Max’s Delicatessen

This was the most inconsistent meal I have had in a long time. I was in a party of 5. We ordered the Alpine Burger (medium), the regular Burger (well-​done), a Chili Cheese dog with fruit, a Turkey Rachel with sweet potato fries, and a pastrami with latkes. They put a basket of celery, carrots and quick pickles on each table.
Things we love–
1) the quick pickles with a lot of taste.
2) the burgers were fresh made patties and seasoned well, good toppings in generous quantity
3) the sweet potato fries– very good even if you don’t love these normally, they dust them with just a tad of cinnamon and sugar. I never order sweet potato fries but would from here.
Things we didn’t–
1) the pastrami was frozen per the waitress and serves so plain! Meat and bread only. What the heck?!
2) the Turkey Rachel was DISGUSTING! Thank god I didn’t order it bc I would have sent it back. The guy who did said it was «ok». The turkey was frozen. Why would u do that?!
3) the latkes were frozen but served with a very tasty applesauce.
The concept of this deli is good but the application is simply terrible. I would only come back for the burgers. Avoid any of the sliced meats as it seems they are all frozen and then warmed up. Overall, I would recommend this place with great reservations.

I read reviews on this place and it sounded great. There is nobody here except me. Thursday at 5:30 pm, dinner time. Other places in this strip mall are busy. Ordered the club sandwich, it is warm as are the steak fries. It is good, but not the best I’ve had. I’m surprised they stay open with the lack of business.

Good service can make or break a restaurant probably more than the food does. Food here was OK but not great and definitely overpriced for what it was. The service though was atrocious. Not rude just incompetent and totally uninterested, from wrong order to wrong check brought out to a 30 minute wait while waitress did God knows what with my credit card to no refills … Just dismal service and very mediocre food. It used to be so great here too. Add to my «never to return» list.

Finally decided to give a try.
No wait seating. Order taken promptly and arrived quickly.
Probably the best Hot Pastrami I have ever had. Very reminiscent of a New York deli.
Only 2 things will prevent me from coming back regularly.
1. Too far from my office to become part of my lunchtime rotation.
2. Price — $ 17 for a sandwich and a non-​alcoholic beverage including tip
If you are in the area and stick to the specials, I could see going back, just don’t expect to see me

It has been a while since I have been to Max’s. But with many trips when I worked on that side of town, I know exactly what my star feeling would be coming away. I always had a good meal here. It is typically pretty packed but never a long wait. This is the closest thing we have to a real New York Deli in Birmingham. You start off with veggies and ranch as a freebie and all the usual suspects are there: Pastrami, Rueben’s, and even some tongue. Their burgers are good and you can get some MASSIVE one’s. I never had anything that wasn’t good.
They can fill any range of appetite and everything is good. A bit on the pricey side, but good. The one complaint I have is the one interaction a group of us had with the owner. We bought some kind of deal that when you spent X amount of money, you got X amount of giftcards… or something along those lines. Well our waiter accidentally gave us one of the cards we were owed, and the other one we were owed to the wrong table. What should have been an easy fix ended up in the owner refusing to make it right. As I remember, some sort of compromise was worked out. But it took a LOT of arguing back and forth. I won’t let that one experience ruin my overall outlook because the food is that good. But I just hope I never have to deal with that again.

Craving a Reuben sandwich, we pulled up at 6 pm on a Wednesday night and there were no cars. Shoulda been a clue. Service was perfunctory at best. When we asked about beverages the server didn’t even mention that there were some canned Dr Brown soft drinks in addition to the fountain Coke products. Celery sticks served with ranch dressing after we sat down were rubbery and stringy. «Famous Reuben» advertised on a chalkboard tasted like the meat had been microwaved before going on the grill. Not enough kraut, dressing was bland, bread was thin and did not taste strongly of rye. Steak fries were hot but under salted and a little underdone. Will not be going back.

I came here for lunch with my friend today, and it was great! I am originally from Phily (the real philly in PA not MS) so I was pretty skeptical since I grew up around amazing deli’s, but I was not disappointed! I started with the matzo ball soup and it was delicious! My friend had the grilled cheese and it was the most massive grilled cheese I’ve ever seen, the portions were pretty big! They had quick efficient service. I think our waitress’ name was Kathryn/​Catherine and she was very nice! I am so glad we stumbled across this place!

This is a cool little hole in the wall my husband and I found one Friday afternoon! And man it is good! Instead of serving bread or chips with a dip, when you sit down, they serve a veggie plate with ranch dressing and home made dill pickles! Which to me was refreshing and different! I got the chicken salad sandwich and it was very good! Should check it out. It was defiantly a nice light meal! It’s also a sit down place and they deliver!

Best known for their Reuben sandwich, we have yet to have a bad meal here. Great burgers, and according to my son, a killer blackened chicken sandwich. Their brisket
dinner is outstanding, but they have a very different and delicious Mac and cheese. Absolutely not a fast food restaurant as everything is cooked to order. House made Kosher pickles. The one thing I don’t like are onions on every sandwich– but they will remove them! If you haven’t been by since the change in ownership a year or so ago, you are in for a treat.

The best pastrami. The best corned beef. Do yourself a favor and eat here. As soon as I venture out and try other menu items I’ll report back.

Love this place. They start you off with free veggies as an appetizer right when you sit down. I’ve had several of the burgers and hot dogs and they’re all great. The black and blue burger is my favorite, as well as the chili dog. The Mac and cheese is amazing. Its never very crowded, which I love and its an excellent, cheap meal I.e. My wife and I usually get out for $ 25 after tip.
All of the desserts look great but I have yet to try them. They even deliver. This is a great place and a true gem in Birmingham.

