Max & Erma’s

Our family has been going to M&E’s since the 70’s when they were only down in German Village. We’ve always loved this hometown favorite. However, the location in Gahanna has serious management problems. Every time I sit at the bar, the bartender seems to be off somewhere else in the building attending to a matter. Shouldn’t they be tending the bar? I hate waiting.
This past weekend, my sister and I took our elderly parents for dinner which is a big treat for them. The kitchen made my sister’s food cold two times in a row (the same sandwich). The waiter gave her a free meal but even the «replacement» nachos weren’t quite right. The waiter was defensive and he’s obviously not suited to deal with the public.
My parents are 83 and have multiple health issues, so they don’t have the patience they used to. My mom was ready to pay the bill and the waiter said he was too busy to take her payment. How rude is that.
After our visit my sister talked with the regional manager (a lady) and she said she would send out a free gift certificate. Nothing has come.
Avoid the Gahanna location!!!

I have been in the restaurant and bar business for 16 years.
Our table was right in the sun. I understand, so i lowered the shades, but why even try to seat people there with shades up when other tables were available? Our waiter was nice, but very softspoken. Not sure if he was shy or hung over, but im leaning toward the latter. The host staff stood up front and gossiped the entire time we were in. Obviously too busy to assist anyone. Our drinks were completely empty twice. I had to take them to the bartender to fill. Never got the lemons requested for my drink. The appetizer was quick and delicious, but our entrees took forever. The absent waiter appeared out of no where to appologize. Where was he when my spritzer was empty? He blamed the kitchen, which is not fair. I know he just forgot to enter my husbands order. My plate was under the heat for a while testing the sides and look of the potatoes. My dish was ok, my husband liked his so i stayed quiet. We never saw the waiter again. The manager finished serving us and gave us free sundae bar access… im lactose intollerant.
Not a terrible experience, but we wont be going back. I just wanted to take over the store and run it myself… i still may. 2 stars for the choices on the menu and my husband’s meal. It was a clean establishment.

Management should realize first impressions are everything since I’ve never eaten at any Max and Erma’s, ever! What is a restaurant saying to its customers when the 1 front door greeter doubles as TO GO order taker? We walked in today, Sunday, August 30^th, 2015, and stood in line, 2 people in front, two in back, as the front door «Greeter» took an order over the phone. When she finally got off the phone, she barely, if at all, acknowledged our presence, no eye contact, no” I aplogize for the wait”, NADA. REALLY? No thanks, we walked out of this outdated Max and Erma’s before they had a chance to seat us. Way to many choices up the the street at Easton for that nonsense… Out!

Inside Port Columbus … Food was cold and service below average

Stopped in here on a slow Saturday afternoon. Wasn’t a whole lot of people in the place so I was thinking I could get in and out in less than the 50 minutes I had until I would have to leave. After all, I was only getting a Max burger and fries. Well, it took 35 minutes for my food to get to me (after I took 10 minutes getting my order in). Not enough time to eat it. Had to get it to go. Wasn’t bad a couple hours later, but the fries were, as fries are when they are cold, inedible.
The bartender expressed that this wasn’t the norm, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and won’t totally hate on this place. But, I can’t say I enjoyed myself either.

This place smells like the inside of a vacuum bag! Food ok but the environment dirty! Nasty!

Yes, they still have the build your own sundae in a tub. I know that was the first thing you were wondering. That said, it’s a Tuesday night, barely anyone here, server was nice and helpful and the food was delicious!
See the pics for what we got! Yumm!

I like M & E as a chain that originates from Columbus. The same as I feel about Bob Evans. That uniqueness becomes cookie cutter. They have evolved everything. The menu. The décor. The atmosphere. The mood. They took that cool place you found on vacation, and turned it into a machine.
The food is usually pretty tasty. I rarely have to send anything back, unless it’s not hot. Fries are notorious for that. They serve a lot, so they make a lot. My wife loves their onion rings. She gets them every visit. I thing the horseradish dipping sauce sells it. Now there have been times in the evolution where the sauce was no longer available. That makes for a disgruntled spouse. Any burger, or salad is a win. Promotional items that they cook a lot of, are usually good bets. The tortilla soup is like no other. Always a great addition. It is a family atmosphere, and has gotten noisier over the years. The one thing that has never changed is the the sundae bar in the claw footed cast iron bathtub. A kid favorite. Solid food, solid experience. Just lacking the touch that made it worthy of more stars.

I had the shrimp boat and it was really good. Shrimp were not heavily battered and the wife had the Laredo Steak with broccoli and the baked potato. It was tender and really good. They have a good variety on their menu.

Love it. Great service. Great décor. Food is good and well priced. Been there multiple times and love it for a casual place to dine. Only complaint is that they had an apple walnut salad I was really looking forward too, was right there on the menu, only to find out they are discontinuing it at this location. Sad face, indeed. Oh. Tortilla soup is amazing – tried that for the first time the other day here and was totally happy with it.

Unfortunately this N. Hamilton location does not keep up with my experiences at Polaris and Easton. We went for an early dinner on a Sunday and probably will not be back.
To begin, the dinning area felt grubby with unswept floors, two wobbly chairs, hand and face smudges all over the window, a stickiness to the table, and menus that need a more through cleaning. Not very comfortable.
We did not get very fancy with our meals. Two clubs with salads, and a lunch salad. Well my (plastic?) plate was cracked which, for a restaurant, is kind of like saying «yeah, we do not care how this looks.» I also wonder how does one properly clean a broken plate?
The food was fine. But when someone asks for no almonds and their salad arrives with those sometimes tricky to see almonds you put them at risk of a food allergy. Thankfully, she is not allergic, but it just shows a lack of what I would consider to be a routine consideration.
Overall, not feeling this location which is sad considering I enjoy much of their menu.

