Dining Out: Christmas Dinner at Maxim Restaurant

It's only my mom and I celebrating Christmas together this year, but we still upheld our annual tradition of Christmas dinner at Maxim this evening:

Jumbo prawn with avocado, aburi salmon, and mushroom arancini with seaweed and tobiko crab salads

Tournedos Rossini: Filet mignon with pan-seared foie gras on top of mashed potatoes with roasted vegetables and Madeira sauce

Totally satisfied with this year's menu. (There was also lobster bisque au Cognac for the soup course, but a bowl of brown soup looks really boring and isn't particularly photogenic, so there is no picture. But all you gotta know is that it was rich and full of delicious lobster flavour.) Their appetizer course is always interesting to me because it includes three of the most random selections, ever, and you wouldn't think they would be cohesive at all, but they're always really delicious. Speaking of which, I was pleasantly surprised that my steak was actually cooked such a perfect medium rare, because usually only steakhouses can keep the centre a full red instead of veering into pink. I'm also not usually a huge foie gras lover, but there's so little fat in filet mignon that the foie gras added a really nice buttery flavour and perfect creamy texture to the meat. The heart-shaped puff pastry on top was also a super cute touch.

Black sesame mousse cake

Hazelnut mocha mousse cake

Strawberry almond meringue cake

Of course, the main draw of the Christmas menu at Maxim is the all-you-can-eat cake buffet, which only occurs once a year. Maxim, while having a really decent and varied continental menu, is really known for their cakes. Both my mom and I have to watch our sugar intake, but we still managed to share three slices: the black sesame mousse, the hazelnut mocha mousse, and the strawberry almond meringue. Both mousse cakes were sadly really underwhelming — the black sesame literally had no flavour (I thought it was just me because I was also drinking coffee, but my mother confirmed that there really was no flavour), and the hazelnut mocha mousse had some flavour but literally did not taste like either hazelnut nor mocha (the best adjective I could use is "nut-milky"). The strawberry almond meringue saved the day, and is why it has been my go-to for the last 20 years. It just never disappoints.

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and got to eat as much as I did! 😁

Maxim Restaurant

Village Gate Plaza

9665 Bayview Ave.

Richmond Hill, ON L4C 9V4

(905) 883-1465