Pauline
User's reviews
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The Historic Holly Hotel
I will never go back to the Historic Holly Hotel for the afternoon tea. The packages of tea are what you receive in an average restaurant. We had to ask for cream and sweetener. The water in the teapot got cold and I had to ask for and wait for a hot refill. The waitress was not on top of things. The first course consisting of a tiny berry muffin and scone was tasty along with the Devonshire cream and 1/4 teaspoon of jam. The second course consisted of either your choice of the Victorian Tea or the luncheon Queen Anne tea. I was looking forward to the chicken strudel that was advertised in their flyer for the Queen Anne Luncheon. Instead, the poultry choice was turducken. This was the hotel's menu item on Saturday, the 17th of February and on Tuesday the 20th of February for their Mardi Gras special. I could not help but wonder if this was a 'leftover' from that special dinner? I chose the Victorian Tea second course which consisted of a cucumber boat filled with mozzarella cheese and tomato salsa seasoned with fresh basil. When you think of 'boat' you probably think of the entire length of a cucumber. This piece of cucumber was less than 2 inches in length. The tea sandwich was about 1 inch by 2 inches with about a teaspoon of gorgonzola cheese on it and a sprinkle of candied walnuts on top. The sliver of sausage quiche was served lukewarm. BIG DISAPPOINTMENT!!!! The best (?) was yet to come. I had hoped that the third course dessert would save this utterly poor excuse for a special Victorian Tea. Alas, I was wrong. Can you imagine how shocked my guest and I were when our plates were brought to the table with a watery, sticky little macaroon, a tiny little pastry the size of a fifty-cent piece with about one tablespoon of some sort of cream filling in it (no whipped cream on top to finish it off), and a mint meringue cookie that was so obviously from a box bought at a store. Hopeless!!! Neither of us expected such a miserable experience having been there in the past. My daughter treated me and her mother-in-law to the tea at the hotel three years ago and we could not have had a finer experience. We had top notch service, top notch food (ample portions) -ALL HOMEMADE DESSERTS - SCRUMPTIOUS. I took several friends there a few months later and the whole tearoom experience was not at all what the three of us had just a short time previously. I took another chance on the 24th and lost. Whatever they were doing three years ago, they should go back to that menu and that chef. I think that a non-experienced person in the kitchen making peanut butter and jelly tea sandwiches could have done a ten times better job than what was done for us on Saturday, the 24th of February 2007. I would not go back, would not recommend this place to anyone and wonder how they can advertise the way they do to make people believe they will have a pleasant Victorian 'tearoom' experience. Unless they change something, don't put this place on your list of 'must go to' anytime soon.