut fries served dramatically in a parchment paper cone. For a dipping sauce he ordered curry ketchup and it was truly divine.

My other dining companion ordered the blackberry turkey sandwich ($8.95) that she gobbled up in no time. The main condiment that gave the sandwich its unique flavor was a simplistic blackberry jam (which is not homemade, I asked). Swiss cheese and mild peppers accompany the sliced turkey breast on a toasted bun. It was a great late night sandwich that was extremely tasty and healthy I might add.

I have to thank Café Hollander for truly showing up last Saturday. Our server was attentive, our food was prompt and crispy and delicious, the overall mood was laid-back and friendly and I cannot wait to have another fun and relaxing late night at Downer Avenue’s Café Hollander.

> Comments