Cafe Max

Love going here for breakfast with my grown children. We have had great food and service since we moved here in 98. The place has changed in many ways but the food and service has always been excellent.

Went twice over the past week while on vacation. Both times it was delicious. They have the best philly omelet and homemade wheat bread!

A visit to Culver would not be complete without stopping at Café Max. Great food, friendly staff, and a Culver Academy history gem. Highly recommend.

I have been here many times, as my family has a house on this beautiful lake. I’ve only ever been for breakfast and it’s usually very busy as it is really the only breakfast place in Culver. Nicely decorated with historical items from the Academy and outdoor sidewalk seating, but that’s about the only good thing I can say about this place.
My food is consistently «meh». I’ve tried several different items and all have been underwhelming, but not awful. My main issue with this place is that the SERVICE is awful. Partly because it’s so busy, but partly because the owner, who walks around the entire time «socializing», keeps calling the waitresses away to refill her own coffee cup when she’s out. Tip: maybe let them focus on your paying customers. Another tip: maybe leave your paying customers alone and let them eat their «meh» breakfast. We saw this woman sit down and make herself at home at several people’s tables (including ours, without being asked btw) and she stayed there for a good period of time, flapping her jaws, while they were clearly waiting for her to leave so that they could eat. A THIRD tip: Maybe instead YOU could help run orders or walk around with coffee/​water/​soda refills to help speed up things. I’m sure your waitresses and your customers would appreciate it.
Anyway, obviously give it a try and come to your own conclusions about the place, but if there were another breakfast place in Culver, I wouldn’t go back to Café Max.

My favorite breakfast is here — ask for the egg whites and jalapeños with whole wheat toast and turkey sausage links! If you are feeling like a guilty pleasure try the Sinful French Toast which is great with syrup and I like to add peanut butter!
A best-​kept secret is their pork tenderloin sandwich. Hearty and thick, I don’t think I’ve ever talked to anyone who didn’t like it!
Love the Poblano chicken sandwich, Cobb Salad and Chicken Cesar salad or wrap –all are standards for us.
This is a great breakfast/​lunch place that is also branching out with dinner three nights a week. They do have a liquor license, so it’s a homey atmosphere to have a drink with friends or family.
Love the salted caramel brownie sundae and the rhubarb pie, too!

Sinful French toast for Mother’s day brunch. The best French Toast ever! Also got a free Mimosa.

I have enjoyed coming to Café Max since moving to this area in ’00. Atmosphere is great. Breakfast, lunch or dinner… Doesn’t matter, I always leave happy! My favorite has got to be their spicy Bloody Mary’s and breakfast Burrito! Might I add, the burrito can feed three lol the owner is quite friendly always making her rounds to say hello. Culver would not be the same without Café Max!!!

What a gem Café Max is. This time I tried the Poblano Chicken and spinach salad… outstanding!!! Love this place!

A trip to Lake Maxinkuckee wouldn’t be complete without a breakfast at Café Max. The food is delicious and very moderately priced. The eggs Benedict with poblano hollandaise are delicious. The scrambles are also great. We don’t have as much experience with lunch, but the kale and bean salad is delicious. The restaurant is on Main Street so you can do some shopping or visit the museum before or after you eat.

I had the fried chicken. Blehhh… it wasn’t anything special, mainly because it wasn’t as crunchy as one would hope. I doubt it was hand-​breaded or homemade. Maybe I should have come for breakfast?

Farmers Skillet and the Bloody Marys are to die for! All you could hope for for a lovely brunch!

We mostly go here for breakfast, and they have very good dinner style breakfast food. Their home made whole wheat toast is worthy of special mention.
Lunch is also quite good. I have had their cheese steak twice, and though it may not be completely Philly-​style authentic, it’s yummy anyway.

Updating my review. Have since been back twice. First time things were so-​so. My food came out cold and waitress brought me an entire new meal. Then owner (I’m assuming) came in with this shaggy white dog and proceeded to let it walk all around the restaurant. How is this hygienic? How is this sensitive to people who have dog allergies or a dislike of dogs? Second time we went back, giving it one more chance, my daughter’s fruit cup came out and every piece of banana was rotted to the point of mold (I’ve posted pictures). Who sliced that up and though that would be ok to serve anyone? The waitress was at least embarrassed and apologized. Then the owner comes in again, carrying her dog all around the restaurant. So she is now carrying this dog at the level of the tables that people are eating at. So dog hair could easily be getting on the tables, cups, food, etc. is this legal? May have to call the health department to find out.

