Deck on Maximo Cocina Mexicana - Dallas Restaurant Review

This week I find myself in Dallas for work.  Ok, not quite in Dallas, but out in the 'burbs in Addison.  When we met up with our work colleagues for dinner, we suggested Mexican or Barbeque since these are things that aren't as common in Seattle.  After a little discussion we decided on Mexican and headed over to Maximo Cocina Mexicana which happened to be conveniently located near the Hilton where we are staying.

As we walked up, the first thing I noticed was that it was a little fancier than I had anticipated (maybe it was my preconceived notion of "Mexican" and "Texas").  I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans and felt that I was a little underdressed.  The door was a very large, very heavy wooden door that opened into a little foyer.  On the right was a nice, swanky looking bar, and on the left was a very open dining room.  For some reason, the outdoor seating was not available at this time.  We took our seat and started looking through the menu.

While we were deciding on our drinks, a tray with three different salsas and a batch of tortilla chips arrived.  Before diving in, we pretty much unanimously decided on margaritas, especially after we were told that it was a homemade recipe that simply included lime, alcohol free triple sec and one other ingredient that shamefully I cannot remember.  After the waiter left, we dove into the chips.  They were very nice and crispy, more in the form of strips, and appeared to be tortillas that were placed into a fryer and then lightly salted which made them quite crispy and tasty.  The salsas ended up being a bit of a surprise.  On the right, was a sauce that I had thought would be more of a salsa verde, but ended up being very sweet; made with pineapple, ginger and tomatillo.  The middle salsa was more expected, an ancho chile based traditional salsa.  And on the left was one that I thought was an avocado crema type sauce, but ended up being jalapeno with a little kick.  It was unexpected and a very good start to the meal.

After snacking on chips and salsa, our drinks arrived.  Mine ended up being a hot margarita (apparently things got mixed up) meaning that it had some jalapeno pieces in it to add heat.  The thing is that they weren't muddled in any way, and were just finely diced peppers with no seeds or veins, so really didn't add any flavor, and was a little annoying.  My second one later I made sure was just a regular margarita which was much better.  For dinner, after much deliberation, I decided to go with what they called the Pollo Al Mole.  I was a little nervous because the only mole I've had to date was at Rick Bayless' Frontera Grill in Chicago and when I asked if it was a traditional mole poblano, I didn't really get a yes/no answer that I was expecting.

To satiate us while waiting for the food (which took like 20-30 minutes to arrive) we also got some guacamole.  It was made tableside for us with just some avocado, lime, tomatoes and jalapenos.  It was ok, but I'm also not a huge guacamole fan, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.  It definitely wasn't something that was going to convert me to a guacamole fan.  When the meals finally arrived, I was ready to dive in.  It looked and smelled good with the mole served over the top of some rice and the corn tortillas on the side.  The mole was actually pretty good and pretty flavorful.  There wasn't one flavor that really jumped out at me, but the whole thing work together to have sort of a mild but rich flavor.  Unfortunately I was a little let down by the chicken which was very dry and couldn't even be saved by the mole.  Also, I couldn't really tell if the tortillas were handmade, but the flavor was reminicent of those that I've purchased before.

The restaurant was definitely more along the lines of traditional Mexican (or at least what I understand to be traditional Mexican) which was different than I had expected.  And the food was good, but considering that my baseline is the Frontera Grill, Maximo started the night behind the 8-ball, and just wasn't able to push past.  Next time in Texas, I think I'd like to go more in the direction of Tex-Mex rather than traditional Mexican; looking for a little more spice and heat.  Overall, I wasn't underwhelmed, but neither was I overwhelmed.  Just kind of middle of the road.

Final Verdict - 3.5 Stars