Max & Erma’s

Ate dinner here tonight. the tortilla soup is TO DIE FOR!!! and i had a burger and fries which were also very good! the waitress was SO amazing and nice!!!

This review is a warning!!! Please don’t go to Max and Erma’s if you value your life at all. Our last visit summarizes how terrible this place is. We had to sit in the bar because despite the place being empty there was somehow a ten minute wait. The had run out of beer. A meal for four people cost 71 dollars. We couldn’t order appetizer because «the chefs wouldn’t get it right». The one positive about this trip was are waitress. She did a great job. Finally one of my family members got a bud of some kind of green… no idea though. This place is should really just stop turning on their open sign everyday forever.

Dudes, this place has whimsically erratic décor like every other casual dining place on the planet. Why is that the first line to this review? I guess it is what sticks out to me; food was fine, service was fine, parking was fine, everything was just kind of fine. I guess fine is good; better than crappy I suppose. Come here if you’re dying for someone to cook a cheeseburger and bring it to you while you sit in a vaguely sticky booth and surreptitiously check your phone while pretending to listen to your family members’ dubiously interesting stories or tales of woe. I’m not really this cynical… or am I?

OK, went back to Max and Ermas after the previous reviews listed below. Many of the issues were corrected upon this visit. Service was much better, food was very good, hostess stand was organized and not the wreck it was last time. Holding to my word I bumped it to a 4 star review due to the improvement. I spoke to the manager about 3 weeks ago. He actually called me personally. Upon this visit I did not introduce myself because I didn’t want the experience skewed in any way. I also wasn’t looking for anything free or any perk. I was very happy with everything this time. I ordered the spinach and tomato salad which is topped with chicken. It was great, very bold flavor. I was very happy with it. Give it a try if you like bold flavor! Rarely do I ever applaud management for anything as I am a craft employee but it’s evident that issues have been addressed. The manager was actively on the floor and the mood was good and everything flowed well. Thanks so much for paying attention to the Unilocal reviews!
These were my previous reviews:
I was contacted by a Max & Ermas representative and he expressed concerns for the review that I left below. His email was very nice and I appreciated the fact that the company does in fact care enough to read these reviews. I upped my review from two stars to three stars based on the fact that I was contacted and the company cared. I will try this restaurant again and I hope that the service is at least standard if not excellent. I will definitely post back upon my next visit and hope that I can bump this three-​star rating to a four maybe even a five. Thanks again to the company for caring. More often than not that is not the case.
This was the previous review:
We are (or were) pretty regular at this location and mostly had good or at least decent service. That was until Saturday night. We called ahead and got on the list, got there and we were told we were next up, so we thought cool! After 5 other parties were seated who came in later we were a little irritated. So if we were lower just tell us. It would have been cool! Moving on, then we are seated and no silverware. Ok, no biggie, the were in a rush to get table clean! Waitress shows up and puts silverware for entire table and napkins in front of me, guess that was my job! Not cool! I’m starting to flat out irritated. Then drink orders taken, I ordered a beer, there were a few cokes, and the kids drinks. So we’re thinking, ok now it’s cool, right? Nope. Cokes came out, waited additional 7 min for kids drinks and beer (and yes I’m looking at my watch by now). Kids drinks were good but I ordered a Blue Moon and any bartender or waitress who has been doing this job for any length of time knows that it comes with an orange garnish. Heck, it’s on the commercial they run on TV. So now I’m mad. Then food comes out and mine was good but it took a long time (I had fish tacos) but my wife’s burger was cold by the time it came out. At this point I’m done with this Max & Ermas for a while. I work hard for my money and will not give them any more. I might go back but not anytime soon. Then again, I might not. I was so mad I didn’t want to talk to the manager! I was afraid I would cause a scene!

Somehow I end up here all the time. Either someone chooses this spot to meet for lunch, or in this case I was given a gift card and this is the only nearby location. It has become a joke between my wife and I how much of a disaster this place is every time. We have both worked many years in restaurants and this is no doubt a management issue. It’s just poorly run. It’s always understaffed, food takes too long, there is oddly never a host (ess), they always only have one person in the building who can crack the code of taking a carry out order (let me find the carry out person), they put people on a wait when the restaurant is half full, it has a poor beer selection and the food ends up cold sometimes. Other than that its not too bad. Haha.

Ordered the Santa fe salad, which took 30 min to make, and it came with brown lettuce. I told the waitress about it so she went to go get me another one. This took another 15 min. The salad again had brown lettuce and no breadstick. Terribly overpriced for a poorly made salad. I was not impressed.

The problem with a place like this is that they think they are offering you more than they are. Here is what they offered us:
A server so overwhelmed by curbside carry out orders that she would let the door close in the face of a four-​year-​old behind her. Twice.
A hostess who needs to step away to think about where to seat you. Not to look for tables, no just to ponder. Seriously.
A 10 minute wait for menus and a drink order.
A ‘boatload’ of shrimp that is exactly 13 nickel sized fried shrimp. That is conveniently going to cost you $ 13.
A kids cheese pizza that is made with a boboli small crust. I am convinced it is the same one you see hanging in your supermarket pizza aisle.
Windowsills that will have you urging a small child not to lean on them because they’re dirty.
A bill that is 2.5 times the cost of chipotle, which is where we should have gone.

