Restaurant Review: Max Brenner

I was going to write an early review of The Final Destination. The boyfriend got some tickets from a site for free and we went to line up but when we get there the line was really long and even though we arrived 45 minutes ahead of the said time and waited for an hour, we didn't get in. Too bad.

Well, the whole evening wasn't a lost. After watching the pizza episode of The Best Thing I've Ever Ate on Food Network, Chef Aaron Sanchez introduced the chocolate pizza at a crazy chain restaurant called Max Brenner, that is an absolute chocoholic heaven. This Israel based chain restaurant has half a dozen in Israel, more than a dozen of stores in Australia, two in Philippines, one in Singapore, one in New York and the Philadelphia one just opened up not long ago. Strange group of locations.

Sure they serve foods, but the draw is really the chocolate. There is about two dozens of regular food items, but the chocolate menu comes in a small bible with different kinds of smoothie, shakes and frappes, fondues, waffles and crepes, five different kinds of melted chocolate cakes, concoctions, chocolate pizza, chocolate soups, truffles, bonbons and pralines, cheesecake, ice cream sundaes, popsicle fondues, cookies, breads and tarts. White chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, the list and combination goes on and on and on. Who needs regular food when you can get full on chocolate?

It's our first time there, so we didn't know and ordered a sandwich to share. It's called the Best B.A.L.T, it's a regular BLT with avocado and it comes with a side of cocoa and chili powder dusted waffle fries and a spicy cilantro avocado mayonnaise. The mayo is quite unnecessary because it masked the subtle chocolate taste of the waffle fries and they were fried perfectly.



We ordered half a chocolate pizza, just because the Food Network program had mentioned it to be the best thing. It was good. The bread is soft, spread with a milk chocolate cream like Nutella without the hazelnut taste. Two pieces were spread with crunchy hazelnut bits and another two had marshmallows spread on top melted like mozzarella. It's great, like a peanut butter jelly sandwich but more chocolate-y. We ordered it with the sandwich but this came out ahead. It makes for a great appetizer.



Since the boyfriend likes peanut butter and the picture in the menu looked so interesting, we ordered something called Max's Three Layer Chocolate Concoction with Cookies and Peanut Butter. It's layered with milk chocolate cream, peanut butter, Oreo cookies, white chocolate chunks and whipped cream. Served with a orange biscotti and a jar of chocolate covered wafer balls. It looks very cool and it was fun to dig in.



Even though the place is decorated with whimsical quotes of Max Brenner and his mug, there actually was no Max Brenner in real life. The place was originally opened by Max Fichtman and Oded Brenner, it's zany in a Willy Wonka kinda way. It's like an amusement park, I want to try E-Ve-Ry-Thing. Though the price range is a little on the higher side. It'll definitely be a great place to do some celebration and I'm not kidding about not ordering any sandwiches or burgers and go straight for the chocolate. For some reason they didn't have enough bread to make us a regular sized B.A.L.T which they apologized and comped our chocolate pizza. Anyone who gives me free food deserves a bump, so if you live near New York or Philly or near a Max Brenner overseas and you love chocolate, give it a go. It's one of the more interesting dining experience I've had for a while.