Max Brenner

Put this review in perspective, most of the restaurants on Boylston between Mass ave and Arlington are average at best, with a couple of notable exceptions.
Max’s is a chain and a tourist trap so if you go in knowing that you can set your expectations.
That being said, the «comfort» food is fairly bland despite a few interesting menu items. The host was about as bad as it gets as he sat our party of 5 with a reservation, at a table for 4, and said they had nothing else available in an otherwise half empty dining room at 7:30pm on a weeknight.
The apps were as expected fried with some meh sauces. The Waffle Cubano was good as were the waffle cut fries. The house made potato chips were store bought potato chips, what a joke. The house cab was terrible and was the smallest pour to boot.
The service was decent, our food for 5 did come out warm and in a timely fashion and the effort was there.
So you come for chocolate and dessert and this was done fairly well. Better then the lackluster dinner fare.
The dark chocolate fondue was very enjoyable, with several options for dipping, but the chocolate pizza was inedible. The crust was hard and devoid of any flavor and the chocolate drizzle was just not flavorful. It’s was basically melted small marshmallows on white bread crust.
The cherry on top of the evening was the fact that they were «out» of the Unilocal check-​in offer of chocolates and the host made no attempt to replace the what, $ 1 sample box? Thanks guys, way to be in the service industry. I won’t be back, but feel free to try it. I can’t imagine it will survive long in that location but you never know.

Went for dessert last night (because DUH). I was torn between so many delectable looking treats, but I ended up going with The Spectacular Melting Chocolate S’mores Sundae. The name itself makes it sound like a dessert from the gods. I have to say it did not quite stand up to my expectations. The chocolate peanut butter ice cream was very rich and creamy. And the toffee buts were probably the best part. I was disappointed though that more than half the sundae was marshmallow! Don’t get me wrong, I love a sugary dessert, but there was no way I could eat all of that marshmallow. I appreciate how big the sundae was. I still want to go back and try everything else out! Service was pretty fast and efficient.

Chocolate pizza was less extraordinary than it was hyped up to be. The crust was so thick and made it hard to enjoy the sweet toppings.

A few of us showed up pretty late after a Sox game, and our waiter, Sheldon, was great! We ordered a few appetizers, including chicken wings (delicious), waffle fries (delicious), and onion rings (the chocolate ranch was amaaaazing!). We also ordered a few drinks, including a hot chocolate with absolut, mocha martini, chocolate shake with makers, and a white Russian. All the drinks were awesome! The hostess who sat us was super friendly. Sheldon was great and personable and definitely made the experience awesome! Will return if I’m ever in the Back Bay again!

Max Brenner rides heavily on style rather than substance. Case in point: though the interior is very interesting, the quality of food was subpar at best. Even the waiter was not a notable fan of any of the dishes.
I ordered an arugula salad, whose bitterness was not tempered by a good vinaigrette or many additional vegetables. My friend ordered chicken wings, which tasted delicious but were somewhat raw on the inside. And my BF got a lard bomb in the form of a waffle Philly cheesesteak sandwich, which is every bit as terrible as it sounds.
Dessert, which you’d think a place like this excels at, was also a disappointment. The crêpe brûlée was thick and weirdly textured, and the strawberries inside were drowning in chocolate syrup. No even composition at all. Finally, my friend got an ice cream which he said was alright.
The food was edible, so I can’t give it a single star. But please, spend your money elsewhere.

Sat at the bar last night and was taken care of by two gentlemen who were spectacular! One had a cast on his arm and worked the bar better than I could with four arms. The host staff were also extremely accommodating to my dairy and egg allergy which they gave me a list of all the stuff I could eat-​limited list, but what could I expect from a restaurant that specializes in chocolate? Anyways, I got dark chocolate fondue with fruit, and a white russian with soy milk. I’ll have dreams about it, trust me. This place is great for dessert lovers. My boyfriend got a chocolate martini, which he thoroughly enjoyed. Definitely coming back to the bar!

