Max Cafe in Santa Rosa, California: Restaurant Review

Max Cafe in Santa Rosa, California is owned and operated by the same guy that owns Taco Max (also in the mall.) It's tucked over at the southern entrance to the mall in between J.C. Penney and a little gift/novelty store called International Imports. It's a very small storefront with only limited seating at a few stools inside, but they've set up a number of tables outside the restaurant, and there never seems to be a crowd.

The menu is focused on healthy and organic ingredients, with the specialties of the house being sandwiches and smoothies. I did notice some less healthy fare about, however, such as "Mexican hot dogs" (street vendor style, with a slice of bacon wrapped around them!), cookies and popcorn. It's more of a snack stop, really, but you can get a decent light meal here for well under ten dollars.

You can grab an egg sandwich for breakfast, or a range of deli and panini sandwiches for lunch. All of these range from about $5 to $7. There's also a number of sweet treats such as empanadas for around $3 to $4. I've tried the egg sandwich on toast and a couple of the deli sandwiches, and I found them both decently tasty and well-prepared, but a little small and simple for the price being asked. They also have decent coffee in the morning.

Smoothies cost about $4.35 after sales tax, but are fairly large. These are also pretty simple, though, and there are limited combinations. There's about seven pre-fab smoothie combos named after various nations - the American, the Mexican, the Brazilian, etc. - and most are just a simple mix of fruits and ice, though the American features chocolate (with strawberry, banana and orange juice) and the Mexican features horchata mixed with banana and mango. To be honest I've found them all to taste pretty samey. I was hoping the chocolate and horchata would add an extra kick but I barely noticed them in both cases.

To be honest, I find the pricing a little high and am not exactly overwhelmed by the flavor or quality of anything on the menu. I'd describe pretty much everything I've tried here as "Meh, it's OK." In spite of that, I tend to stop here for a smoothie or some sweets pretty often, as they're the closest refreshment stop to the Coddingtown bus terminal by far, and there's a nice hour-long wait in between Sonoma County Transit buses if you happen to get there at the wrong time. Just stay away from the little drink cooler off to the right and back as you walk in. The prices aren't listed, and for good reason - $1.50 for a can of soda, $3.00 for a regular-sized bottle of Orangina, and so on. The $2.25 rip-off Vitamin Water machine outside actually seems like a good deal by comparison! I don't know if the price-jacking here is due to the mall rent, or just what the market will bear, but I'd really feel more favorable toward the place if the menu was priced a little more reasonably. There's still some good stuff to be found here, just keep a careful eye on the dollar amounts.