Maxine's On Shine — Restaurant in Orlando

I have never left a negative review before but was so shocked by the service here after all the glowing reviews that I had to share my experience. We had a reservation for Sunday brunch at 11:30. The website makes a big deal about it being a smaller establishment and they only allot you 90 minutes from your reservation time. We were a few minutes late for our reservation and when we got to the restaurant, there were a lot of people on the sidewalk. I asked one of the people standing on the sidewalk if it was a line to put their name in or if they had reservations. They said they did not have reservations and were waiting in line, so we headed towards the hostess to check in. Instead of a welcome we were met with a rude glare and informed that there was a line. We tried to explain that we had reservations and were just trying to let them know we were there, but the hostess just said, get in line. OK, not the best first impression but obviously they were busy. We wait for a few minutes and everyone else on the sidewalk gets seated. We are the only people standing there but the hostess still doesn't even look at us. After a few minutes of us just standing there in front of her while she talks to a coworker, she asks for the name on the reservation and tells us it will be a few minutes. We sit down on a bench to wait. After a few minutes the hostess informs us that they don't have any tables available inside or on the patio, but we could have one of the tables on the sidewalk. We let her know that we would prefer to wait and sit at a table inside or on the patio. A few minutes later, she comes back and says there's space at the bar and we could sit there. Again, we said we would prefer a table. We were not rude and we were not being impatient, just sitting on the bench chatting while we waited, but her attitude made it seem like we were being unreasonable. She said a reservation doesn't specify where you get to sit and she was just offering us what they had available. We were finally seated inside and someone brought us waters immediately, saying our server would be with us shortly. And then we waited. We watched people finish their meals, leave, and new people get seated. We watched those people get greeted by servers and get drinks delivered. We considered just getting up and leaving. At 12:10 (40 minutes after our reservation) we flagged a server down and asked if there was a server for our table because nobody had ever come by. Instead of apologizing, the response was "what do you want to drink?" The whole experience made it feel like they didn't care if we ever returned. In the end, the food was fine but nothing spectacular and definitely not special enough to offset the nasty attitude of the hostess or being ignored inside the restaurant. Also, although it wasn't a huge deal for me because I keep my house at 83 degrees and like it warm, it was pretty much the same temperature and humidity in the restaurant as it was outside, which could be an issue for...

This place. Wow. I don't like to just hand out five stars, believe it or not, because I always really ask myself if my experience was perfect. Well, I can't speak for past me, but I can say that right now, I will gladly give Maxine's five stars for a perfect evening.

My girlfriend and I came here for Magical Dining Month. We chose this place out of the dozens of different restaurant options, because the menu sounded absolutely amazing. Let me tell you more about it.

So for our apps, we got the Key West Crab Cakes (2) (sweet lump crab meat, firecracker sauce) and the Lollipop Lamb Chops (3) (chops, grilled, choice of jalapeno cilantro aioli or mint marmalade). The crab cakes were perfectly crisp little blobs of delicious crab and served with a sauce that was fine, but not necessary. Eat these babies on their own. The lamp chops were cooked to a precise medium rare and were so lollipop-like, they're impossible to not just pick up and eat with your hands. So good.

For the entrees, I had the Stuffed Pork Chop & Boar Sausage (10 oz, bone in, spinach cheddar stuffed, bacon mushroom onion topping, wild boar sausage). Wow. This was a dish that could have gone so wrong, but they did it so right. The pork chop was well done, but it was still juicy and the cheese stuffing oozed right out of it. Perfection. The bone-in giant chop had a gradation of flavor that was best near the bone. Don't forget to gnaw on your bone a little before you finish the dish. The wild boar sausage was wonderfully tender and impressed my girlfriend, who does not like sausage usually. This was good. So good.

She got the lobster ravioli (shrimp, scallops, sherry cream sauce). This dish was the winner of the night for us. The lobster filling was so umptious and the pasta was definitely fresh made. Shrimp, perfectly cooked. Scallops, huge sea scallops, and perfectly cooked. These things melted in your mouth. The cream sauce made everything super creamy and cheesy. If this sounds appealing to you at all, you'd love this. If this sounds like too much, it will probably be too much. It was a rich, intense dish with no relief in sight. But we loved it.

Two desserts. Banana's Foster Cheesecake and Atlantic Beach Lemon Pie (Lemon custard, saltine cracker crust, sea salt whipped cream). If you like bananas, the cheesecake will tickle your fancy. It was delicious and the crust was super graham crackery. It tasted homemade. The lemon pie was perfect. That tart tart lemon custard balanced by the salt from the crust and the whipped cream. Wow. Going back, I would have ordered two of these.

I didn't even get to talk about the atmosphere. Please, look at my pictures. The whole scene was super jazzy and divey. Maxine was walking around in her little red hat talking to all the guests and taking pictures and stuff. She didn't talk to us, but I don't blame here. We look pretty Millenially, not worth a check in. I understand. But oh my God, I will be back,...

I’m not one to post pictures of food, or reviews of businesses, but as a small business owner I’m well aware that customers are more likely to post when they’ve had what they perceive as a bad experience than a good one. I read a bad review that Maxine’s recently had, so I thought this was a good time to post our experience there. There are so many franchise/commercial restaurants (as well as gyms) that I want to support fellow small businesses when I can. . Trinity and I recently tried Magical Dining for the first time. Magical Dining is where you pay one flat rate for three courses. The first restaurant we went to was Maxine’s on Shine upon my friend @Nick’s recommendation. We had heard that some restaurants don’t seem to appreciate the Magical Dining customers, but Maxine’s welcomed us with open arms. . Maxine’s is located in a downtown neighborhood (on Shine as the name indicates). Maxine’s has a fun, comfortable environment. The décor, staff and especially all of the food was amazing. To be honest, I almost didn’t want to post about how good it was because I didn’t want to let people in on it and have it overrun. . I decided to be fancy and have the caviar and chips as an appetizer. It was a perfect combination of savory with crunch complimented by the crème fraiche. Trinity had the mushroom and brie soup. I’m not sure how often she eats mushroom and brie soup, but she said this was one of the best versions she’s ever had. . For dinner I had the Chef’s Special Trout “Gravlax.” Trinity and I had just watched “Live to 100” on Netflix where one of the superfoods that many of the centenarian communities ate was purple yams. Guess what the trout came with? That’s right, purple yams. Not only are they a super food, they were super tasty. I’m not sure what they put in them, but the combination of them with the trout and tarragon sauce was phenomenal. Trinity had the Chef’s stuffed mushroom and shrimp special which was amazing as well. . Lastly, for dessert I had the Tiramisu as well as an Orange/Agave Liqueur. The Liqueur opened up my sinuses allowing for me to get the full taste of the decadent Tiramisu. . Maxine’s is one of the best, if not the best, restaurant I’ve ever been to. We went back again before Magical Dining ended and will be back again sometime soon. I didn’t get pictures of all of the food, since I hadn’t planned to do this to begin with. I’ll be posting our experience on Yelp and Google as well. . If you haven’t checked Maxine’s out, I highly...