Max's Harvest- Pineapple Grove, Delray Beach

A couple weeks ago, my Grandpa and Grandma joined my family for diner at a restaurant called Max's Harvest. Prior to our visit, we had heard great reviews, so we figured we had to try it ourselves. When we pulled up the address, we found out that it was right next door to The Grove, a great restaurant on Pineapple Grove in Delray. (Go check out my review on it!) Anyways, once we arrived at Max's Harvest, I could tell it was a bit different.

My AWESOME Mac and Cheese!

There were spaces for windows, but there were no windows there. The staff used that as an open passageway to get from the inside tables to the outside ones.  Because of this, the restaurant has a very open atmosphere, and I found it really cool! Once we sat down and were looking through our menus, I noticed something on the  very bottom of the menu. It said that all of the ingredients used to prepare the food at Max's Harvest are always fresh from the farm, not store bought, and all of the animals are given the best care possible. I was really happy to see that, because in today's world, there are so many foods that are beginning to be genetically modified, and it makes them very unhealthy for us, and the consumers would never even know. Kudos to you, Max's Harvest!

   As I looked through the menu, I found a few things that I thought sounded really good! Apparently all the members in our group had found a few things as well, although most of them were appetizers. We decided to order and split a bunch of appetizers and ended up getting one Deviled Heritage Hen Farm Eggs, one Heritage Meatballs, one Local Ricotta Gnocchi, and one Smoked Gouda and Pancetta Mac and Cheese. I was most looking forward to the Mac and Cheese. After waiting for only a few minutes, our food came out, and it smelled great! It

That Crispy Risotto Cake!

took all the willpower I had not to just take the Mac and Cheese and run. Luckily, I was able to withstand the impulse to take it and run, because there was another good treat in store for me soon. Not wanting to eat all of the Mac and Cheese and leave none for everybody else, I opted to try the gnocchi first. To tell you the truth, I wasn't impressed at all by the gnocchi. At first, I really thought I was going to like it, but I really didn't. The gnocchi was huge, and there were only a few of them. The sauce was kind of bland, and didn't really add to the flavor profile. Not Max's Harvest's best work. On the other hand, the Heritage Meatballs were pretty good! The meat was very delectable, and pretty juicy, too! The tomato sauce that the meatballs was submerged in was very good. It had a bold flavor, and you could just tell that the sauce was meant to be with those meatballs. Before this visit, I had never had deviled eggs before, but at the dinner table, my grandma convinced me to try one. I didn't really have any expectations for it, so I guess it was ok. It wasn't something I would go back for, but I did sort of like it. It was pretty salty, and was sort of tangy. The rest of our group really liked them but like I said, I thought it was just ok. Wanting to save what I felt would be the best for last, I finally tried the Smoked

Gouda and Pancetta Macaroni and Cheese. This Mac and Cheese was totally worth the wait. The gouda made a really rich cheese sauce for the dish, and the pancetta added a great smoky flavor. Over all, I would definitely come back for this dish, and it was certainly my favorite one of the night. Because we liked the appetizers so much, we made a group decision to go for another round of them, minus the gnocchi and adding two dishes of the Mac and

Those heavenly frites!

Cheese. I made sure that it was clear that one of the Mac and Cheese's was all mine!  

We also ordered the Crisp Parmesan Risotto Cake, the Scallops & Grits, The Parmesan Truffle Frites (French for french fries) and "THE Burger."  I didn't eat a lot of these because I was so excited about having more mac and cheese.  I did try the Risotto Cake and I ate a bunch of the Frites.  As the menu says, the Risotto Cake was nice and crispy on the outside and the inside was really tasty and gooey.  It came in a tomato pepper sauce that I really liked and had some mushrooms, carrots and zucchini with it.  I didn't try the scallops or burger but my parents both said the scallops were excellent and my Grandpa enjoyed his burger a lot. I absolutely loved my fries, and would've ordered another basket of them if I wasn't so full after these ones! The fries had some really great cheese on them, and it made it taste like a baked potato! The truffle oil was heavenly, so I guess this was a basket of portable baked potatoes made in heaven!

All in all, I really liked Max's Harvest. The staff was great, the food was mostly awesome, and the atmosphere really separated this place from many others. I strongly suggest going to Max's Harvest!

As always, I will be rating the places I go on my Cookie Counter Scale of Cookieness, with one being burnt, old, stale oatmeal raisin cookie nastiness, and ten being a warm, gooey, perfect chocolate chip (my favorite) cookie. My Cookie Counter ratings for Max's Harvest are:

Food: 8.5 cookies

Atmosphere: 8.5 cookies

Service: 9 cookies

Max's Harvest Website: http://maxsharvest.com