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| - You will never encounter better chocolate. It's as simple as that.
I made reservations for two for January 8th, 2011 at 3pm, which is Brunch. I made these reservations as a Christmas gift to my mother who is the ULTIMATE chocolate aficionado. We arrived at 2:30 without even having realized we were a half an hour early, and they still instantly seated us.
I researched this restaurant quite a bit before deciding to go there, even though I have friends in New York who rave about this place. I was worried about it being really cramped, loud, busy, and too upscale or snobby for my taste. It definitely wasn't. Every single employee was abundantly friendly and helpful. The setup in the restaurant was very adorable and decently spaced. My only complaints would be that the table we sat at was a bit tiny and wobbly, as well as the chair wasn't all that comfortable. Our waiter was a younger man who was very witty and helpful and didn't complain when we gave asked him "which is better?" about several dishes.
For starters, my mother and I both ended up ordering the Eighties Milkshake ($8) as our primary beverage and were also brought glasses of ice water. It's served in a tall freezing porcelain glass with a steel straw, which is brilliant. The Eighties Milkshake is a combination of milk chocolate ganache and vanilla bourbon ice cream which is topped with a chocolate 'shell'. This milkshake is HEAVEN. You immediately taste the bourbon in the icecream and how creamy and delectable it is. If you take a drink and bite off a piece of the shell, you enter an alternate universe of tastyness. No milkshake tops how simple but amazing this one is. I can't wait to go back and have another one.
For brunch I ordered the B.A.L.T. ($14) which is a Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato sandwich with avocado slices and a cilantro-avocado mayonnaise. I ordered it with pepper jack cheese (+$1). This sandwich was to die for. It's served on white bread with the crusts cut off and is skewered. It is mindblowing. The bacon was perfectly cooked, the sandwich was perfectly put together, and it tasted fabulous. I was worried that because it's a somewhat fancy restaurant that the portions would be small and that I wouldn't get enough bang for my buck, but I was wrong. There's two skewered stacks of the sandwich (one on each side of the dish), with two pickle spears in the center, and a small bowl of about 5 waffle fries with the dipping sauce. The waffle fries are incredible, though I wish there were more. They're perfectly crispy and dusted with cocoa powder and chili powder to give a very mild accent and a very mild kick. The dipping sauce is sensational and definitely has a punch to it. It tastes like a horseradish-tangy-southwestern sauce with a bit of chili powder on top. It compliments the waffle fries very well.
My mother ordered the Grilled Chicken Panini ($14) and it was exquisite. The Grilled Chicken Panini is a panini with grilled chicken, olive pesto, tomato, spinach, and goat cheese. The chicken was cooked beautifully, the bread was exceptional, the olive pesto gave the panini the perfect amount of saltiness and earthyness, the spinach and the tomato were excellent additions, and the goat cheese completely brought it all together.
For our much awaited dessert, we ordered the "Sharing For Two" ($25) off the Sweet Icons dessert menu. This dish comes with a few squares of chocolate sponge cake which are melt-in-your-mouth perfect, a crispy chocolate eggroll that is stuffed with fudge and bananas and drizzled with caramel, and two bars of "bark" (milk chocolate and white chocolate) which are a crunchy bar made of what I'm guessing is rice krispy and chocolate. The dish also features 1/4th of a waffle topped with icecream, carmelized bananas, and rice krispy crumble. Last but not least, the Sharing comes with a fondue set; complete with a fire grill, candle-warmed liquid chocolate fondue of your choice (milk, dark, or white), and a bowl of bananas, marshmallows, and strawberries. Oh and did I mention that your entire dish is garnished with the perfect amount of powdered sugar? You can't go wrong with this dessert. It's everything that a dessert should be.
Max Brenner's has instantly become one of my favourite places to dine and I will surely be going back time and time again.
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