I’ve gone to Max Brenner pretty often in Philadelphia and they definitely know how to recreate the experience in any city. Service is also great and the desserts are solid. However, I continue to be surprised by the pricing for what you receive.
The Tutti Fruitti waffles were extremely small for the price and while the Classic Fondue is a cool experience, I don’t think it should cost over $ 20.

I’ll definitely be back. The original plan was to have a tiramisu after our Cubano sandwich and blue cheese/​bacon/​mushroom burger. But we were hurried to see a movie, so we missed the tiramisu. But the ones we tried, they were soooo delicious. If I have to say one thing that’s not good enough, it was the bread of the burger. It tasted dried out, rather than toasted dry. Other than that, the dipping sauce of my waffle fries came with the burger was a Killer! Love it!

I am so sad to give this place 2 stars! I was SO excited to bring my boyfriend here for his first time.
When we arrived, the hostess was friendly and welcoming, and initially she thought it would be a 20 – 30 minute wait, but then she managed to get us a table between the bar and the patio, which was great because it was a beautiful evening.
We were attended to pretty quickly, and our waitress was friendly. Started with a chocolate martini, which was verrry tasty. Placed our order, and waited. And waited… and waited. For maybe 50 minutes. Eventually, our waitress came over and apologized for the long wait, that our food would be out in a second. Hostess brought over our food apologized for the wait.
BUT THEN. The food was sooooo lacking. We got the crispy chicken mac and cheese and the corn waffle goat cheese salad. The mac and cheese was lukewarm, not particularly cheesy (seemed like a pile of noodles with chicken, bacon and some melted cheese on top). The salad was very heavily dressed and as a result, both the leaves and waffle were really limp. We’d come in really hungry, but barely ate any of it.
The saving grace was that our waitress ended up asking the manager to remove the entrees from our bill, and so we paid only for the martini and our (really yummy) chocolate shake. She was really apologetic and acknowledged that they could do a lot better. We really appreciated that.
Based on the personalities of the waitstaff and the desserts, I’m willing to return for the desserts, but it’ll be a while before I try the food again.

I got the waffles with ice cream and chocolate here.
I expected a lot as I heard great things about this place, but unfortunately, I was underwhelmed.
The waffle was dry and almost tasted a bit stale
The vanilla ice cream on top was refreshing, but all the caramel sauce and chocolate was very overwhelming.
The little chocolate rice puffs were really good tough. I could have eaten just that.
Maybe I ordered the wrong thing, so I guess I might give this place another shot.

The review is for service. Walked in on a friday evening, the hostess was warm on the first glance but said there was a 15 min wait. We sat at the bar, but on my way to the restroom, found that almost 30% of the restaurant was empty.
Meanwhile my friend at the bar forgot his ID. The bar tender was very rude and said, ‘i don’t care about any other form of ID, I don’t want to serve you’. I just slammed out and will never return.

Best chocolate brunch ever! All meals
include chocolate, and are delicious. And there is always space for more chocolate on the way out. It is becoming a favorite; I end up there every time I am in the city…

This place was wonderful. The atmosphere was fun, the service was beyond nice, and the menu was, as promised full of chocolate the portions were surprisingly filling as well. I can now recommend the cherry waffles as well as the peanut butter/​chocolate shake (I forget the actual name).
Would be a pretty fun place for a date or family activities.
Perhaps the one downfall is that the pipe running across the ceiling labeled «100% chocolate» is indeed not filled with chocolate. I found this out upon asking and despite this, I was still able to find the meal as appealing.
Last thing: I am a chemist and I found it particularly pleasing to see so many Erlenmeyer flasks and volumetric flasks filled with various chocolates!

