Restaurant review: BRASSERIE MAX (Covent Garden)

About two or three times a year, I deviate from my questionable practice of dining at mediocre restaurants using Groupon deals (and then absolutely destroying the dumps on my blog, and give patronage to restaurants which don't need deals in order to get custom. Although such an act (of paying full price for a meal) doesn't strike most as out of the ordinary, when I do, I always feel like Charli XCX, in that 'I'm so fancy', and it means I've gotten to eat at some pretty awesome places.

I had the Thanksgiving dish, which, given the time of year, I felt was apropos:

It was a pleasing dish. The potatoes were pleasingly crisps and the gammon was divine. The greens on the top were a nice bit of smoke and mirrors, but not enough to justify the hefty price. And finally, whilst the gravy was wonderfully tasty, there was nowhere near enough to dunk all the food in (what is it with places being so stingy with sauces these days?)

Whilst the meal tasted good, I quibble at the price: £22.50. The roast was of suitably high quality, going some way to justifying the lofty price tag, and the chefs certainly surpassed the minimum levels of efforts exerted at several of the restaurants I’ve visited using Groupon deals. But to be honest (and this is by no means a brag because as my blogs will attest to, I’m far from a great cook), the roasts that my brother and I make every year for our Christmas dinners are better.

Brasserie Max has a regal air about it, and it was nice to have waiters come round and offer you warm bread, but, let’s be real, most over-priced restaurants do that these days. Places like this are going to have to work a lot harder than just warm bread if they hope to retain my custom for the kind of prices they’re charging.

Grade: C