Max’s on the Square

We love Max’s. If you want a good breakfast, lunch or early dinner this is your place. The portions are large, food is very good, staff very friendly.

Recommended by hotel concierge. Friendly staff, slow service. Came before the lunch crowd that never really materialized. Took a half an hour for a reuben that was just «alright». Good pickles, though. There were better places in San Fran to eat…

Does anyone know why this Max’s shut down?
There isn’t a notice or change of address on the door, and all of the windows are papered over from the inside.

We had our sites set on dessert and Max’s turned out be an A+ choice. The location is perfect, right on the corner of Geary and Van Ness Ave in the City. Everything looked scrumptious on the menu. The fries are hand cut and the burgers also looked divine. The place was bumpin’ with a crowd of twenty-​and thirty somethings. There were two tables of people from Germany and France surrounding us (I always enjoy picking out familiar phrases from the days when I studied French!).
There’s nothing like a huge crock of cranberry apple cobbler to mask the oily, slimy film of fatty phở (big mistake choosing to dine in China town beforehand…). The desserts were absolutely phenomenal. The hot-​fudge sundae is spot on, as are the pies. Want something to go? Grab a full size pumpkin pie for around $ 12.95. What a deal! They are also no-​sugar added options for the health-​conscious individual like myself.
But, I was on vacation and wanted to splurge. This cobbler was out of a dream. The ratio between crust and filling was prime, and the scoop of vanilla ice cream on top added just the right amount of creaminess to balance the cranberries’ tartness. I could go on forever about this treat. The service could have been a little swifter, but I wasn’t in a rush. Another hit in the heart of the city.

I’ve been here twice over the past few years and each time, they do a decent job. The pricing is a bit overpriced as most Max’s are, but since this is the Union Square location, a lot of it is a bit more than usual. Eh, oh well, my group had some time to kill and our reservation at the ice rink was 10pm. Since a lot of other restaurants were closed early on New Year’s Day, this location had available seating and we got seated within 10 minutes.
Most recently, I had the chicken pot pie and the matzo ball soup. The pot pie was the best item that we ordered. It was huge and even shared amongst two people, it tasted great and gave me that homey, comfortable feeling. The matzo ball soup was good with the matzo balls themselves being okay. My other friend got the roast turkey that came with cranberry jelly, mashed potatoes, and stuffing. She wasn’t too impressed.
No issues with service as our server was very good. I think if the food improves, then I’m most likely to be back here for a pre or post show at nearby Curran Theater.

Used to love this place…
Our meals were quite good, the service was okay, nothing spectacular but not awful. Have had much better service in past visits, but this is not the reason for the 2 stars.
This is my complaint and the reason for the 2 stars:
When our bill came, each entrée ordered was a dollar more than what was listed on the menu. Second, this restaurant charged us an additional $ 4 that was listed as a «Health tax».
Upon inquiry we were told that the prices on the menu were the «lunch» prices and that every entrée is a $ 1 more at dinner time. Huh? Then why not have a different menu at dinner or state that on the menu?
As for the $ 4 «Health tax», this is a tax that the restaurant charges every customer to cover the health insurance cost of Max’s employees. Now I am a bit torn on this issue and I don’t think Unilocal is the appropriate venue for discussion, but again, shouldn’t this be something that is posted on the menu?
I just wonder how many people just pay their bill and never notice these charges?

This is one of the locations that you want to avoid for a host of reason.
Very poor service. Our food sat under the lights so long it over cooked.
The waiter was on his own schedule that did not seem to include customers. He broke several of «Max’s Rules» that would have required free food and such as my son pointed out to him but he just shrugged it off.
Asked for OJ and it took him 15 minutes to bring it. Never around when you needed something. Was unhappy with the small tip we left for poor service. Maybe he did not understand that these days you have to work for a tip. Writing out the order and then having a bus boy serve you gets you 50 cents for the effort.
Food was bland. Not much better than Denny’s

