I booked Maha for my girlfriend's birthday based on reviews and that it was a cuisine that looked a bit interesting and different. We both eat out a lot, fine dining included, so we had plenty to compare it to.
My overall impression was that the food was mostly good, but the whole thing is not quite there. With a more professional service, and a polishing up of the dishes on offer, it could be 4.5.
Best Bits: The swordfish. The slow-cooked lamb. The cocktails. The smoked humous. The desserts.
Worst bits: The service. The scallops.
The Food:
We opted for the 4 course menu with matched wines (note that their is no a la carte option at Maha), which cost us around AUD $330 with the two cocktails we had at the start (which incidentally, were excellent).
The first course was a mezze platter, with cured swordfish, smoked humous with crispy lamb, potatoes with squid, caraway seed rolls and olives with a spicy dressing.
The cured swordfish was excellent. The taste was different, unlike any other dish I had had before and it was delicious.
I also really enjoyed the smoked humous. Everything else was good, not spectacular, but good enough.
Next up was lamb koftas with potatoes, and scallops in pastry.
This was my least favourite course, and for me there is no excuse for it. The scallops were overcooked and rubbery - the one thing you should NEVER mess up on as a restaurant serving scallops. Secondly, they were a bit...nothing - and I'm a huge fan of scallops in general. They didn't really fit in with the rest of the food, I couldn't taste any middle-eastern flavours, the pastry was fine, but just odd. Also, they were served on a bed of salt, in their shells, which I'd seen before several years ago in much lesser restaurants - it felt dated. The koftas were okay, a bit much on the salt and fat flavour - slightly pub food-esque. The potatoes they were served with were nice though.
Onto the main of slow cooked lamb shoulder with radishes & yoghurt, salmon served with roe and some sort of spicy rice, which I forget the name of. Served with Lebanese bread salad.
The lamb was delicious, but then what slow-cooked meat isn't? I do feel it would have benefitted from something different - it was just slow cooked lamb - no obvious spices coming through. It was something I could have achieved at home pretty easily, and this annoys me if I spend money eating somewhere nice. The salmon was okay, but it felt a little out of place. The rice was fine as a side dish. The bread salad tasted pretty good, well dressed with a good sharpness. However, I did feel it looked a bit...homely. Lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber in a bowl, even with crispy wafers of bread, hardly looks 'fine dining'.
Desert was basil ice cream with apricot and pepper jam and a dark chocolate pastry, donuts with turkish delight, and a lemon parfait.
I really enjoyed the desert. The basil ice cream and apricot & pepper jam stole the show, and the lemon parfait was delicious.
While the staff were happy to swap out the turkish delight filled donuts for my girlfriend who doesn't like turkish delight, the alternative seemed quickly thought up, stuffing the donuts with chocolate instead. This really didn't work well with the syrup they were served with. We asked to have a desert from one of the other menus, but this was refused. Which brings us onto...
The Service
The restaurant was certainly understaffed and very busy. The latter is a good sign, but it should never be at the expense of customers' experiences. We were rushed through the food menu, with minimal explanation of the dishes. We didn't feel relaxed, staff seemed stressed out, over worked and lacked that calm exterior even when things are busy. I felt they had little time for us, no one came over and asked "is everything ok? Can I get you anything else, sir?".
However, service times were ok (not great, but ok) - we had drinks within 15 minutes and food within 40 minutes of sitting down. As the restaurant emptied, we got more attention from the staff, but it was a case of too little too late - it was earlier when it mattered.
The wine waiter was...odd. The idea was of course, that if you opt for the matched wines, he comes over and tells you about each glass with each course - that's what happens in real fine dining restaurants (which this didn't feel like).
I genuinely believe he was drunk. Either way, he certainly isn't the guy to have a customer facing role, no matter how much he knows about wine. If he wasn't drunk, he appeared it. He actually stumbled into my arm on the way from the table, offering a muttered apology into the distance; plus he was slurring his words slightly as he spoke. He did successfully tell us about the wine, but lacked all finesse - we could have been in a bottle shop.
All in all, the service felt like a fine dining restaurant that was run by near-pub-level staff - they were perfectly pleasant, but just not at the level of professionalism required. It was ok, mostly decent food arrived at the table successfully, but it wasn't special and what I'd expect for the price. The fact that napkins were re-folded after you left your seat, and they were placed on your lap for you, suggested 'fine dining' was what they were going for, but they missed a lot of the obvious stuff.
I don't think I'd go back, not because it was terrible, but because I can eat better for the money in Melbourne. Plus a fixed menu means I'd be eating the same thing again (unless I just opted for more courses).
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