Hollister On Washington

Came here for brunch on a random Saturday. My friend and I were driving by and randomly decided to try it. As other reviews said, it is in a strip mall and the décor isn’t anything exciting. There was only one waitress on staff and she was very slowww.
I ordered coffee and the migas. In a city that can definitely do migas right, Hollister really failed. It was basically just some scrambled eggs with avocado on top. No meat, some veggies, but mainly just alot of scrambled eggs. The coffee was decent, but the waitress never was there for refills.
Maybe their dinner is better, but probably wont be back to find out.

This is pure Washington gem. Most people ignore it perhaps because it’s in a strip mall and close to several other restaurants.
They still don’t have their liquor license so it’s BYOB, that saves a lot of money and the food is absolutely delicious.
If you want to try out a new place and miss out on the 20 something’s that crowd the restaurant’s in the area to see and be seen try this one out.
The prices are reasonable too for the menu that they offer.

Big fan of the Hollister restaurants… after many visits to the original we tried Hollister On Washington… first for lunch. Started with the fries and fried pickles… OMG. The oyster Po’boy is one of the best I have ever eaten. Perfectly breaded and cooked oysters on a roll not to soft nor too crusty, with a delicious aioli. So good that I did lunch there again two days later.
Dinner…been twice, both times were spectacular! The service is good, the fixed menu is diverse and the specials are worthy. Chuck is a great host, anxious to meet and greet. Love the BYOB.
Oh yeah… banana pudding with Captain Crunch in a jar is huge… And so good you’ll find it hard to stop. Guess we’ll have to try brunch soon! Keep up the great work Chuck

Went here with a group for brunch. While I was not a huge fan of my dish, everyone else seemed to really like theirs. For brunch next time… I think I’ll go with the yogurt & cap’n crunch.
I will say — they need to do a better job of writing the specials on the board. Just hire a teenager with cutesy handwriting… ok?
Good space, attentive waiter… was still BYOB when I went. Would go back again.

After reading an article on Culture Map about this restaurant, I knew I had to try it. My boyfriend and I came for brunch on a Saturday morning. He was getting really nervous as we were walking in because they was literally no one in the restaurant, and it had been open for at least 30 min. I convinced him that it would be fine and that it was a new restaurant, so people probably haven’t discovered it yet.
I got the fried egg sandwich and he got the migas and we shared the mac and cheese and beignets. I don’t know if you can already tell, but we definitely got WAY too much food. Their portions here are pretty freaking big. You definitely get your moneys worth. Everything was delicious! I particularly loved that instead of breakfast sausage they used andouille sausage… which is my fave! Oh and the fried egg sandwich comes on a pretzel bun and has a thick piece of cheddar, sausage and bacon! oh and served with homefries. Now to the shared dishes… the mac and cheese was phenomenal! it was creamy and not lacking in the cheesiness factor. It camed topped with cheetos which was interesting/​cool but we actually ended up picking them all off. The beignets were a perfect ending. Light and fluffy and delicious! Next time I want to try their shipleys donut bread pudding.
So… if you want delicious, fresh food served in very generous portions and don’t want to deal with a wait, try this place out! Oh and we didn’t take advantage of this during our first visit since we didn’t know but this place is BYOB.

I was hesitant to try this place after the reviews about bad service, but our experience was fantastic and the food was well worth trying it out. Our waiter was very attentive to our party of 4 and the owner/​manager came by 2 or 3 times to check on us. We all shared the pretzel bread shirt rib appetizer which was plenty for all of us. The guys really liked the fried rib eye, and the gumbo was savory. The banana cream pie in a jar was plenty for us all to share. The Shipley’s donut bread pudding was the only item that was less than impressive. It basically seemed like French toast served with ice cream. Being able to bring your own drinks for now was a nice bonus. They do charge a $ 10 consumption fee per bottle of wine. We will definitely go back!
They should join Open Table. Their online reservation system doesn’t seem like it is actually confirming your reservation. You send in the time requested but it was unclear if it was actually booked or just a request and they are going to get back to you.

Very happy with my Hollister On Washington experience. Went with a couple of friends, sat at the bar, took a 6 pack of beer. I ordered the burger, my friends ordered the steak and eggs w/​kimchi and the fried shrimp Cesar salad. Food was perfectly timed, it arrived hot and tasty. Staff was friendly and informative. Menu had plenty of thoughtful options. My «complaints» are so measly that they aren’t worth mentioning. Keep up the good work Hollister. Looking forward to my next visit.

