Maxim's

This is one of those places that everyone sees when they go shopping at Westgate, but everyone assumes is going to be pricey. Everyone was right. The food is not very good. I mean it's certainly not garbage, or even close to it, but it's not worth it's cost. I would prefer Marie Calendar's where I know the foods quality, at the very least matches, if not exceeds it's price.

All in all, not a good value.

Just returned from dinner at the former Max's on Saratoga Avenue and can confidently say that we will not be returning in the near future.

My wife and I both follow a low-carb lifestyle, and we enjoyed the low-carb section of the menu for a couple of years. The food used to be terrific, and the service was always professional and prompt.

Over the last year or so, however, we were told that they were out of the low-carb bread and had to make adjustments to what we ordered. This, along with very noticeable declines in the level of service, resulted in our not patronizing Maxim's for a while. The change in ownership seems to have taken this restaurant down hill.

This evening, we arrived at around 6pm, and I was worried that we would have to wait for a table. To our surprise, there was no wait. In fact, the restaurant was not busy at all. There were more empty tables than tables that were occupied. A bad omen for sure.

We ordered drinks from our waiter and before my wife could ask the waiter for an appetizer, he took off. We noticed that there was still a "Watching The Carbs" section of the menu, and I decided to have the California Chicken Melt sandwich from the Low Carb menu. The waiter informed us that they didn't have any of the low carb bread. I then decided to order the chicken special from their Octoberfest menu. I asked the waiter for extra cabbage instead of the pasta. My wife ordered the honey-glazed chicken with extra vegetables instead of the potatoes.

We also ordered the stuffed mushrooms as an appetizers. What followed was truly dissapointing. The mushrooms were decent, but nothing to write home about. Shortly thereafter, our entrees arrived. My chicken special was a half chicken breast that was dry, over-cooked, tough and tasteless. Furthermore, the cabbage was absolutely disgusting. There was way too much clove and vinagar. It was inedidle. My wife's chicken wasn't too bad. However, she had asked for extra vegetables instead of potatoes, and the brocolli was still raw. The chef had partially steamed a head of bocolli and put it on her plate. It was so under-cooked, she couldn't cut it with her butter knife.

From a service perspective, the server was absolutely clueless. He, of course, asked me if I wanted another glass of wine shortly after delivering our entrees. I declined, and he never came back to check to see if everything was okay with our entrees. I ate the tough, dry chicken and left the mounds of cabbage on the plate. Finally, the waiter came back to clear my plate and asked me if I enjoyed my meal!!!

I told our waiter that it was the worst meal I had ever had at this restaurant, and he informed me that he didn't have the authority to do anything about the situation but would let the manager know that I wasn't happy with my meal.

After a while, the manager came over, and we had a discussion. She took my meal off the check and then offered us free dessert. This, after I told her that I was dissappointed that they don't carry the low-carb bread anymore yet is still on the menu.

Bottom line, in my humble opinion, is that this restaurant has lost touch with its roots. The food and service at this restaurant has declined in a significant way. It used to be a great place to enjoy a quality meal. The food and service used to be excellent. With the recent change of ownership, however, it is now an over-priced, pretentious, and poor-quality place to eat.

I will not be returning here in the near future, and this is a shame, as it used to be one of our favorites.