Max's World Café is a Hidden Issaquah Treasure

If you think you need to drive across a bridge to get spectacular food, you haven’t been to yet. Hiding behind a rather non-descript window on Front Street is some of the best food I’ve ever had – not just in Issaquah, but anywhere.

Chef Edna Noronha graduated as valedictorian of the CIA in 2006. That’s the Culinary Institute of America, our nation’s most prestigious cooking school. However, after you eat her cooking, you’ll think she’s from the other CIA, spying on her customer’s taste buds to get her flavors so right.

Edna is from Goa, and that means a Portuguese influence in addition to Indian. When the sign says “World Cafe,” it means it, with dishes ranging from curries to Portuguese custard tarts to fish tacos to African chicken.

The African chicken is a great dish. A half a bird is marinated for multiple days in a spicy piri sauce and then grilled in its skin. This is everything that chicken should be and seldom is: moist, flavorful, and addictive.

Edna will make recommendations for you as you go more frequently, which you will. Always listen to her. She knows which items are at the perfect point in their marinating cycle, and as she learns your preferences, she can personalize items. She serves her delectable lamb shank with couscous, but made it for my husband with a basmati rice pilaf instead, which made him so happy he did a little dance.

A warning: if you tell her that you like spicy food, expect her to take you very seriously.

I have two current favorites on her menu, which changes with the seasons. The chicken apple sausage Panini stars a thick house-made patty, some eggs, and Manchego cheese, and is one of the best things you will ever have the pleasure to put in your mouth. I like it with the spicy coleslaw.

And I cannot leave Max’s without that Portuguese custard tart. Baked fresh when you order it, this is the egg custard tart of Dim Sum taken to its Platonic ideal. Imagine crème brulee inside a pastry skin so light and flaky it makes a croissant seem crude.

There are no additives or preservatives here. Edna makes everything from scratch, including her hot sauces, which you can buy to bring home and make everything in your house taste better.

The only negative thing about Max’s is the size. To call it small does not get across how tiny it is. There are only three tables and a bar, and if more than one party of four shows up at the same time, one of them will be sitting in the kitchen. Literally.

But that won’t be a bad thing either. You’ll have a charming conversation, and you’ll find out who Max is (Edna’s German Shepard). No matter where you sit, you’ll feel like you’re in a friend’s house having a home cooked meal.

Well, if you had a friend that happens to be one of the best chefs in the Northwest.