Max & Erma’s

We walked in and was greeted by a server acting as hostess. We asked for a booth and she said that she’s going to have to turn her duties over to the actual hostess. The hostess said it would be five minutes. As we sit in the lobby, another waitress says it’s our time to be seated. Five minutes turned into 10 seconds.
We sat down at a sticky table. We asked about it — however — it was the way it was ‘finished’ so it was something that couldn’t be changed. At least our menu didn’t slide around.
The waiter came to take our order and we asked how he was doing. He responded «do you really want to know or do you want my fake answer?» We, of course, couldn’t wait to hear what he had to say. He said «I feel like jumping off a cliff. It’s one of those kind of nights. I can’t wait to get out of here and drunk and get blacked out. Like, really blacked out.» We were stunned.
We knew what we wanted — so we ordered our food with our drink order. My other half got the three-​course combo: a salad, cheeseburger/​fries, and a chocolate chip cookie. I got a specialty cheeseburger with a garlic spread and bacon marmalade with fries.
Our food actually came pretty fast — in comparison to other restaurants.
My burger was okay. Not as good as I thought — although I really liked the garlic spread. The bacon marmalade had onions in it. Blah. Not my favorite. She thought her burger was alright.
We both agreed that the «seasoned fries» were not seasoned at all. They just sprinkled pepper on them. Not delectable at all.
Then, came the most aggravating part of the evening.
Before we got our food, on one of the server’s stops at our table, I let him know that I signed up for their Max & Erma’s card. He said I got a free cookie for it and that he’d bring it out with my other half’s chocolate chip cookie.
OVER THIRTY MINUTES LATER and after a half-​dozen updates on the cookie still being «in the oven», we got our cookies. It was embarrassing. We were just staring at our used plates and dishes that hasn’t been picked up. All for cookies. We wanted to leave but he couldn’t ring us up until we got all of our food.

Stopped in last Thursday (¹⁰⁄₂₉) after shopping at the mall with my wife and they had $ 5 cheeseburgers w/​fries. (it’s a customer appreciation promo on Thursdays) I was a little sceptical to say the least. Wow was I wrong! What a great burger for only $ 5! The service was pretty fast and our drinks were never empty so, I am not sure about the posts about slow/​bad service. Overall I wiould go back again.

This place isnt that bad nor is it the overall best. its a great place to go when you want some american food, nice ambience too.
I do like that it is close by to Great Lakes Crossing though.
Its convenient, but not the fastest of service.

The service is consistently slow and the food is not very high quality. I went three times and had the same experience so I’ll probably take another option from now on. The cookies are darn good though.

The typical mediocre service at this Max and Ermas, but the food is above average, and we always get the tray of cookies. Plan on 60 – 75 minutes at dinner time for the service and meal.
A fair meal for the price, considering it is a bit of an upscale burger/​sandwich restaurant.

This location used to be really good — I am not sure what happened. We came in on a slow night… Only a dozen or so cars in the parking lot. I ordered the sirloin steak well done and received it still very pink. I sent it back and it still came back pink — it was really chewy this time too as throwing meat back on the grill doesn’t usually work very well. I also tried the asparagus on the side and it tasted okay, but wasn’t really cooked as it should have been. It still seemed kind of raw and barely cooked at all. My wife had chicken and asparagus — her chicken seemed to be cooked well, but her asparagus was much the same. The chicken wing appetizer was very tasty. We also had cups of tortilla soup — in the past we would receive a cup full of soup with a couple tortilla strips on top. This time we received about half a cup of soup with a ton of tortilla strips on top — I prefer more soup and less strips. Not a good visit this time.

The steak fajita I had was terrible. I have also had their «new» hand breaded chicken fingers a week ago and they were also terrible.

We left Without anybody taking our drink order after waiting 10 – 15 mins. The place was dead. It was at 9pm at night. We got up and walked out. The hostess didn’t seem to care.

My kids want to go here because of that bathtub sundae bar death trap!
Beyond that this is one of my least favorite places.
Our last experience was not a winner either.
Service is generally fair. Never great. I always hold out hope for a super happy friendly helpful wait staff person. You know the kind that generally seems happy to be employed there. Not sure if that will ever happen.
I’ve said before that I’m a vegetarian. No surprise that my options can be limited. Here is worse.
There veggie burger is a standard store bought chipotle black bean, spicy burger. I don’t like burnt and spicy. So that leaves me veggies and salad.
The last time I got asparagus is was chewy and wilted.
The hummus app with veggies had cucumbers that were almost turned and carrots that were limp with no crunch.
Frankly their produce scares me.
Now while that may be the case this location has served mediocre food to my family regardless of what was ordered.
Our last experience was rather pathetic though.
Kids ordered kids meals… we always put their order in first no matter where we go.
My hubs ordered fish and chips and I ordered the wedge salad with the dressing on the side.
All food came at the same time and there was my salad covered in dressing.
So I send it back. This, to me, is not a big deal. I’m a easy going kinda gal… normally.
So my family is eating and I’m waiting.
And waiting
And waiting
And then my family is done with their meals and I’m still waiting.
Now if you have ever had the wedge salad you know it’s a corner of an iceberg lettuce with some carrots and cucumber dropped on it. It’s supposed to have bacon, I always skip that no surprise.
This is not a difficult dish to make. It should have taken no more than 3 minutes to make a new one.
When I finally catch the eye of our waitress she has no clue that the service person who brought our food did nothing about my salad. But our waitress didn’t check back on us after our food was delivered either or she would have known.
So off she goes to find my salad.
At that point I could almost care less if I ate and told my husband. But he reminded me of the death tub and the kids and our promise of ice cream after dinner tonight… ugh!
My salad finally showed up and I ended up eating while the kids had dessert.
A manager of some sort stopped by to ask how things were and I shared my dismay. He apologized a lot and offered 10% off the bill. Kinda lame since it didn’t even cover the cost of my «salad» but like I said before this is so not a place I like to go.
If we visit here 3 times a year, that’s a lot. I avoid it as much as i can. If it weren’t for the kids I would probably never step foot in this location.

