Happy New Year!

Well, another year has come and gone. And being the non-party type, we more or less slept through it.

New Restos:
Recently a couple of new places opened up in the neighborhood. I think they are owned and operated by the same people as they two restaurants are right next to each other. One is called Maxi Nouilles and the other Maxi Pho.

The noodle place was the first to open so we tried it their first weekend at the end of October. In general, the decor was modern, contemporary, not like some of the other more established asian food joints in the area. The menu was somewhat extensive, with the main focus on noodle dishes, of course.

Not sure what to order, we decided on one of their lunch specials which included soup, main entree, egg roll and rice. I ordered the singapore noodles and D ordered a rice noodle dish. Now something to take note of: why serve rice with noodles? Starch plus starch? It might be a good idea to subsititute the rice with something else. On top of that, D's rice noodles were not all cooked through. Service was very spotty as it seems that the wait staff were all over the place. I noticed that some people were not given menus once they were seated. Service needs to be more attentive and better organized.

A couple weeks ago we tried the Maxi Pho place which opened some time after Maxi Nouilles. Again, similar decor and menu with different soups and sides. We each ordered pho: D had the beef and I had a dac biet type pho. Again, the service was quite spotty. We saw a few people who wanted to pay and had trouble flagging down someone to pay. Again, people not getting menus soon after being seated. As for the food, the pho we had was pretty standard. I did not find anything special about it.

In summary, both places can stand a huge improvement in service. I'm not sure what sort of clientele they're trying to attract in the area, but if the service is not great, then don't expect too many returning diners of any kind!