Nestled amongst many typical restaurant/hotels on the sois between Beach Road and Pattaya Second Road sits this, anything but typical, Italian coffee shop and hotel on soi post office. Often many of the small restaurants appear to be drab eateries that were built just to accommodate guest in the small hotels tht line the sois. Mr Max Italian restaurant is definitely not the same. At first glance, one notices a lovely ambience inside the restaurant. The tables are covered with red and white checkered tablecloths covered with white linen. The walls are nicely decorated and have a very good selection of wine cascading one wall.

The restaurant and hotel is owned and operated by Ermanno from Italy and his wife Ning. She has become a top-notch chef since while in Italy she went to Italian cooking school and also spent almost 10 years there learning the secrets of homemade Italian cooking from Ermanno's family whom have an extensive culinary background. There are no shortcuts here, as most of the ingredients used in the restaurant are either homemade or imported directly from Italy. Ning has mastered the art of Italian cooking and often is found in the tiny kitchen rolling out daily fresh dough making her pasta from scratch. Her homemade sauces are definitely superb and with Imported tomatoes from Italy, few restaurants can claim to be more authentic.

My three friends and I arrived for an early dinner and were starved and decided to select a buffet of items and and we'd share all ...sort of Italian style. We started with Cappucino Italy and Iced Coffee while pondering the menu. First up , we ordered an Antipasti with mixed salami and cheese and we each selected a soup. I chose the "Canadeli di Carne in Brodo" which had Italian bools of mixed bread, meat and vegetables while my friends all chose the "Minestrone Pasta e Fagioli". I opted for the "Gnocchi Verdi al Ragu" with spinach and bread bools with a meat bologna sauce. Another friend chose the "ravioli al Ragu" which is a delicious homemade pasta with meat stuffing and a bologna sauce. The other two guys chose "Lasagne alla Bolognese" also a dish with meat sauce and as we each got to try all the other dishes, we all agreed this was some of the best Italian home-cooking we have gotten here in Thailand but we couldn't resist trying the "Tiramisu" for dessert and it was delectable. There were so many other great looking dishes on the menu that included pasta and a whole world of seafood and fish that we agreed to come back soon to try some other dishes.

The restaurant offers a very good choice of wine, a full bar and most standard beer selections are also available. The restaurant is squeaky clean and we got a look at one of the guestrooms and like the restaurant it was a pleasant surprise. Each bathroom has the latest fixtures and updated amenities while the bedroom area has direct-dial telephone with Internet, remote TV, personal room safe, built-in mini-fridge with beautiful cabinetry & modern furniture plus marble flooring. Both the restaurant and their rooms are a good value and poffer the best quality available.

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