The Maximillien

So we had our date night at the Maximillien last night! As always it was awesome to spend some one on one time with the awesome man I married - isn't it weird how sitting at a table in a restaurant affords you time to chat about things that otherwise just get lost in the wash?

But if you'll allow me to play food critic for a moment, I have to comment on the actual restaurant. The atmosphere is amazing, service absolutely excellent. Before we even ordered starters Hanno was planning our next visit already. But we've both changed our minds about going back - at least, we'll go back for a cocktail, maybe, but not a meal.

I ordered the rocket and orange salad as a starter. It was great, except for the obvious lack of rocket (a herb that I adore). Instead the salad was based on some rather tasteless frilly lettuce. The roasted pine nuts were fantastic, the cheese creamy and everything came together really nicely. But the description said it's a salad of rocket and baby spinach leaves, and what I got was a salad of frilly lettuce and spinach that couldn't possibly be described as baby - teenager, more likely. Hanno's carpaccio was OK but the meat itself lacked flavour.

My main was the chicken in parma ham cooked in a sherry sauce and served on tagliatelle. Again, no sign of the parma ham, which was the main attraction in my choice to order the chicken in the first place. I couldn't taste any sherry either, so what I got was a cooked chicken breast (beautifully cooked, moist and tender) in a nondescript savoury sauce over slightly overcooked pasta. And it was supposed to be served with stir-fry vegetables and roasted butternut, but instead I got plain cooked vegetables (cauliflower, carrots and green beans) and cooked butternut. The plain boiled veggies made the whole main feel like a plate of cooked food instead of a restaurant creation, kwim?

Hanno had the fillet medallions in pepper sauce and it was really beautiful - cooked rare, flavourful meat and delicately seasoned. The pepper sauce was less overpowering than some restaurants make it, and the mashed potatoes were a work of art. Of course, he also got the boiled veggies to go with it.

Then for dessert we had a choice between berry cheesecake and crepes suzette, and we both ordered the crepes suzette. Which was OK, I suppose, but definitely not fresh. Mine were cold on the inside, so clearly these were made a few hours (days?) before dinner service and simply heated up and covered in sauce.

I think in summary there's no chance I go back for the food - if we had paid the full R600 for the meal instead of getting it half price on a Wicount offer (that's the voucher than Hanno bought, btw) we would have been really upset. Hanno suspects they give lower quality food if they know you're coming on a voucher, which we told them stupidly when we booked. But if the point of the Wicount offer is to attract new customers and then have them come back again and again to relive the experience, the Maximillien has failed miserably this time.