Read some good reviews so we came here expecting new York style sandwiches. No such luck, the sandwiches were so small my 12 year old was still hungry after. If your looking for normal sized portions go somewhere else. Also waited for 15 minutes to pay the check while my waitress sat at a corner table texting someone obviously more important than us.

Reuben is humongous and just fantastic. The corned beef is delicious and they’re not skimpy with the meat here. Sauerkraut is tasty. Like that there is Swiss cheese and Russian dressing but no so much that hey overpower the corned beef. The pickled veggies to start are a nice touch. Had good service too. Lose a star for price though. Little expensive considering there’s no side dish.

I really don’t see what others are seeing in this place. The food tastes nothing like the original Max’s Deli. We ordered a Ruben. The meat was fatty and thin and tasted like cheap processed grocery store luncheon meat, but worse because of all of the fat. It was thinly sliced and came out more like gelatinous goo. In all fairness, I did ask them to heat the meat, so maybe that was partially the reason. I was so grossed out by the sandwich, I could not finish it. I watched him slice the meat off a large slab of meat, so I know it was freshly sliced. I just don’t know what could have happened. If this is how all of their meat tastes, I don’t see how they stay in business.
On a positive note: The owner seemed to be courteous and accommodating and seemed genuinely interested in getting everything right. He methodically washed his hands and put on gloves. I was pleased to see such attention to detail.
The lady who took my order was polite, although somewhat stern. She was very patient however and answered my questions (It was my first time there with the new ownership.)
The potato salad was very tasty, but I thought it should have been served at a much lower temperature. It had a strange undercurrent of taste, that told me that it was about to get old. They should have pulled the potato salad. I’m not saying it was old, but I believe it had been in their cooler too long. I ate about one quarter of it before deciding that it wasn’t worth the risk and threw it away. If the potato salad had been more fresh, it could have easily been the best potato salad I have ever had. The recipe itself was excellent; not quite mustard based, not quite mayonnaise based, with just the right amount of moisture and sweetness.
Finally, the food was VERY expensive and I just couldn’t see that it was worth the price. I was so disappointed in the meal, that my husband wanted to buy a cheeseburger from there to see if that would cheer me up, but I declined. I just couldn’t see us spending any more money there. Maybe they were having a bad day. I would probably give them another try on another day, but I wouldn’t spend a lot of money there, unless I was assured the food would be tasty.

We got everything to go.
The number 1 Roast Beef & Pastrami is my old stand by and consistently very good. We also tried the Rubin that was also good. I got the black raspberry walnut salad that I have yet to eat. Others in my group praised the cezar salad. The mac and cheese side was ok, a little milky for my taste.
The chocolate Cheese-​Cake was amazing and extremely rich. Don’t try this without a icy mug of ice cold milk. The lemon was ok, but the caramel was really one of the worst deserts I’ve ever eaten. I’m not sure if it was just really old or what. I like caramel and I like cheesecake but NOT this. It had some kind of rubbery pellets in the cheese cake that we could not identify. UUhh
The only other aggravation that’s worth mentioning is that, they were out of the pickled green tomatoes (AGAIN) that they used to keep and serve. They’ve been out my last 3 trips and tell me they still have them, but I’m beginning to wonder if that’s true.
Not my best trip to Max’s, but still it’s on my radar.

Stopped here for a solo lunch and had the Russian Reuben. It came out of the kitchen quickly and had great flavor (especially the pastrami, which can be way too salty at some places). I felt like the price was a little on the high side for what you got though, so I’ll knock off one star for that.

Order maxes on the takeout all the time. Are here for the first time at the deli. Great service great food. The latkes are by far my fav! Great lunch and dinner place

Love the potato latkes and the Russian Reuben!
There is so much meat on the Russian Reuben… just how a sandwich should be! I have had a burger there too and enjoyed it but I keep going back to my two favorites. I am normally a guy that loves variety so I really have to love something to get it over and over. The pickled vegetables they serve when you are dining in are a must try.

The pastrami, reuben, hot dog, and corned beef are all very good here. Sweet potato fries are a nice upgrade too. It’s nice to have a true deli-​style place in The Colonnade. Not much on atmosphere but that’s not really the point. Service was serviceable. Good pricing.

Stopped in Saturday for a reuben to go and also tried the new burger with ghost peppers and chulula hot sauce.
The reuben was top notch as always
I ordered the burger medium rare but Steve advised they could only do medium. While I prefer medium rare, it was still plenty juicy and HOT. He said they only use two ghost peppers but between those and the chulula, I was breathing some fire for lunch. It was still very good (and huge) but I would probably go with the chulula on the side next time. I really enjoyed the burger with the griddled (?) onions too. I do not think this burger is on the regular menu but I would order it again.
The fries were fine.
I also introduced myself to Steve and we spoke about the restaurant and Birmingham for a good five minutes in between my order being prepared and him greeting customers as they walked in. We have never met before but he is a good guy doing his best to offer a unique product here in town. He definitely is dedicated to good sourcing, which sometimes means he cannot find anything locally (ie good lamb, bison, the Sy Ginserg corned beef, etc).
Again, his prices are not the cheapest in town but I will put his $ 11 reuben up against anybody’s. It seems to have over a half of pound of meat in it. Not sure I can link to urban spoon but here goes anyway:
I could easily have shared just this sandwich but I was being a fat ass that day so I decided to split the burger and reuben in a moment of pure gluttony.
I’m rarely a cheerleader on Unilocal or any other review site, but keep up the good work Steve!