I liked it. Let’s get this out of the way… it’s a chain… that typically means consistency, so I’m okay with that!
On a late lunch I was told I could grab any seat at the bar (as a solo). The very cute bartender (Kitty) was friendly, personable, and made great eye contact. She recommended the Tortilla Soup, and the burgers. She also told me it was free cookie day!
First… Free cookies? Hell Yeah! And the fact that it’s the first thing you order (although I didn’t), makes me think they are cooked fresh to order for your dessert! BONUS STAR!
Second… Tortilla Soup… trying to watch the carbs… this was Cheese Soup Supreme… this is the reason I watch carbs… to enjoy stuff like this (of course, I left the tortilla strips out)… but this is not Dean Fearing’s recipe (which is more broth like), but I enjoyed it immensely!
Then the burger. If you’re going to call it THE BEST CHEESEBURGER IN AMERICA, you’d better come strong. They didn’t. Only one cheese? C’mon?
However… it was thick, and not too dry (but not too moist either). It had a great pan-​fry char on it, and could’ve used a little more seasoning… but all in all, NOT A BAD BURGER! However, you get expectations that high… you’d better deliver!
So… recap… good service, good food… knowing what to expect walking in…
3.5 Stars (rounded down b/​c of Best in America, plus Bonus star)… gives us 4 SOLID STARS!

Max and erma’s is always loud when I go to the Adams one, this one was very pleasant. I went alone and I ordered the cheese skewers and the double crusted chicken pot pie. Everything was FANTASTIC the side salad was fresh, the chicken pot pie was like gravy lava (in a good way!) and the cheese skewers were still a little melty but still edible. My server was Jeff and he was super friendly, he didn’t ask what cookies I wanted (I went on free cookie Wednesday) so he brought me one of all three, score! I left him a $ 22 tip for a $ 21 meal. He deserves it!

Okay. I used to work here for like three months. I had never been there before I worked there and I live right down the road from it… Tells you something right there… You either get a good waiter or a bad waiter. They give free cookies on Wednesday. The food I realized is good… Until you don’t work for them. Then you get tiny salads… A couple of fries. It’s never a first choice to say the least.

the staff wasn’t so friendly. and the food takes forever. also a little bit pricey

We were pretty much the only people in the restaurant, and our food took forever. My sister found a hair in her salad. Sorry no amount of gift cards can fix that. I won’t be going back here again.

A group of 8 of us came here for a girls chit-​chat dinner. The waitress accommodated every single one of us (some were more pains in the asses than others), props to her. Drinks were flowing and we managed to get some in as part of their happy hour. I got the Wedge Salad and Chicken Tortilla Soup, both were great. One girl ordered a shrimp sandwich but ended up getting a cod sandwich? She still ate it, no worries there. One absolutely hated a drink she ordered and the waitress kindly removed it off of her bill and brought her something else. She even brought us warm breadsticks to snack on (which isn’t customary). We stayed there for around 3 hours and were not rushed at all to get another party in there. The only downside. the thermostat. For 10 minutes, it was 90 degrees, then for the next 10 minutes it was 50 degrees in there. The whole night was coats on girls. coats off girls. I think I had a sampling of what menopause might be like.

Not a bad place not a great place. Most food is pretty good but you can occasionally find something that is pretty poor like the chili i had tonight that tasted like chili con carne out of a can. But the santa fe salad was good and the cookie which is free on wed nite was great

Sad! The staff is horribly unmotivated. Tortilla soup is still amazingly good, though not very healthy

A little on the dirty side. Slow service. No enough good beers. Food was okay.

Good food but a little too much of an intimate lighting for a family restaurant. Turn up the lights!

I don’t think I’ve been so satisfied with a lunch until I dined at this Max & Ermas recently.
As mentioned, they definitely do have the BEST chicken tortilla soup-​EVER! I also ordered the village salad (mixed greens, almonds, blue cheese, bacon) – delicious! I’ve never been so full off of a soup and salad lunch. My sis also raves about their burgers– «They have the best burgers!»
I think what really set this meal off was the warm chocolate chip cookie… Mmmmm Mmmm — I think I licked my fingers with all that gooey warm chocolate-​and I never do that!-I’m a lady ;-)