We were looking for a dog friendly place on Washington, since we had our 3 doxies with us. My partner went in to ask if we could sit on the patio with our pups. There were not a lot of people there, however the 2 waiters were running around and it took forever for one to notice her. She asked one of the waiters if they allowed dogs. He said «yes» then looked at his watch and said nothing else.
She motioned for me to go to the patio with our pups. We sat and waited for a bit for someone to come out. No one did, so I went in to get menus. I ALSO stood inside for a long while being ignored. Finally I went to get menus myself. The waiter saw me pick them up. I started to walk outside and thought that I should make sure that I had the correct menus. I went up to the waiter and asked if these were the correct menus. He looked at me annoyingly and said «yes» looked at his watch and said, but we close in 8 minutes. I said, «Okay, then we’ll go somewhere else.»
Ummmmmmmmm — — why could they not have told us that they were almost closing the FIRST time, before we got all settled in with our pups??? What a waste of time.
Neither waiter was welcoming from the moment we entered. We are not interested in giving them a second chance based on this first experience. Too bad, because we go out to eat often and are always looking for new places.

This place was awesome! First of all, we were able to BYOB, but take that out of the equation, and this place was great from the first morsel of food we put in our mouth, to the owner hand-​delivering our food and being so appreciative of our business. We will definitely be back to Hollister! even if its only for that unbelievable Mac n cheese

I was immediately impressed. Once I walked in the door, I was delighted with the open concept and amazing ambiance. I was immediately greeted with impecable service and smiling faces. The owner, who is quite the character, was buzzing around to each table, guaranteeing all questions about the menu were fully answered.
I first visited for lunch and, I’m not kidding, ate the BEST chicken salad sandwich I’ve ever eaten. You should know I order chicken salad sandwiches just about every time I see it on a menu and this one rocks! Apparently, it’s made in-​house, as well as every other dish they serve. The banana pudding & crunchy goodness, served in an old-​fashioned Mason Jar, was phenomenal.
I loved it so much that I couldn’t wait to take my friends there, so I went again a few days later for dinner. It’s BYOB until the liquor license goes through, so my bill was surprisingly lower than a usual Friday night. In fact, the prices, in general, are very reasonable. We started with the grilled tomato mozzarella appetizer, which was unbelievable. Then, I ate one of the best cheeseburgers EVER! I subbed fries for mac & cheese and was not disappointed. The only thing I was disappointed about was that I couldn’t eat it all. The bread pudding was enticing for dessert, made with Shipley’s donuts, but I couldn’t eat another bite.
With all the new restaurants that open up in Houston, this is one that is true to always cooking with fresh ingredients (Owner grocery shops 3 hours every morning) and not-​to-​be-​missed!
I can guarantee you I will be back again ASAP!

Been only open 6 weeks…
This will be a winner. Nice space — plenty of parking.
Great and diverse menu (heavy on comfort and fresh), well prepared food at very reasonable prices, and HUGE portions.
Only downside is service/​kitchen don’t have their act running smoothly. Wait was long and entrees were not all served at once.
Appetizers — beignets, fried green tomatoes, and mac ‘n cheese — all winners but latter two were memorable.
Entrees (this was a Sunday brunch) — fried egg sandwich, eggs benedict, brisket frittata, crab cakes, and monte cristo sandwich. Two of the dishes came with jars of fries. Four of the entrees could not be finished — only the eggs benedict was «normal» size. All were quite good.
They don’t have their liquor license yet but may have beer and wine.
Damages with tip was $ 115.
We will be back!

I have, regrettably, only been to this delicious hot spot once!
Ever since then Charlie M. refuses to order any type of steak; their bone-​in rib eye was that damn good.
Our party did not arrive all at once~ the four earliest birthday celebrators enjoyed a seat at the bar. Hollister was BYOB only when I enjoyed my dinner there, but the promise that they would keep that going even after they got their licence is a very neat concept that I haven’t seen at many other places. Thumbs up to the idea, guys. Fantastic beer = better tips. EVEN if I had to bring that beer myself.
We decided to order a few different plates to get the feel of this new establishment and our selections for starters were: fried oysters, braised short ribs on pretzel bread, and mac and cheese. The fried oysters were adored all around the table~ and rank within the top three oyster dishes I have ever had!
The entrees we ordered were the bone-​in rib eye, the flat-​iron steak over noodles with a fried egg /​large enough to split deliciously between myself and a friend/​and the snapper over grits.
Everyone very much enjoyed their meal and the service was fantastic.
We were approached by the owner three times through the night.
Once as a party of four at the bar; then to let us know our food would be out soon, and once more to see how our food turned out.
He stood by our table and chit-​chatted for awhile. Very good company!
Overall a very sophisticated feel to this little joint to go along with the fantastic food!
I’m sure next time I am down on Washington this will be our first stop!