Rolled in with 10 people at 9:30pm on a Sunday night when they close at 10pm and they didn’t blink twice to take a party so large, which was nice.
I ordered the Max Burger with sweet potato fries and the Canadian ordered a Reuben sandwich. My hamburger was good but the bread was a bit overpowering the burger so I only ate the top piece of bread. The Canadian took a bite of the entire thing and he said the bread tasted really stale. The sweet potato fries were good but how can you really mess up sweet potato fries?
I took a bite of the Canadian’s Reuben Sandwich and all I could taste was sauerkraut. That bitterness and the thousand island dressing was a bit overpowering and too much. The thousand island was doused onto the sandwich, the sauerkraut they piled on the sandwich was enough to be a side dish in itself, and the rye bread was dripping with butter. YIKES! He later walked away to take a call and I sneaked some of his corned beef meat and ate it alone with the horseradish mustard. That combination alone was good in itself (just corned beef meat and horseradish mustard and nothing else).
His side order of fries were OK but the onion rings were more like fried small slivered onion with no batter and came out a bit cold and mushy. I didn’t even bother going in for another helping of either, nor bother with any of the different mustards to see if I could make them taste better after some experimental mustard dipping.
For dessert we ordered the peanut butter mousse cup, which was basically peanut butter mousse with chocolate in a crust cup with chocolate ganache and covered with peanuts. It looked delicious in the window when we were waiting to get seated and since our dishes were just ok, we still had enough room. It was the BEST thing we ordered! Lots of peanut butter flavor and the offset of chocolate, crust and nuts gave it the perfect crunch and just balanced everything else out. Redemption!
Two stars for food. One more star for the surprisingly delicious peanut butter mouse cup!

My first time at Max’s yesterday evening and I have to say I was thoroughly pleased. I must admit it wasn’t my first choice but am happy my boyfriend and I stumbled upon this restaurant after doing some window shopping at the galleries down the street. I had wanted to go to the Cheesecake Factory because I was craving for the cheesecake but the wait was 45+ minutes & when you’re hungry no one wants to wait that long. So… here we were at Max’s!
We were pleasantly greeted by the hostess who led us to our table. We perused the menu, reading all of Max’s Laws (which are pretty clever), chatted and waited for someone to take our order. 10 minutes passed and our waiter came, took our order, brought us our mustards, water and we were set for the evening. I ordered the Jambalaya pasta (fettuccine pasta, peas, chicken, sausage and shrimp) and my boyfriend ordered the Cheese steak (delicious. That’s the only word I have for it.). What made the night even better was stumbling upon a nice perk after «checking in» at Max’s on The Square, I received a free slice of chocolate cake! Dessert is to die for but free dessert is YUMMY!

Come here with a hungry belly, they have large portions and great American styled food!
I came here for dinner and loved the calm ambiance and the freshness of their food, not forgetting to mention the great service.
The wait was not long probably like 5 minutes top, it was a packed house– that usually means good things!
I had ordered a Raspberry Spritzer and the Fettuccine with Slow Roasted Tomatoes and Capers Pasta topped with Grilled Chicken. 3 types of rolls were brought to the table, a sourdough, an onion and a raisin bread along with butter. The rolls were nice and hot.
My Spritzer was large enough to make me feel like a little kid, delicious Raspberry syrup with Pellegrino. The sweetness and the dryness of the sparkling water was a nice contrast.
My pasta came out and it was probably the best pasta I’ve had thus far, the noodles were perfectly cooked there were 2 large whole roasted tomatoes which were tart and sweet. The capers added a good bite and the grilled chicken was moist and gave off a complimenting smokey flavor to the dish. My favorite thing about this dish was that my pasta was piping hot, I had to wait a bit before eating it all. That’s true quality and freshness.
I love that they have rules here, I tried seeing if their staff would forget our Mustard caddy so we could have a slice of cake and my date kept insisting the woman next to us was a critic– which I insisted was just a regular woman who had just ordered a nice wine for herself that night.
The staff here is so friendly and they check up on your table often. It’s a great place for a long dinner to share with others. They don’t rush you!

My husband and I went for breakfast.
The orange juice was pretty decent and the portion was a good size considering it was part of our «free» euro breakfast.
I had the pastrami and eggs which was hot and a large portion. It was pretty tasty.
My husband had the blackstone eggs benedict which he enjoyed.
The service was ok, although I wish they were more dilligent about toping up the coffee cup. They never came around to check if we wanted a refill we had to ask each time.
I would probably go again but would like to venture and try out some new restaurants.

Pros:
Location, location, location.
Cons:
The food is mediocre, but it will fill you up before a play or for whatever other reason you are in Union Square.
Fun:
I went here in high school on a field trip. I’m guessing they draw on a lot of that type of clientele? (people who came in to SF by the busload)

I’ve definitely had Max’s sandwiches at catered events, but it was definitely tastier than I remembered.
We walked in and sat down to one of the other servers yelling, «Go back to your country.» Completely out of context, but it was amusing. Our server was kind of cold and had no affect. Strange since gay servers will usually recognize «family» and be warmer. Not so here, apparently.
Place is probably 3 stars, but we came in ravenous and ready to eat anything and everything, so that bias bumps up my review. Not sure how that works, but okay, moving along. I had the sourdough tuna melt, which was huge. Large melted blob of tasty and unhealthy mayo’d up tuna with capers, avocado, tomato, and dill havarti all smashed up between toasted and buttered sourdough slices. Add in the fact that you’re given a whole basket of rolls (raisin and plain) and a meal here is definitely a carbo fest. Per the rules, we were given a selection of mustards. Since this came at the same time as the bread, we definitely buttered up the rolls and then taste tested the mustards like the classy people we are.
The wraps look tasty here, but that could just be the bright green wrapping. Huge dessert pies and cakes, could be worth a try. Matzoh ball soup was tasty here too based on the one spoonful I had.

