Maximiliano Restaurant Review – Highland Park Los Angeles Eats

Friday night and we headed over to a local joint – Maximiliano’s Italian restaurant in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. We found easy parking across the street for our 6:30 pm reservation (reservations made online through their website earlier that day, later they required us to call and confirm it – just a thought: what’s the point of using the online reservation system if you have to call anyway?).

The restaurant was close to full when we arrived and completely filled up by 7:00 pm. The space is quite interesting – inside an almost flatiron shape corner building, the room is long and narrow, with a row of two-person tables lined close together along one wall and some larger group tables in the front. There is a boomerang-shaped counter in the middle you can eat at too. The space is rather industrial looking, with high ceilings – I dig the cinnamon-orange wallpaper with spaghetti noodle design that covers the wall behind the tables. Seating was just a wee bit uncomfortable, I must say – my seat was a bench that lines the wall, the back was hard wood and too far back, the pad on the bench kept moving out of place, and – my pet peeve as a shorty – seating too high for my feet to reach the floor comfortably (luckily I had high platform shoes on and was able to place one foot on the table leg below, the other tucked up). Hubby’s chair was of the hard wood school chair variety – he said it was uncomfortable. These were minor problems, not too bothersome. As a whole, the room was noisy and lively – which I like.

Now onto the more important thing – the food! I ordered the Market Salad as my starter, and the Spaghetti and Meatballs as my entrée. We also indulged in a bottle of Chianti, which hit the spot. My salad arrived quickly, it was a good size – not too large, just right. I must say, this was one of the better restaurant salads I have had – and I love salads, I’ve had lots through the years. Really tasty – with lots of goodies in it that all tasted good together. This salad is listed as containing “seasonal market produce”, so changes with the seasons. My salad was a mix of what tasted like dried cranberries, nuts, cheeses, some chopped beets, and some sliced cucumber or perhaps zucchini all on a bed of mixed greens and topped with a nice-tasting vinaigrette – this was a really good salad! Yum!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay – I’m a Spaghetti and Meatballs girl – love it, order it often in different restaurants. Maximiliano’s version was served in a large, deep-ish white pasta bowl and contained four medium-sized meatballs. This was actually a pretty big serving, so I could only eat about half (bringing home the rest for a nice meal the next day). The dish was of the homemade, comfort food variety – rich and flavorful meatballs and tomato sauce with a good, made-from-scratch taste.

Hubby ordered the Chicken Ravioli and started with the Caesar Salad – I tasted both dishes, both good. He was happy. We were quite full – but decided to indulge in dessert and went for a Lemon Tart to share. It came quickly after ordering (like all the food this evening) and, oh boy, was this ever good. Just the right amount of tartness to the creamy lemon flavor of the tart, really could taste the homemade yummyness here (the spell checker doesn’t think “yummyness” is a word, but I like it!). The slice of Tart was accompanied with some fresh strawberries and cream – all tasted real good together (we ate this dish down fast!).

  

All in all, this was an enjoyable and yummy meal – service was good, our waiter was attentive and efficient. We will be back – maybe try the brunch next time, or the pizza. Maximiliano Restaurant is located in the Highland Park area of Los Angeles, near Eagle Rock.  Website for Maximiliano Restaurant