Wow. I just don’t know where to begin. Service here is so bad. It pretty much sucked and it was also the main reason why my experience here sucked. lol.
First time here: My friend and I decided to give this place a try. Host took no noticed of us until we said something (we were literally face to face. Notice us! Haha). He sat us and we waited 15+ min for our server (proper server time to greet guest is 2 mins in). During the whole time, all we did was waited and chase our server down. It even took forever for us to get our check. As for the food, it was a bit pricey. I didn’t mind because it was really good.
Second time here: I thought that maybe the first time was just an off day for them. Nope. I was wrong. It was the same thing. Everything just took so long. :(((
It wasn’t even busy. It was literally just me and my bf and like 3 other tables. The waitress even forgot to put in our appetizer :/​
Two stars because the desserts here are epic. You can never go wrong with that.

This is — I believe — the type of place you should go for just dessert. I, however, ended up going here for dinner for a friend’s birthday so the rating reflects both main dishes and desserts.
First, the ambiance — definitely very romantic. The lights are dim and the tables are lit with candles. However, at some point the restaurant turned down the lights so low that we couldn’t see what we were ordering/​eating. This may have been because they forgot to put a candle on our end of the table. Maybe I would have enjoyed this atmosphere more had our end of the table had a candle or if it was just me and my significant other so I’ll hold off on judgement here.
The two food items I tried were the cheesy bacon Mac and cheese and the steak and waffles that my boyfriend ordered. I wasn’t impressed with either. For being labeled «cheesy» the Mac and cheese had surprisingly little cheese. Also for whatever reason the Mac and cheese was served with chopped raw tomatoes which didn’t really work. There was also marinara sauce served on the side that didn’t really work either. The only thing going for the Mac and cheese was the quantity — enough for two meals. The steak in my boyfriend’s steak and waffles were good but the waffles came out pretty soggy. And these weren’t Belgian waffles mind you — they were like the Eggo waffles you can buy frozen. I actually like the Eggo waffles but I wouldn’t pay more than $ 15 for them. The waffle fries were probably the best savory thing I tasted that night — solid fries though I didn’t taste the chocolate and chili seasoning that was supposedly on it.
Now for desserts. My friend started with a chocolate shake which was good, but not amazing. We then ordered a chocolate cake for her birthday which was delicious. They also sang for her birthday and brought out a decorated plate with chocolate writing (so no you don’t get free cake on your birthday). There wasn’t really anything to eat there haha. Finally we ended with the sampler fondue. The sampler was very well presented except for the fact that they forgot to heat our pot and burner for the marshmallows. It wasn’t cheap but I was impressed with the quantity — definitely enough to split with 5 people which is what we did. I also liked all the things that came with the fondue — I was a huge fan of the fried bananas dipped in chocolate Mmm… if you don’t own a fondue pot this would be a good place to do (chocolate) fondue.
Would I come back for dinner? No — it was expensive and not really that great. Would I come back for dessert? Probably. The dessert menu was enormous and it looked like there was a lot of delicious things to try!

My husband and I are definite fans from the start of Max Brenner’s. He quite literally had us at ‘hello’ with that unreal chocolate smell punch in the face when entering. That’s a good thing, by the way. Everything on the menu looks appetizing and our meals didn’t disappoint. Especially the fondue dessert, my favorite in Boston now, right in line with North End sweets. The milkshakes… sooo good. And as much as we like basking in the delicious scents at the bar and indoors, sitting out on the patio during the Spring for people watching on Boylston is the best.
P.S: Max Brenner’s should be represented by $$$ instead of the 2. The menu is pretty up there in price, which is why we can’t come often and wishful thinking they would come down a bit.