Terrible, terrible service. Decent food, but terrible service. Our servers name was Jennifer and we only saw her twice throughout our entire dining experience. Once when she came and took our food order and once when she refilled our waters. She couldn’t even get our food order right. The manager had to do everything else for her. I’ve been working in the restaurant industry for 10 years and I’ve never seen service so bad. Also, even though the server didn’t get our food order right and I explained that to the manager he never offered us a coupon or took anything off of our bill even though we waited 20 minutes to get drinks in the first place. Will never be back. And a piece of advice for Jennifer: you should NEVER work in a restaurant again. Its just not for you.

26 dollar lunch for two. 2 soups, 1 salad, 1 half club sandwich and 2 iced teas, hmmmm. Service was good but food is too pricey for what you get. 2.50 for iced tea really. Water it is next time. Overall is 6 out of 10.

I’ve been wanting a burger for the past two weeks but haven’t got around to actually getting one until today. On top of that, I’ve wanted to try out Max and Erma’s again, since I have mixed memories from my childhood dining experiences. Yeah, it’s been that long since I’d been to one. My buddy went a few weeks ago and said his burger was decent, so we went again so I could try one.
I ended up getting the Tortilla burger, which had jalapeños and tortilla straws on it, and it came with a side of the tortilla soup to put on it/​dip the burger. Kind of odd, but okay. The soup was actually pretty tasty, but the burger was way too dry and well done. I think for sure I’d have better lucky at Red Robin or Ruby Tuesday’s to name comparable restaurants.
The service was good, and the food came out quick, so it wasn’t all bad. I think I’d probably try it again but stay away from the burgers.

It was a Sunday evening. Were told 15 – 20 minute wait, lots of other people were waiting, there were LOTS of dirty, empty tables, and employees standing around when they could have been cleaning the tables so that all the people waiting could have been seated! Suddenly we realized not only we were sitting waiting for a table at Max and Ermas, but there were so many empty, dirty tables. Out of self respect we left, went next door and were seated immediately and served shortly thereafter.

I was going to stick a fork in max and ermas cause i thought they were done. but my hubby and i ate there tonight and it was really good. i love the nachos grande. it is an app, but i have it for dinner. anyway it was kidz nite and they had a fun clown guy making balloon animals. lots of ankle biters running around, but we still got good service and food. i however did not get gummy bears in my drink (sigh.)
so good anytime really wow the kiddies on tuesday

There have been countless times where at around 10:30 pm, my girlfriend and I want dinner (we have extremely odd eating schedules!). The Stoneridge Max and Erma’s is right down the road from us, and open til midnight (I think most nights, maybe not on Sundays?). With Max and Erma’s, you know for the most part exactly what you’re getting. Affordable and tasty food, but nothing extravagant. Obviously, everyone knows that the tortilla soup is absolutely amazing… but they offer plenty of other great dishes as well. I’m a HUGE fan of the cabo shrimp salad, along with the hula bowl. Don’t skimp with a lunch version, go with the full… I’ve found that with the lunch sizes, you’ll be hungry about two hours after eating! Also, Wednesday is free cookie day, so keep that in mind! Other good items? I’ve had many of the burgers offered, along with the philly, and also the laredo steak. Everything is delicious, and it’s a great value for the price. The only misfire I’ve ever had is the fish tacos; they had no flavor and were not good whatsoever.

Really love this place. The tortilla soup is amazing, so are the cookies. Burgers are also good. Service is generally great with good prices. Highly recommend.

I’ve been to several Max & Erma’s around the country, but this is my «home» location!
And therefore, one of my favorites.
I would have to say that my favorite menu item is the Garbage Burger!!!
It is HUGE! Make sure you hungry!
It’s called the Garbage Burger because it has pretty much everything on it
I mean everything… hence the name!
This location ALWAYS has good service.
I always get a side salad… as it is always good, fresh, and very tasty!
AND FOR DESERT…
You MUST try the Banana Cream Pie!!!
You must, you must, you must!!!
Really… you MUST. Yes, its that good… even after the monstrous garbage Burger… SOOOOOOOOOO worth the misery!
So, in review… when you go here… Get the Garbage Burger…
and what are you getting for desert… hmmmm
YES, the Banana Cream Pie!!! Yes… yesssss, YESSSSSSSS…
Ok, I’m done… and yes, it was good for me!

Max & Erma’s was one of the first places we ate at when we moved here almost a year ago (Time flys!!) and we had a gift card so we decided to go again.
Tuesdays kids eat free so there was a ton of lil boogers running around, but the place is big so it wasn’t that annoying.
Our lil booger had the burger with fries and was happy.
This time he didn’t have the sundae bar (shame on me) but it just didn’t look as good as the one at Easton.
Here they had 4 shakers with sprinkles, fudge and whipped cream, thats it, and only vanilla ice cream.
Easton had a huge spread that was well worth the money, so instead he got ice cream at home.
I had the veggie burger again, delicious like last time, along with asperagus which they burnt to hell, so I got broccoli which was fine.
I shared the new cabo shrimp salad with the man
(our version of sharing, he had the shrimp and tortillas, I had the salad)
it was also great, but for $ 11, I think a burger is a much better value.
He had the garbage burger with fries, which was again also good.
In all I think The prices are a bit high for a chain but the food was good, so was the service, no complaints here.