****************** REVIEW 336 ******************
I sometimes come here for pre-​show at the Curran Theater or when I have a fashion show at Slide next door. This time was no different, pre-​show at Slide last Thursday night. I wanted some comfort food before the call-​time (for make up & hair done, before a fashion show prep).
Came in & order my usual favorite Matzo ball soup, and this soup they especially made fresh daily. It’s hard to find a place to serve this soup good. When I was living in NY, plenty places serve it, but not here San Francisco.
Max’ Matzo ball soup with plenty of noodles, carrot, celery, 2 giants Matzo balls, shredded chicken & extra fresh pepper. It was raining outside & this just hits the spot! An the Not-​So-​Mini Reuben corned beef or pastrami, so meaty good.
They also have plenty of yummy sandwich: Meat loaf, Brisket, Pastrami, you can’t go wrong with these.
Service depends on how busy they are, it can get ugly when it’s pre-​show time.

Oh my goodness, why do I let my friends talk me into eating at these tourist traps??? Friends, don’t let friend’s eat at chain restaurants in Union Square! That being said, I understand I still let myself get coerced into a slighty gimmicky restaurant that preys on the weak who read the promises of a good reuben sandwich, a variety of mustards on the table and matzo ball soup. I believe the phrase on the door is something like, «Get in here and eat.»
My friend heard of an incredible grilled cheese sandwich and could not be swayed in any other direction. So we agreed to humor him and walked in after walking past many other suitable choices. We were greeted at the door by a host trying to get around an older woman (who I’d have to assume was the manager) stifling a server who was complaining about a table being taken away from her section. He was pleasant enough but gave me the creeps as he kept giving us leering looks as he passed us our menus. Gross.
We ordered sodas and iced teas to start off with and our exceptional server placed a hot tea pot and a glass of ice promptly in front of me moments later. I’ve never had iced tea served that way and while that little touch alone is not enough to bring me back, I did appreciate that small detail. My friends ordered potato latkes as an appetizer and club sandwiches while I went with an old standard-​Cajun Jambalaya with papardelle noodles.
The latkes were brought to the table and they did look good but halfway through eating, my friend noticed something funny about the applesauce. I wasn’t eating any of the latkes myself and preferred to save room for the entrée but at his request, I took a sampling of the applesauce and promptly spit it out. I don’t know how no one noticed fermented applesauce was being served all day but I advised them both to stop eating the sauce and just work on the sour cream. Since there were only 2 latkes left on the plate, they were just put to the side and forgotten thanks to my advice.
The standard carousel of mustards were dropped on the table, quickly followed by the club sandwiches, fries and my pasta. My pasta was average at best considering the shrimps were overcooked and balled up tight and quite hard to bite into. My pasta was also the furthest thing from al dente and could not even be twirled with a fork due to the starch breaking up upon the impact of a fork. I did enjoy the spices though and a couple dashes of chili pepper helped liven it up a little more. The food was pretty mediocre and made me thoroughly regretful of dining here but the service was enough to not give it one star. During the entire course of the meal, our server was always present and diligently keeping up on our table maintenance and I did appreciate that.
Needless to say, we didn’t stay for dessert due to the still bad taste in the mouths of those who consumed applesauce. Having close access to the bathroom would have been lovely also but the nearest restroom in the hotel next door and shared with hotel guests.

My wife and I ate breakfast here last Friday morning. I had the corned beef scramble and it was excellent. Big thick pieces of meat just the way I like it. The home fries were excellent as well. Crispy with slices of onion. My wife had some healthy vegetarian omelet which was good if you like that sort of thing. Anyway, the real reason for this review was their banana bran muffin thing. OMG! Soooo good. Hot, fresh and fluffy. Wow!
Both the service and prices were good.

I thought this place had pretty good salads. I ate here twice while I was in San Francisco because it was close to the hotel and an easy place to get a salad. The salads were huge and I would have been happy with once about half the size of mine. I wish my pears had been a little riper, but that’s pretty much my only complaint. The service was great and they put up with us and our 2 year old.
My son adored the Macaroni and cheese.