I am always cognizant of the category I review something in, so let me emphasize I see Café Max as a breakfast/​lunch diner which also is open for dinner three nights a week AND has a liquor license. I see these as added bonuses, but score them five stars for their bread and butter– reliable breakfast and lunch items at a reasonable price in a lovingly decorated Culver atmosphere. Their «Lean Machine» is my favorite is my favorite dish for breakfast– bluberry whole wheat pancakes with scrambled egg whites. Lunch they have sandwiches etc. but my favorite dish is the spinach salad with blue cheese and candied pecans. Yum!

Where do I begin? This is a poorly run restaurant at best. I had a
certificate, more on that later, and decided to give this place another chance even though we had a previous bad experience and there are numerous bad reviews. In addition, the owner Susie Mahler is an ass.
Let me start with the breakfast. I ordered the Blue Bayou which is scrambled eggs, bacon, tomato, spinach and blue cheese. There was very little evidence or taste of blue cheese. The eggs were overcooked and the bagel was greasy with a poor grade of butter. My companion ordered the eggs benedict with green pepper hollandaise sauce. The hollandaise sauce was separating. Both dishes were cold.
I should have sent it all back. I did not because initially there was an issue with my using the
certificate via the application on my phone. They had never seen this before. They did not say prior to ordering that we could not use it. They should have. The certificate was for $ 10.00, unknown to me, they were calling the owner on the phone for approval, and she was in the middle of showing a house to another of her real estate victims. Why is there not a manager to look at the
certificate application? The owner made a decision without all of the information. Typical poor business practice by a foolish business owner. The bottom line is the owner told them that there had to be a paper print out. I have never run into this problem at other restaurants. This feature has been available since January 2012.
. I was not able to use the certificate and I am visiting so even if I wanted to return to this poor excuse for a restaurant. If you need breakfast in Culver, Indiana, go to the Culver Coffee Company
, they have great coffee and great breakfast sandwiches. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable.

I wasn’t impressed. The ingredients in my veggie omlette didn’t taste fresh. They used kraft singles cheese slices in the omlette for crying out loud. The menu is rather limited too, nothing much beyond traditional breakfast items. Its too bad that the city tavern (I think thats what it was called) closed, because this is uninspiring.

Quite possibly the worse service I’ve experienced in years. We had a group of 6 and at least 2 tables with 6 or more were seated before us. After waiting 50 minutes to be seated it took 35 minutes for us to get our order and when it arrived my over easy eggs were cooked hard and barely warm. Coffee refills no where to be found. 1 hour and 50 minutes for breakfast. Awful.
One star because zero is not possible.

My brother’s wedding in Culver brought me to this small Indiana town. Many small homey areas like this have a fair selection of good cafes with nice service and pleasant atmosphere. Unfortunately, Café Max is not that restaurant. Sixteen of us ate there tonight, and none of us enjoyed our meal. My chicken sandwich was dry, the chicken alfredo was horrible, even my 10 year old sister decided it was nasty. Two of our party had their «Haystack» sandwich which turned out to be a plate of greasy hashbrowns on top of toast. Another had their lasagna which was frozen in the middle, and, when sent back was brought out cold AGAIN. My mom said it was «one of the worst meals she’s had in a restaurant.» Much of the food was obviously out of a box/​freezer.
The terrible food might have been forgivable if the service had been service. Not only slow, but our waiter messed up several side orders, and even brought the wrong dish entirely to one of my friend. My girlfriend, sister, and a friend, never even got their side dishes. At my table, we actually had to ask the waiter for utensils after our meals arrived. After dinner about half of us experienced some sort of intestinal discomfort.
My party and I have had much better food and service in third world countries where they might actually care about leaving their guests with a pleasant experience. If you plan on going, bring along some Pepto and Immodium.
EDIT: Ambience was nice.

Two words: Waffle Fries!
One of the best places to eat in the small town of Culver. They definitely make the food with love and it’s delicious!

Great food, great local atmosphere and wonderful service!
Watch out, service can be slow and error prone during Academy weekends, but that’s when it might be wise to take advantage of the buffet it you’re in a hurry.