CHICKPEAS: 4
We went to
Max Burger in West Hartford about a month or so ago on a Sunday night. It was PACKED! We were out to celebrate our anniversary at the same restaurant where we went on our first date, everyone else was out to celebrate
Washington's birthday. There was about a 30 minute wait when we arrived, so we found some seats at the bar. Based on the tension and speed of the waitstaff, they appeared to be understaffed. They likely forgot about Washington's birthday when making the schedule. Whoops.
One neat thing about Max Burger is they take your cell phone number at the hostess desk and then text you when your table is ready. A drink for each of us later and my fiances phone beeped. We were up! (This is sort of similar to a service called
textaurant)
We were seated at a table in the lower section of the dining area. Upon arriving, it appeared the people sitting on both sides of us were a bit unhappy with their service. Again, Max Burger was a bit understaffed, but everyone working was hustling around. Because the tables were pretty close together we were privy to these customer's complaints to the manager. They were pretty petty. The type of thing you might mention to the waitress and then let it go. People in West Hartford must be pretty hard to please, or maybe just looking for a free meal. The complaints continued from both tables for most of the night.
Some example complaints:
1.) Wife ordered a wedge salad with bleu cheese dressing and some sort of entree, Husband ordered a burger and substituted a side salad for his fries. They were upset that the salads were not the same size, type and were not served at the same time (husbands came on the same plate as the burger).
2.) Older son orders adult meal and a milkshake. Younger son orders children's meal (which I believe comes with a drink) and a milkshake. Older son gets adult size milkshake. Younger son gets a child size milkshake. Parent's upset about the size difference. Instead of requesting a second milkshake for the younger son, they proceeded to make a scene about it.
3.) Parent's dispute that their son's child sized burger was actually 5oz. Manager and waitress explain that the chef weighs all of the meat and that meat shrinks when cooked. Child then proceeds to only eat about 1/2 of the burger. Looked like 5 oz. to us!
4.) Max Burger has plates that say "Max Burger" on them. A woman complained that the server had placed the plate such that "Max Burger" was upside down. (Really??!!)
At the end of the night, another customer sitting at a table near us (not one of the complainers) almost started a fight with the complaining customers defending our waitress. She really was trying her hardest and we had no complaints about our own service. Everything was timely, correctly portioned and delicious.
Ok, now onto the food.
We ordered chicken cordon blue balls to begin. They were good, but probably not something I would order again.
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| Chicken Cordon Bleu Balls |
I ordered a a tuna burger with picked vegetables on a sesame roll with eggplant fries on the side. The burger was delicious. Seared just a little bit on the outside. The eggplant fries are interesting. A little juicy. They need to be eaten right when made and probably would not reheat well.
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| Eggplant Fries |
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| Tuna Burger |
For dessert, we split something that I believe was called a s'mores pie. A graham cracker crust was topped with a chilled thick chocolate pudding/mouse. On top was a marshmallow that had been torched just a little bit so it was melted and warm. A delicious ending to our meal!
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S'mores pie
We will be back again in a year for our next anniversary (if not before)! |
