Max & Erma’s

We’ve eaten here a couple times for lunch in the past few months. Each time they seated us right next to the hostess stand, very near the door (cold breezes all during lunch) and making us privy to their conversations and not being completely professional. The food was good but I’m going to start ordering my burger a little more done at this location — medium to them means the juices are a little too pink than I’m used to. Good prices/​coupons/​Good Neighbor Rewards.

I have never had a worse meal in my entire life. The worst service too. They got our order wrong. And then we got food poisoning.

We decided to go and get a small meal late in the afternoon. We had Cary as our server who was so sweet and told us about the happy hour appetizers. The food was delicious and was a very large serving. That day they gave free cookies away, delicious. We had Max & Erma’s in Illinois and frequented them till they left the state. We were disappointed in them before they left as the menu items were changed, service was bad and the restaurant looked old and not updated.
This location was tremendous and if we are ever in the area, we plan to go back. Hopefully Cary will again be our server!

Don’t come here if you want to eat on the patio on a nice day. There were 3 open tables with one family waiting and they said a 25 minute wait to sit outside. I do really like the food but disappointed with the service today. They were not even busy…

Oh, woe are we! It pains me no end to downgrade a restaurant chain I’ve patronized since I ate there when only the original existed in German Village. A very long time during which their food, if not gourmet, was reliably decent and so, we’ve found ourselves satisfied customers, I’d guess, well into the hundreds of times. Overall, we’d rated it a three-​star venue. A menu item we regularly have ordered, has been the Onion Soup, not the best we’ve ever had, but acceptable enough to have been ordered by us scores of times. We ventured back, this evening… craving…the Onion Soup.
When the soup was served, in their usual tureens, the offering was scarcely recognizable. The soup was capped with what looked like a marshmallow but on closer prodding, turned out to be a croûton coated with cheese, hard and unmelted. Proper Onion Soup should be sizzling, fresh from the oven or broiler. This soup, obviously, had been assembled… ala McDonalds «kitchens»… clearly tossed together… in a perfunctory manner; it wasn’t microwaved to a sufficient temperature to even melt the cheese: the soup was tepid at best. One would have expected that the cook’s assistant would have taken pains to assure that the short-​cutting might have been amply disguised by assuring the dish was heated enough to liquefy the cheese. The disregard of quality in the service of efficiency is a sure sign of a struggling operation. Sorry to see one of our standby’s flailing. We will give M&E’s a couple more chances, but not with guests, because they deserve better.

Waitress was very polite and attentive. She was also the bartender so I got a lot of «babies», «sweethearts», etc… so her tip was commiserate. Clean and inviting. Reminded me of a Bennigans with the wood and colors and dim lighting.
I ordered the tortilla burger since the menu stated the Max and Erma «made beautiful burgers together». That particular burger was okay. The meat had a great flavor but the combination of bun and accessories in my opinion took away from the meat. Slightly disappointed. Salad was served promptly and was tasty with the garlic breadstick. A cold Sam Adams topped it off nicely. Overall, it was good but nothing stood out to make me want to come back… unless of course my ego needs stroking.

I’ve been here a couple of times now. It’s right by one of our event venues, so it’s a convenient stop before or after a long weekend of work. For me, I did both!
First, I stopped by with my co-​worker after we had dropped some things off at the hotel. I wasn’t all that impressed at first, as we walked in and waited probably 8 – 10 minutes before anyone noticed we were waiting to be seated. Or, rather, before anyone cared — we had a few waiters make eye contact with us and look away, in that lovely, «not my job!» kind of way. Eventually, though, we were seated and had a nice meal. I had the tasty twosome with the baked potato and caesar salad. Both were really good! I believe my meal was under $ 7. Our waiter was attentive and, although we were there a long time, I didn’t feel like we were rushed to leave at all.
Next, I stopped by after a long weekend of working. I got the same thing, so clearly I liked it the first time! Last time, my salad and baked potato were on different plates and this time, they were on one plate, which was kind of funny considering I was just there a couple of days ago. My companion got the threes a combo with nachos, chicken tenders, and potato skins. I tried the tenders and they were good! Our waitress was suuuuuper nice and attentive, I believe her name was Robin-​Lee.
Overall, I liked this Max & Erma’s! Definitely more than the one on Sawmill. It’s not very convenient unless I’m working an event nearby but, even so, we might make a trek out if we’re craving some of their signature dishes.

This restaurant was close to the Hilton Garden Inn where we stayed while we were in town over the Christmas holiday. We ate here twice, once we had burgers (garbage burger and tortilla burger (jalapenos on the side). Both were cooked well done, we ordered medium. But they were still ok, at least they weren’t dried out. We also shared soup and chili that day. We had the chicken tortilla soup which is fabulous and the chili was good too.
The restaurant is clean, your standard Max and Ermas, nothing really stands out. The service was pretty good.
The second time we went, the service was a bit slow. We both ordered steak. I got the Laredo, my boyfriend got the steak with mushrooms (and ordered sauteed onions as well). We both ordered the steaks medium rare, they were served medium/​medium well. They were both still really good.

