Overdue Post 1: Max Brenner

Max Brenner thrives off of the creation of "chocolate culture" which holds chocolate to an elevated standard of purity and beauty. Check the website. And the decor. It's out of control.

There are also pipes running throughout the whole restaurant in Philly, purportedly carrying chocolate from the kitchen to mixing barrels on the restaurant floor. Zoe pointed out to Amy and me that the entire Max Brenner character is fake, despite the fact that his bald head was printed on every object in the restaurant.

Chocolate mania aside, the menu is incredible. Most of it consists of ultra-decadent desserts, though they also serve real food. To my surprise, the food was actually good. We shared a grilled chicken panini with goat cheese, spinach, tomato, and black olive pesto. The fries were tasty, too.

We may have consumed the other available panini as well (tomatoes, basil, mozzarella, aioli) but I don't have any photographic proof. Suffice to say it was pretty good, too.

But here comes the best part: DESSERT. We decided to go with the classics, and order fondue and a chocolate heart.

We ordered the warm trio chocolate and toffee caramel fondue, which came with banana bread, strawberries, bananas, and a little grill to roast marshmallows with. It was delectable! My picture of the entire fondue setup was overexposed, so content yourself with a picture of the grill.

The banana bread was moist and delicious on its own before being dipped in chocolate and caramel. And, while the strawberries were not in season, who could resist strawberries and dark chocolate?

We then ordered the red heart: a chocolate cake filled with molten chocolate and raspberry sauce. Oh, oh my.

Did you notice that it comes with creamy vanilla ice cream topped with a hard chocolate shell? That there's a dish of dipping raspberry sauce and yogurt?

They served us more sauce in the cutest, most scientific little food vessel I've ever seen.

I wanted to take it home with me.

We devoured these foods, and went home quite full, though with our pockets somewhat empty. I think it was about $70 for the three of us. We also decided that it was definitely worth doing again, with completely empty stomachs, with dessert only. After we had saved up some money.