Maximo — Restaurant in West University Place

Maybe i just don’t get it but my friend and I had a downright lame experience here. First of all atmosphere is great, the interior is stunning especially the bar. While waiting for our table we got spicy margaritas which were definitely good. First sin - you have to pay extra for chips and they’re called “baked tostadas.” I get that you’re trying to be authentic and everything but please get real I know Local Foods grp owns this place. Also like 6 chips came in the basket. We then proceeded to order queso, right after the waiter had asked if we had any dietary restrictions. I told him vegetarian. He did not deign to mention that the only queso was shrimp queso. I mistakenly assumed they could do it without shrimp, or that he would tell me if they couldn’t. No such luck. And we didn’t get guacamole because it was $14 which I still think is crazy even though guacamole is apparently getting more expensive everywhere. Either way it was just us two college girls and we weren’t trying to blow our whole meal on appetizers. Shrimp queso comes. I try to like it because I do occasionally eat seafood. I can’t. My friend who does eat meat and shellfish also doesn’t like it. If you’re trying to be authentic or whatever, just don’t have queso IMO instead of putting shrimp in it and ruining it. Also it was flameado style which…Everyone knows is not as good. Ok next we order. My friend gets tacos i’m not sure which ones. I get the cauliflower asada. We also got frozen margaritas. When our food arrives, her tacos are tiny. Like laughably tiny. For the price of a whole entree there is no way that’s enough food. She did say they were good though. My cauliflower asada…….So disappointing. It was basically just a plate of vegetables with “asada”/charred flavor but NO OTHER FLAVOR. And it was one huge cauliflower mountain. When i’ve had cauliflower steaks they’ve usually been cut to be flat because that way they’re easier to eat and you can actually get flavor over the whole vegetable. This was incredibly hard to eat and once you got past the smoke outer layer it was just plain flavorless cauliflower, not even tender or well cooked. The rest of the plate was just vegetables. Typically if you’re going to do a vegetarian entree you should probably add a grain and an actual protein so the eater does not feel like they just wasted their time and money eating straight up vegetables. Just because we don’t eat meat doesn’t mean we ONLY want vegetables!! I had been excited about the fact that they had veggie options but tbh i can have a much better vegetarian meal at any Tex Mex restaurant. Anyway the nail in the coffin was that our frozen margs were sickeningly sweet and legit made us both feel awful. It was a gross bloated sick feeling, the kind i get from drinking syrupy concentrate margaritas in North Carolina where I go to school, which I never do because it’s a gross feeling. I know it wasn’t the food because god knows we didn’t eat enough to make us feel full. Also during this whole time our waiter was checking in on the table next to us so much. I don’t know if they were famous or something but even when we were trying to get his attention he would check on them and walk right past us. I promise we are nice and normal looking. Side note i am not one to complain or write reviews usually but our experience was actually so disappointing I started compiling my review while we were still there. I don’t see how this place will last unless they are able to capitalize on the West U crowd alone. It’s not good Tex Mex at all and I know that’s not the point but it’s not good Mexican either. If you want Mexican fine dining go to Xochi, which is Mexican owned...

I went to this restaurant for a work happy hour and "going away" gathering for a colleague. I had high expectations given the numerous good reviews and reputation of the Local Foods group, which I am a frequent customer. I was overall disappointed by my experience. The food was good yet not worth raving about, but the service and professionalism was honestly appalling for a place of this reputation. The manager Josh was notably rude and disrespectful from beginning to end, and several of us had separate complaints and incidents regarding him by night's end. First, upon making the reservation for a 15-20 party group, the manager requested a $500 guaranteed payment for our group (for happy hour). When we said we would just go elsewhere because we were uncertain of how many would actually attend, they redacted that request and asked us to come anyways. They then allowed us 3 tables outside at 4pm, and when we saw they were in the sun and requested shaded tables, the manager made a big to-do about it, even though we were quite literally the only customers at the time. He then made stipulations that we needed to pay 1 check per table and not split the bills, although they were taking our orders on tablets which we all know easily divide checks. The entire time, the manager is coming out, asking us not to crowd the entrance, making us feel like a complete inconvenience to his restaurant, despite the fact that there were 3-5 other customers max from the 4-6pm hour while we are there. We are not at all a rowdy crowd, we were a group of healthcare providers sitting respectfully at our tables and chatting at a casual outdoor patio during HH. We very well would've spent much more time and money there had he not been so rude. To end the night, he then came out and spoke ill of his server to us, asking about her performance then telling us she is new and struggling. While quite honestly, she was the highlight of the entire experience. The waitress Brianna was professional, kind and extremely talented. I only rated service 2/5 due to the manager alone.

In Houston, there are so many wonderful restaurants with incredible food and service at every price point. Especially of the Mexican variety. I believe you are better off spending money at another establishment where you will eat excellent food and be treated with respect. I am always willing to spend money when a business shows me that my patronage is valued, and this manager's professionalism speaks volumes. So disappointing from a Local...

I have recently just gone to Maximo for the first time since they revamped their menu with the advent of a new chef for the restaurant. It was quite good!

Great service, servers knew their menu, were fast on drink refills, had answers for questions about the food.

Beverage was a raspberry hibiscus iced tea, does come with refills. Quite tasty, had a nice sharp flavor, added a bit of brown sugar to taste from the sweeteners they brought out with the tea.

I was indulging a bit, so instead of just sticking to brunch I tried an appetizer that's outside my usual wheelhouse in the form of their Roasted Oysters appetizer. I loved the garlic butter mingled with the other seasonings enough to bypass my usual aversion to the texture of oysters, which is personal thing. These were well done oysters, it's just oysters are not my personal preference in seafood. The menu description sounded enticing enough I wanted to try them at least once, however.

The main meal was a Masa Eggs Benedict. They use a modified hollandaise sauce, making it mole style, which adds a hint of bitter chocolate taste and richness to the sauce. Eggs were perfect, being just nice and gooey and oozing over the restaurant made masa cornbread. They use the same masa flour in their tortillas as well. Sliced up short rib was the main protein under the eggs, quite delicious when mixed with said eggs.

Final indulgence I had with this visit was a tres leche. EXCELLENT dessert. The tres leche sponge was properly saturated with milk, looking like a normal cake until you pushed down on it with a spoon, at which point milk would seep out of the cake. It's easy to oversaturate a tres leche, in my opinion, which leads to it getting soggy, and they avoided that nicely, with exactly enough milk. The cake was topped with a brown sugar glaze and a light cream that was then topped by a seasonal jam, which in this case was a strawberry compote. Pretty much nailed the dessert in my opinion!

Their new hours are late afternoon and weekends only, which actually avoids the main issue with the location by avoiding the traffic caused by being across from West University Elementary.

Seating was comfortable, there is a patio out front for exterior dining when the weather is nice, friendly staff. All in all, I had quite the good weekend...