What can I say? Max and Erma’s it is what it is. A chain restaurant, you know what you are getting and this place was consistent with any other Max and Erma’s I’ve ever been too.
Since this one was close to the hotel we stayed at, we ate here twice. The first time we went we ordered chili and chicken tortilla soup to start and both ordered burgers, cooked medium. The chili and soup were great. The burgers were cooked medium well at best. It seems like most restaurants over cook burgers like that.
On the second visit we both ordered steak. They were surprisingly good but we ordered medium rare and they were medium/​medium well at best. Oh, and we got free cookies on one night (Wednesday).
If we are ever staying in the area again, we will likely be back.

We don’t get out much as a family so we were really looking forward to dinner and M&E’s famous chocolate chip cookies. We got them home only to see that they were burnt! I know we should have checked them before we left but in over 15 yrs of ordering them, we’ve NEVER had a problem. That was a $ 13 lesson learned tonight. I won’t leave with cookies from this location without checking them.

Great staff, prices are ok. Could be better. The wait was a little long.
The food was excellent! Great atmosphere. Very neat seeing all of the things on the walls.

I would like to check out more pics of this places… does the bar area have booths? And how is the outside seating? Can anyone help with this?

Tried the new Meatball Burger this week. Have to say I was a little skeptical on the concept. I love meatball sandwiches, but wasn’t sure how a patty of the delicious Italian favorite was going to be. The idea was actually a great one, meatball sandwiches can usually get pretty messy, this wasn’t. By default the meatball burger comes with a pretzel bun which I normally love for deli style sandwiches like a turkey and cheese or even pull pork on a pretzel bun. For the meatball burger I think I’d go with Ciabatta next time, the pretzel bun just didn’t go as well as I hoped it would and Ciabatta I think would have made the difference.
For an appetizer, their soup of the day was a potato/​bacon something which was great. I’ve had the pretzel sticks before too which are a favorite.
Service at this location in Dublin was great. We sat at the bar and the bartender doubles as server and bartender and she was a hustler. The restaurant sits on Frantz Rd and has ponds around it which create a nice atmosphere.

I have to admit, I always thought Max & Ermas was like Applebees, but its not at all. It is more upscale, uses better ingredients like spring mix lettuce instead of iceburg and has some lighter options. AND ITS LOCAL! It actually started in Ohio. Décor reminds me of a Pub.
Their balsamic dressing is great. The black bean burger is also good, I managed to put the whole thing down and the last bite was forced. Looking back, that reinforced how much I liked it.
They use Zing Zang for the bloody mary mix and it only cost $ 4.50. Win Win.
I will be back my friend!

Great place to eat. Great burgers and some refreshing drinks (adult kind). All around a great experience.

This was a 2.5 star visit for us. I am bumping it up to a 3 star review because of our server. She was friendly, capable and kept our drinks full.
However, outside of the chicken pot pie my Mom ordered (which was wonderful), the rest of us were disappointed in our food. I ordered the buffalo chicken sandwich and it was the laziest sandwich ever. Take a fried chicken breast, dip it in buffalo sauce, and serve. That’s it. I could go to a fast food joint and get a better chicken sandwich. My Pop had a bacon cheeseburger, except they forgot the bacon. However, his cookie was very tasty. There is better, more consistent food at other places around town.

Nice family restaurant. Interior looks nice. Food is great, they have even a small gluten-​free menu and on their website you can find the menu as a pdf plus another pdf with all menu items and ingredients from an allergies perspective. We had a nice dinner there last night and I did enjoy the atmosphere and how service oriented the waiter was.

3 words: Chicken. Tortilla. Soup!
2 more: Cheese Skewers!

On my first trip to Columbus I made a stop at Max and Erma’s for convenience as it was close to my hotel, but also because several people recommended it. It was a great dining experience.
I decided to go fruity for my drink and chose the Wildberry Lemonade. I normally try flavored lemonades any chance I get and this was as good as any. For an appetizer I went with the Soft Pretzel Sticks which were amazing. I’ve always been a sucker for big soft pretzels and this took me straight back to my childhood – the flavor was exactly like I used to get as a snack at amusement parks.
I was indecisive for my entrée so I had the server bring a small sample of their signature Tortilla Soup. I decided against it because I get enough Southwest-​style food back home, but it was delicious and is something that could easily have come straight from a restaurant on the Plaza in Santa Fe. Very creamy and cheesy.
I ended up going with the Tomato Mozzarella Chicken Sandwich that was recommended by my server. Overall it was pretty good, but the full-​leaf basil was a little too strong. It wasn’t enough to drown out the other flavors, but it would have been better if the basil was toned down a bit.
I was too full to go for dessert, but I will head back sometime to try the one thing on the dessert menu that caught my eye: Funnel Cake Fries.

This place has a pretty broad menu, but I had the salmon to go. The taste was ok, and the wait for the to-​go order was more than 20 minutes! Sorry, that’s like 20 minutes way to long for me.