It’s new and it’s down the street, so I was pretty excited to check this place out. I’ll probably try it again once more if it remains open, but it was a little disappointing after a first visit. There isn’t much to the place itself; it is a small-​ish space, but a little outdoor seating outside. Was fine for lunch, no problem getting a table. Menu is interesting, but not very big and as such, it’s easy not to find something to be excited about if you aren’t in a certain mood. There were some very interesting items on the menu, and some interesting stuff we ordered. If I make it in again, I’m very interested in the brunch menu. Some of the same items appear on all three menus (lunch, dinner, brunch) but there is definitely the least interesting selection at lunch (guess when I went?!) and the brunch menu has some pretty cool-​sounding stuff. The Smoked Brisket Frittatas and the Hollister Migas both are calling my name, for sure.
Hoping my next visit brings this up a star, I think they have it in them. I swear they had something with Peeps on the menu around Easter, so there’s potential.

Let’s break it down.
Ambience — Eh. nothing exciting here. One of the few things that impresses me about Houston restaurants is, though located in boring looking shopping centers, their ability to transform the interior of the restaurant to relay their concept, like you are about to embark in a culinary «journey». I did not get that feel with the interior at Hollister… at all! It was … boring… very. boring, no ambience. There was nothing about it that made it «edgy» or «down home». Hollister’s interior failed to translate the restaurant’s dining concept. Also, they are in desperate need of blinds/​curtain/​tints on their window. Every time a car would pull up/​out the patrons would get blinded by the headlights!
BYOB — I went 2 weeks ago I believe and they did not have their liquor license yet, so it is BYOB. They do offer complimentary wine (red/​white). Our waiter did advise us to come back for brunch, $ 3.50 bottomless mimosas. I’m assuming that will go down when they get their license… not sure when that will be.
Appetizers — YUM. I enjoyed their Shrimp & Grits Croquettes. For a lack of a better description, it was a scrumptious take on a hush puppy! I also had one of the waiter’s recommendation, and I wish I could remember what it was called to make this review helpful, but I can always describe the delectable treat that made contact with my eager tastebuds. I believe it was short braised ribs that was nestled in bread, again can’t remember what type of bread it was… BUT I enjoyed the fact that the bread was not on the side but swimming in the sauce. It made it all the more enjoyable. The bread served as a sponge soaking up all that saucey goodness! The reduction on the ribs was absolutely delicious, I had to stop myself from licking the sauce off the plate.
Main — This is the low point of my meal… sigh. I had the smoked chicken with mashed turnips. The star lost was due to the fact that the chicken was dry… I am a big fan of white meat, but this chicken was way toooooo dry even for me. Now, though the chicken was dry it did not lack any flavor. The smokey flavor was there and it was pretty good. Maybe it would’ve been better if they used a different cut of the bird, a part that is less susceptible to drying? Not sure, no culinary expert here just an observation. The mashed turnips was a different story! I would have never thought of serving this root in that manner, but my oh my did it work! Dare I say it, it might be better than mashed potatoes! :/​Ate all of that and left most of the chicken! My friend ordered their Korean Steak and Eggs with Kimchi Fried Rice. The steak was perfectly cooked, but the kimchi fried rice lacked that pickled/​spicy kimchi flavor I’ve grown to love. It lacked the Korean red chili powder flavor.
With that said… I will be going back for brunch. Hopefully on my return they will gain a star and transform this to a ⁴⁄₅ stars review!