Came here intending to get dinner and dessert, but decided to just skip right to dessert because how could you not? The chocolate martini was really good– not overly sweet and very strong (which I was glad about since they’re expensive). I’m not sure if it would be good with savory food, but it was great with dessert.
The strawberry hazelnut crêpe was awesome. Tons of strawberries and chocolate with a hint of hazelnut, and it comes with a side of vanilla ice cream. The outside of the crêpe was a little crispy and gave a great texture to the whole thing.
The munchies waffles were great, too. We got them with vanilla ice cream, which made them a little less chocolatey and they balanced out the crêpe well. The little crunchy chocolate balls that came on top were so great. I was ready to buy them on the way out to bring home and put on ice cream.
Overall, the food was great. One star off because it was practically empty, but our server was not very attentive. Instead all of the staff were standing together chatting. Not very professional.

Just your typical nice restaurant that serves decent bar type food and lots of dessert options.
Though they do have a wide selection of chocolates and other sweets and gifts to purchase. But their chocolate is nothing out of the ordinary.
In my opinion it’s Ghirardelli meets cheese cake factory. The food options are good and the portion sizes are adequate to share. Especially the flat breads are quite large.
The margarita flat bread was nicely made. Very thin crispy base and rich with good cheese and flavors.
As for hot beverages, my favorite and highly recommended is the White chocolate tea. It has subtle notes of vanilla blending well with chai tea.
The melting chocolate truffle heart cake was surely a sight for sore eyes but as beautiful it’s presentation was, it was equally bland. With the chocolate cake over baked and very dry. Even keeping it soaked in the melted chocolate couldn’t make it less dry.
Overall a pretty decent eatery, nicely located parallel to the newberry street.

A chocolate themed restaurant, what could be better?!? Meh. I had high expectations for this place, which was maybe my fault, but it didn’t live up to the hype. I got the mac and cheese for my entrée which was actually the best part of the meal… which isn’t that great considering its famous for its dessert. My friend and I got the Melting Chocolate True Heart Cake & Shake because it seemed to have so many good components. However, it was tiny! The shake was smaller than a shot and the cake itself was dry. It also wasn’t that great for sharing.
I came back a second time for a friends birthday and got the burrito which I was not impressed with at all, I don’t think I even finished it. However, this time I got the Chocolate Martini and that was great! It came with a chocolate covered strawberry in the glass. The dessert this time was good too — we got the fondue trio and almost licked the bowl. So I’ve had some hit and misses here, but probably wouldn’t come back. There’s so many other consistently great places in the city to go to instead!

This place is amazing.
I used to work and study here, drinking a chocolate, or eating any of the fantastic items on the the menu.
The decoration is great; it really looks like a chocolate factory. The staff is very friendly, and the prices are ok.
So, my favorites are the milkshakes, and of course, the fondue.
But they also have some very good entrees. I tried the brick oven pizza, which was thin and crunchy; and the philly cheesesteak served on a waffle.
If you’re nearby, just stop here for a bite, for a meal or just to buy some chocolate.

L’été dernier, je suis partie en roadtrip avec mon meilleur ami et lors de notre passage à Boston, nous sommes allés dîner chez Max Brenner.
L’endroit en divisé en trois partie: la terrasse ensoleillée, le restaurant intérieur et la boutique.
À l’intérieur, l’ambiance est bien agréable et des tuyaux de chocolat décorent la pièce.
Sur le menu, on retrouve des sandwichs, des salades, des clubs sandwichs, etc. Rien de fancy, mais tout est bon et les portions sont immenses.
Pour desserts, j’avais pris un «sunday» il était tellement gros, sucré et tellement bon que je né pouvais pas m’arrêter de le manger même si à un moment j’ai bien cru que j’allais être malade! De la glacé au chocolat, des pépites croquantes de chocolat et beurre d’arachides, des bananes, de la crème fouettée, etc… Ce dessert aurait facile pu être pour 2 à 4 personnes!
Dans la boutique, on retrouve une tonne de chocolat originaux en format bonbons ou en format pépites. Il est possible de choisir les saveurs une à une ou d’acheter des sachets de pépites de différentes saveurs. Différents modèles de boîtes sont en vente. C’est la boutique parfaite pour ramener un souvenir à un de vos proches.