Quick - Name three locations where you can easily find good restaurants close together in the Triangle area. Let's see... Glenwood... Franklin St... Chapel Hill Rd. in Cary?
We had heard of Maximillian's - apparently fresh seafood, creative chef. While on our way to our ol' standby sushi place, Little Tokyo, we noticed a lot of nice cars in a lot along Chapel Hill Rd in Cary. Strange, as most of that area looks like little industrial companies. Past the trees, we realized that we had finally gotten around to bumping into Maximillian's. Not quite dressed for the former, we swung around back to Terra Nova, an apparent sister restaurant that was originally billed as a tapas place.
A restaurant so far off the beaten path, packed with people inside - we were definitely excited to try Terra Nova. The hostess/waitress filled us in that both restaurants were owned by the same person, and that the original tapas theme had gradually transformed into a tapas + other entrees. As such, we are guessing that the two restaurants are similar, but with Terra Nova a bit more casual than the more upscale appearing Maximillian's.
The pizza was recommended to us; it's always hard to resist lamb chops, and we just had to try the pecan crusted sea bass. The pizza was good, though it is still hard to go to a nice restaurant to order pizza. Brixx is probably a more satisfying pizza experience. The lamb chops were delightful - cooked perfectly medium, but not quite the experience we had at Parizade's. The pecan crusted sea bass was also wonderful, with a not-overdone texture combined with the pecan crust that only served to accent (and not hide) the wonderful flavor of the sea bass. Wow! Definitely worth going back to... and we can't wait to try Maximillian's. We'd probably stick to the seafood, however.
Terranova
8306 Chapel Hill Rd
Cary, NC 27513
(919) 461-3882
