Tuesday, August 20, 2013

HRW: Max's Wine Dive

After some digging, I realized that Max's Wine Dive's  HRW menu is gluten free friendly, so we decided to give that a shot.
 This is their Watermelon Crouton salad, it has arugula, onion, feta cheese, and cubed watermelon with vinaigrette, a very seasonal salad.  I can do without the peanut type thing sprinkled on top though.
 This is their Pulled Pork Stuffed Pepper.  I does have a little kick to it, but it is pretty good.  I wouldn't mind just eating more of it.
 Here's the reason for going: their gluten free Fried Chicken.  While the server didn't know what the batter was, we were assured that it is gluten free because the owner is sensitive and that was the drive behind having more dishes gluten free.  Urm... ok.  It is very hard to convince people with gluten allergy that you don't know but you are pretty sure, as more and more people gets pretty severe reaction with allergies these days.
Since none of their dessert options were gluten free, we just opted for ice cream, which came with every one of their dessert options.  Figured that can't hurt right?!  It turned out to be pretty decent.  The ice cream featured here is from Cloud 10, which was slated to open during summer time in the Village, but as yet, it is still being worked on.  If you like more of Cloud 10, you can also have their dessert at Kata Robata.

For HRW and Sundays, you really need to make a reservations for dinner.  We went and they were not able to accommodate, so we sat at the 'patio'.  Which means, you're sitting in front of the store front, where cars are being valet or smokers hang outs.  

We also felt that just because we sat outside, not only do we have to tolerate the horrible music selection that no one inside can hear, but we can hear it blasting; we also felt like the server tend to neglect us because we're the only table outside, while most of his tables are inside.  On couple occasions we ended up going in ourselves to tell the server to get us our check and start the next course, while the bust boys/runners come out and check on us more than the server did.  That was just odd.  Another reason sitting outside doesn't pay, not to mention the carbon dioxide we inhale being in front of the valet.  

Lastly, if you bother to be gluten friendly on the HRW menu, they need to pay attention to have a GF option in every course.  Basically, they have an option in every course except dessert.  So you felt like you're going with the prix fixe and paying the full price but not being able to take advantage of all the courses.  In that case, ordering off the menu is easier.

Max's Wine Dive
4720 Washington Ave
at Shepherd
Houston, TX 77007
713-880-8737
http://www.maxswinedive.com/houston-washington-ave/

1 comment: