SUMMATION: The food, service, and value were excellent. The décor and ambience were okay…read more
NAME: Holly's Café and Restaurant
CHAIN: Holiday Inn
SIZE: 3747 sq. ft. meeting rooms
TITLE: "Consistently Excellent" [Yelp, Parguera Pirate review #463 [1], submitted 29 November 2015]. I have reviewed this restaurant 5 times on TripAdvisor.
MY RATING: Excellent (4.9/5)
TELEPHONE: (787) 833-1100
RESERVATIONS: yes; TAKE OUT: yes; DELIVERY: no; CATERING: no
HOURS OF OPERATION: 6 am-midnight every day; noon-4 pm Sunday Brunch; evenings Friday-Saturday live music
CHEF: Their Chef was excellent. At my last meal there, they had a new Chef. His food was so wonderful that our group asked him to come out for a standing ovation.
LOCALITY: 2701 PR 2, Jostos Avenue, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico 00680
In the Mayaguez Holiday Inn
LATITUDE, LONGITUDE: 18°12'4.85"N, 67°8'42.55"W
DIFFICULTY LOCATING: easy
DIRECTIONS: see hotel web page
OCCASION: I have never been in their restaurant, but have eaten in their meeting rooms dozens of times with ~40 to 150 others.
PARKING: Free in ample, paved, private lot.
VIEW: The meeting rooms have a nice view of their gardens. They usually have the windows blocked with heavy curtains. The group usually asks them to open their curtains.
AIR-CONDITIONED: Usually comfortable. Once too cool and they only adjusted it warmer when everyone was dancing; go figure.
LAYOUT: Walk into front door of hotel, pass reception desk on your left, pass throught a door way into a hall, turn left, walk 10 feet and meeting rooms are on your right. If you had continued dow this hall, the bathrooms would has been on your left after 15 or so feet. Meeting rooms have a small atrium and then a large rectangular room with many tables for 6. Usually a coffee bar on the left and a band or speakers stand on the left.
DÉCOR: Meeting rooms are rather stark, modern, and bright; metal and plastic tables with long tablecloths; comfortable chairs; cloth napkins; sparse decorations.
DRINKS: Ice water with lunch. At meetings with breaks, coffee, teas, hot milk, hot chocolate, decaffeinated coffee.
BAR: Full-service bar available at extra cost. Your own wine may be brought without a corkage fee.
WATER: Iced tap water in real glasses
CUISINE: Puerto Rican and International
FLATWARE: Real and proper circular bowl soup spoon. Medium weight, unmatched stainless.
MENU FORMAT: Pre-ordered, but small card with list provided.
WAITSTAFF: They usually have the same 2 good, quick, efficient, and very professional guys, and a woman when serving.
BREAD: Usually pan de agua or rolls with butter or garlic and some topping. Split bagels with a toaster for break.
SOUP: A very good soup or salad. Sometimes excellent Calabaza [A] soup.
SALAD: A very good salad or soup
FRUIT: Sometimes cooked apples, apple sauce, cranberry sauce.
ENTRÉE: Good meats, properly cooked, excellent taste, and adequate portions.
SIDES: Usually very good local root crops [B]
CONDIMENTS: Excellent gravies and sauces
SALT AND PEPPER: on table
SERVING TIME: Excellent
DESERT: Local flans (custards) with caramel sauce, apple pie, etc., all excellent, but not in very generous portions.
CLEANESS: excellent
BATHROOM: Just down the hall from the meeting rooms. Large, modern, bright, and clean.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
MERCHANT:
(I) There are few reviews of this restaurant probably because it is difficult to find online. This is the fault of the Hotel where it is located.
CONFUSION: TripAdvisor lists Holly's as "CLOSED." I have sent them a correction many times, but they have not changed the status of this restaurant.
REVIEWS: rated Very, Very Good, 4.29/5, 7 [2] reviews (Tripadvisor);
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Plus thousands of unnumbered, critical article and book reviews for hundreds of journals.
[2] I was surprised by their one bad rating. Within their hotel ratings there were 11 comments on this restaurant: 1 poor, 3 very good, and 6 excellent = 4.0 out of 5 (Very Good). 5 of their 7 reviews were mine.
SPECIES:
[A] Calabaza or West Indian Pumpkin, Cucurbita moschata, is a large squash similar to the familiar pumpkin.
[B] Yellow Yam, Dioscorea cayenensis. Sort of like a Sweet Potato, Ipomoea batata, but more starchy and dry. Originally from Africa, but now grown throughout the tropics.