The only good things that came out of lunch today
1. The sweet potato fries were pipping hot
2. I made a casserole type dealio with the leftovers that tasted a million times better than the food we had at the restaurant
Seating: twenty minutes. fine no big deal
From when we sat to getting our drinks/​orders: 30 minutes
From getting drinks/​orders to food: 1 hour
Although the food servings are huge. the slowness of the wait staff was ridiculous.
We ordered our food at the same time as another table who was next to us but they got their food and left before we got ours… next time I want that male waiter… the cooks obviously like him better… our food was tepid when we got it… except for the sweet potato fries… by this time although «if you don’t like it we will make it right» is one of «Max’s rules» shit. no offense but I am not going to waiter another 30 – 1 hour to get semi hot meal…
The chicken soup was well liked by dad… the reuben sandwiches would have tasted better if they had been hot (according to the people who ordered them in our party)… the salads were okay… the chicken was dry (someone in our party ordered a chicken sandwich… the bacon cheese burger and the angus sliders… the bf and i only ate half of our order (they were luke warm upon arriving to the table).
The desserts looked stellar (the huge fantasy torte… the cookies… the seven layer bars. the macaroons the size of a baby’s head)…if we return we are just getting coffee and dessert…
so to recap
1. service is hugely inconsistent
2. sweet potato fries are good
3. huge desserts make my eyes shine

booooo! Max’s your customer service has just killed it for me.
If you aren’t familiar with Max’s menu, there are Max Laws on the edges. The premise behind these laws is to make it more enjoyable for the customer. It’s these same laws last night that shot them in the foot. (they have one that says if you point out a food critic you get something free — it was very hard for my BF to keep his mouth shut, knowing I’d be Unilocaling this the next day)
The BF and I popped in after seeing a show, and knowing the servings are huge (big plus) decided to split a few things.
Tim our waiter greeted us and asked for our drink order. I got a diet coke and the BF asked for water at that point in time and would get back to him. He brought our drinks, and then came back to take our food order.
Thai Wings
Lamb Sliders
Bistro Salad
and sweet potatoe fries.
Only they were out of sweet potatoe fries. (boo!)
(everything OK so far slightly sad about the SPFs but what ever)
Bread and Butter came. — yummy. They really do make outstanding sourdough.
Salad came. Salad had bacon, blue cheese, pecans and grapes tossed in a lemon vinegarette. Nice presentation, the dressing was horrid, nothing lemony about it, and it had a funky whiteness to it which isn’t usually expected in a dressing labeled «vinegarette»
At this point in time BF requested Coffee.
Right on the heels of the salad, the rest of the food came:
Thai Wing. These were awesome. No two ways about it. I would almost come back just for like 6 plates of these wings.
Lamb burgers with fried onion strings. Onion strings were greasy, really really greasy and on the soggy side. boo. the lamb meat was over cooked to a med-​well burnt edge state. The buns were also over grilled and hard around the edges with little burnt spots on the top. The peppers, cheese and sauce on the burger were delightful and helped the over cooked lamb slide down.
and that was the last we saw of our waiter until he dropped the check. No checking in 4 minutes after our food was delivered (a Max law) to make sure we had everything we needed. No bringing of the coffee that was requested. No. Nada.
We then watched as he brought dessert to another table, and after he dropped the check, they requested a togo box for the left over dessert and also mentioned that they were never served their tea and coffee (I’m seeing a pattern here)
Finally Tim came back. He had our check in hand. It was only after he set it down, he asked if we wanted dessert. (um, no. and you can keep the coffee too)
For a restaurant who seems to pride themselves on such service, it was such a disappointment.
I was a huge fan of Max’s for a long time, the brownies are a hallmark of my childhood. The Thai wings are incredible. and I may one day return to have another order with a brownie, but it won’t be any time soon.

I’m not sure why I bother asking my hotel concierge for breakfast recommendations when I have the new handy dandy Unilocal Blackberry App, but sometimes I’m a slow learner. And that’s how I ended up at Max’s for a quick breakfast…
I kept it simple and ordered some scrambled eggs and a banana bran muffin. I was really excited for the muffin (I’ve got a thing for bran muffins), but the waiter came back and nicely informed me they were out of them. Sigh… I ordered a carrot pineapple muffin instead. And it so wasn’t the same! And the scrambled eggs were as exciting as scrambled eggs could be.
We got what we asked for– a quick breakfast. But I’m guessing if I“d used my Unilocal App I would have found a quick AND tasty breakfast! Lesson learned!