First of all, guys, this place is BYOB. They plan on getting a liquor license eventually, but as of right now, you’re on your own with the booze. If you do happen to show up unprepared, you can just run next door to CVS and buy a couple cheap bottles, no big deal.
My friends and I ended up here after rejecting an hour and a half wait at El Tiempo. We walked across the street and put our name down for a 30 minute wait here. At first glance, their menu looked small and limited. They had some specials written on a shiny, metallic dry erase board which was incredibly difficult to read, so I waited until we sat down to decide on my entrée.
From the beginning, the service was horrible. We hardly saw our waiter throughout the night and often had a hard time flagging him down. We started with the mac n cheese and short braised ribs for appetizers, neither of which was memorable. The mac n cheese tasted like it came from a box and had a pool of oil collecting at the bottom of the dish. The short ribs were better, but not great. For my entrée I went with the special of the day– grilled hanger steak with roasted brussels sprouts. The food took far too long, and when it eventually came out, my steak was cold and it looked like they had ran out of brussels sprouts and given me onions instead. I asked if they could take it back and when I finally got my dish back, almost all of my friends had finished eating, and it STILL wasn’t hot enough. The steak itself was too crispy and tasted burned on the outside, and lacked flavor. My boyfriend’s pork chop was overcooked and too dry (but yet, also cold like mine).
When it came time to pay there was a huge confusion over how we had asked to split the bill and it ended up taking far too long to sort out. I know Hollister is new, so maybe they have a few problems they need to work out, but I don’t think I’ll be back for a while.

«Where do you want to go for your birthday?»
I think I heard this maybe 25 times in the past month. I am very indecisive when it comes to planning, well, pretty much anything. So when it dwindled down to just 2 days before the weekend and a few people anticipating my decision it was time to just bite the bullet.
Out of the massive list of rec’s I had, for some reason Hollister’s byobness caught my attention. Coincidentally I found out that an old roommate of mine works in the kitchen and that was pretty neat. Done.
You get a very relaxed yet sophisticated vibe from this place. The mixture of low tops, high tops and a large bar add a nice aesthetic and the smaller interior creates a more intimate space. We sat at the bar for a little while waiting on other people in our group. After a few glasses from the growlers my super sweet guy dropped off earlier in the afternoon we took a table outside.
The menu had a wonderful mix of things to choose from.
Starters: braised short ribs on pretzel bread (I could eat this
.), mac and cheese and fried oysters
Entrees: snapper over grits, flat-​iron steak over noodles with a fried egg, bone in rib eye, and the burger with fries
The food was spectacular and came out in a very timely manner. The variation in price was also very accommodating to any budget. From burgers at $ 10 to steaks at $ 40 there is something for everyone.
Something I can always appreciate is an owner who is on the floor the ENTIRE night. He stopped by 3 times to check on us at various points in the evening. He has also done well in choosing an exceptional staff. From the adorable girl behind the bar to the gentleman who took our orders, I was impressed.
Side note: They will continue to be a byob after licensing so bring your fav’s and they will keep em’ flowing.
Birthday dinner: Win.

What a great month for new restaurants in Houston! Even though Hollister is still moving into its new digs, it already feels like a permanent fixture on Washington Ave., a great local restaurant. Great food (I loved the snapper and shrimp, and the fried green tomatoes were incredible), wonderful, personable service, and reasonable prices. Plus, the restaurant is presently BYOB – every wino’s dream!

The food was so… well I don’t know what it was, since we never got to try it.
I had made a reservation for a nice little girls night for 8PM online. Turns out their website must be strictly dedicated to the other location, so there wasn’t one for us when we arrived. No big deal, there were a couple empty tables that could be put together for us, or so we thought. The waiter just kept apologizing to us about the situation, but never tried to remedy it. After we finally just asked about the empty tables, he apologized some more, put them together for us, and asked what we’d like. We responded with «menus,» as we didn’t have any. That was the last we saw of him. 15 minutes later, we walked over to Coppa, which was delicious.
Hollister was packed, which is a good sign, so I’m sure the food is good. The service, however, was terrible. They seemed to be understaffed, but you can’t just blatantly ignore customers.
Sidenote: if you’re driving, you may want to park on a side street since it’s a tiny lot and the valet parking situation looked like that scene from Father of the Bride.

For a new location, the folks over at Hollister on Washington sure seem to already have the kinks ironed out! The smoked tomato, cucumber, red onion & mozzarella salad, Flat Iron Steak, and the Kurobuta Pork Porterhouse are all excellent. I was impressed by the creativity that the chef was able to bring to simple, comforting offerings. The atmosphere at night is dark, conducive to a good date night, but not so slinky to make it exclusively a romanic’s restaurant,. In fact, the crowd tonight was a fully homogenized blend of families, locals, and seemingly star struck couples. We’ll be back, without a doubt.

Yum, yum, yum!!! Jason Kerr is such a talented and inventive chef. Was having a rough day, but he turned my frown upside down with a special «Angeler» dish just for me.