Max Restaurant

09/16/09

Best Italian in NYC

by scottie78 at Citysearch

This little hole in the wall Italian restaurant is fantastic. A rustic, down-to-earth, no reservation needed home cooked place that serves phenomenal pasta. You need to come hungry because they serve large bowls.

• Pros: Great spaghetti and meat sauce
• Cons: Only takes cash

02/02/09

Good food, rude waiter!

by karps at Citysearch

Four of us had dinner at Max Restaurant on Saturday night, and while the food was pretty good, our waiter was incredibly and unnecessarily rude. we were seated under a speaker and asked VERY NICELY to turn down the music a little bit, the waiter said "no. we play loud music"

a little later, when the music had become even louder, the hostess responded to my plea and turned it down, only to have the same waiter turn it up even louder than before! we left soon after, and took our business (dessert and more wine) elsewhere.

also, there were candles sitting on a sideboard, and we use one to read the menu then left it on our table. the waiter came over and told us we had just created a fire hazard!! how this was any more dangerous than having a flame inches from a wooden shelf made no sense, but it was the way we were treated, like children who had to be slapped on the hand, which was offensive.

this had been my first time at Max and nearly every interaction with the personnel (with the exception of the gentleman refilling our water glasses!) was unnecessarily contentious. needless to say, i'm not going back.

• Pros: food is simple and straight-forward
• Cons: very loud music, rude waiters

01/13/09

NEVER AGAIN!

by puiyin1031 at Citysearch

We walked into a fairly empty restaurant on a Monday evening. The hostess tried to seat the 3 of us in the back by the bar & next to the bathroom. When we asked if we could sit in the front room instead (which was empty!), she shot us a dirty look & squeezed the 3 of us into a tiny table for 2. The steamed asparagus w/proscuitto appetizer consisted of 4 measly sprigs of cold asparagus wrapped in bland, dry proscuitto. Pasta entrees were way too salty, I probably drank 8 glasses of water while I was there. My friend's steak was tough to chew & dry. We thought maybe the dessert would be their redeeming dish for the night..but no way! The tiramisu was horrible. It was obvious it was prepared days ago & was just sitting there with a goopy consistency. The ladyfingers were hard & stale. Waiters were rude. This place was a good standby in years past, but after this recent visit, NEVER AGAIN!!!

• Cons: No longer cheap, food gone downhill, rude service, awful kitschy decor.