L W.
Yelp
I've been to the one in Marlboro and liked it and decided to give the Holmdel location a try.
The restaurant is large and primarily follows a light gray color scheme. There are booths lining the sides and center of the place. There is also counter seating near the front, with two flat screen TVs hanging above the counter. The word "hello" is written in large pink cursive on the ceiling above the counter and it's easily missed if you don't look up. A large fake tree with large pink flowers stands in the middle of the restaurant while fake vines snake up and down the back wall. There is also large framed painting of a pineapple hanging near the emergency exit, but this pales in comparison to the tree! There are tables for outdoor dining but we opted to sit inside. Upon entering, almost every table was filled but we managed to get seated indoors.
Daughter ordered Fancy burrata, which has two poached eggs, burrata cheese, arugula, avocado, tomatoes, red onions, balsamic, grilled sourdough bread with pesto aioli. She asked the server if there was pine nuts in the pesto and was told there was but she can order it without the pesto. She thought it was delicious and said it was the perfect amount served because she was able to finish the entire order. There were lots of greens, which was a plus.
Next, Hubs ordered Mediterranean omelette, which has onions, tomatoes, spinach, feta, "prassini" side salad and country toast. The toast turned out to be 2.5 pieces of bagel chips because one of them looked like a bite was taken out of it. He thought the omelette was overcooked and was disappointed. It wasn't soft and tasted hard.
Our waitress was barely around and we couldn't find her to get a coffee refill. We had to flag down a busser to get a refill. The strange thing about this place is that there isn't anyone walking around with a coffee pot. We saw coffee being brewed but no refills were served. Maybe they're trying to save money that way. I thought coffee was expensive. Daughter ordered a cold brew. It was $6 for a cold brew. I was going to ask the waitress if there's a free refill. Again, couldn't find her. Maybe that's why the server was hard to find. So we don't ask questions. I don't understand why it was so hard to find her considering the place was just one large room and you can see the entire place. She must've disappeared every now and then. All the servers were hanging by the coffee pots chatting but our server.
Lastly, I ordered lemon ricotta pancakes, which comes with a dollop of their mixed berry compote, blueberries, their house-made whipped cream and powdered sugar on top. I thought it tasted a bit dry, kind of tasted like cornmeal was used. I could've used some syrup, but never got a chance to ask for it because we never saw the waitress. But, we saw a couple next to us who had a side of syrup with her order. I was disappointed with the cornmeal in the pancake because it wasn't stated on the menu. Had I known it was going to be cornmeal, I wouldn't have ordered it. I was expecting my pancake to be floury and fluffy, not cornmeal and dense. Also, the house-made whipped cream tasted like there was a lot of butter in it. I got grossed out when I saw this diner next to me put his dollop of whipped cream in his mouth.
The next time we saw the waitress was when we were able to flag her down for a check.
One thing to note is that they have a customer service charge on their bill. If you pay in cash, the customer service charge can be deducted. So, I'm guessing there's a credit card charge.
I was happy to get a chance to try this place but I don't think we'll be returning. Even though the place looked cute and charming, it's not enough when the service and food was meh for the price we paid.