We enjoy Max and Erma’s, but this location is terrible. After four attempts, we are done. We waited for 20 minutes, in spite of there being open tables, our soup came out late, just before our meal, our order wasn’t prepared the way we asked, and we stared at our food for 5 minutes before they brought us silverware. And this was by far the most successful of the four visits. And it wasn’t just is, every table around us received apologies for the issues they’d experienced.

Went to Max And Ermas at their Westerville location on N. State St. Was very disappointed in the lack of service and leadership in management. Went in asked to sit at the bar area and we sat for a good 10 – 15 min in the sight of the bartender/​waiter and not once did he acknowledged our 5 people table. A manager and hostess were in direct eye contact of our table and again no one came to acknowledge our presence. The manager/​hosts was the one that told us we can sit at the table we were in so she clearly knew that we were there. Never again am I giving my business there. We left… And we went to a very nice, super efficient restaurant/​pub down the street called «WENDELL’S.» Go check it out. My 14 year old just told me it was one of the best hamburgers he’s ever eaten!

Once was enough. This place needs to shut down, retool and bring this place out of the 70’s. Either that or ask for help from Robert Irvine.

Ate outside, watching s storm brew-​in. We both picked three-​in the mood for burgers. I had Tortilla soup, my partner a salad. Both were tasty. My burger had egg, cheddar, onion, lettuce, mustard. Partners was cheddar and bacon, tom, lettuce, mustard. Fries for both and cookies for dessert. Everything tasted great, service was good and a good light show!

The staff is always cheerful and knowledgeable. However the service can be slow due to short staffing which is constantly an issue.
The food is fantastic. Bar drinks are a little weak but the servers always make your dinner awesome.

Came in mid weekday for lunch, ordered a philly, onion straws and a coke. It was small, mediocre, and my bill was 18.00 w/​tip! Max and ermas used to be reliably decent food and value. no more. I won’t be going back.

Max and Erma’s did not disappoint me, yet again. The waiter was very friendly and very patient with my group when we didn’t know what we wanted to eat right away. He did a good job at remembering what we ordered without having to write it down.
I had to knock the review down to 4 out of 5 stars for two reasons. 1) They accidentally gave me the wrong burger. It was quickly addressed. 2) The waiter had to have someone else bring out our food and he walked over to wait on a table next to us. I don’t think he was that busy but it doesn’t look good.

Love this place. John is the best bartender ever! He is the definition of customer service. Love the trivia on Thursday nights

This place has become a joke. Agree with the other recent posts. Hello where are you management. The hostess staff are clueless. Walk in, plenty of empty tables, 10 minute wait they say, 30 min later we get seated. The staff look at you like you are bothering them. Food was stable.

I wish I could give zero stars because this place was terrible. We waited for over an hour and never received any food. We had a trainee waitress who had no trainer and she simply never returned to our table. We were very disappointed with this restaurant.

I will preface this review by saying I have made several visits to this particular location, unfortunately the last three visits have been bad.
Visit #1
We called to make reservations a few days in advance for a party of 12 – 15, the person on the phone took our information and said they were looking forward to our visit. Upon arrival, the person at the front desk had no idea we were coming and stuffed all of us in a corner booth with two round tables placed at the end. We made it work, but it was very uncomfortable, not to mention it was freezing outside and we were seated near the patio exit and for some reason people were using that as the entrance door.
Visit #2
My wife an I went a couple of weeks ago, I ordered the tortilla burger and asked for a cup of soup. The server said; «If you do the three course combo it’s cheaper» I told her I didn’t want the «Erma» size burger, I wanted the «Max», Not only did she not know there were two size selections for the sandwich, she argued with me about it! lol, I was too confused by the situation to get angry about it.
Visit #3 and most likely last visit to this location;
My wife, daughter and I went last night after my daughter’s choir concert, When we walked in we were greeted by the host opening the door, the handle on the door pulled the ear-​piece out of his ear and while he dealt with it we walked in, the other host looked at us funny and proceeded to go back to what she was doing without so much as a hello. I work, I understand being busy but she didn’t even acknowledge our presence. Host number 1 comes back in a minute or two later and asks us how many, we tell him 3. He proceeds to look at his board, looks at us, looks at his board again and mumbles «its going to be a while». Mind you, the restaurant is not busy, there are several empty tables. Host 1 disappears without an update on wait time.
While waiting for 5 minutes or so, Host 2 gives us some more weird looks but doesn’t update us on the status. A server from the floor comes up to us and asks if we’ve been helped yet, we reply we think so. Host 1 comes back to the front looks at us, looks at his board, looks at us and walks away again. A few minutes later he shows up, says «follow me» and seats us at a booth with wet seats and a wet table top.
I’m not sure what has happened but the service there recently has fallen off. One of these instances alone would not be enough for me to write a poor review on a place I used to love to go to, but third time in a row is a charm.

What can I say it’s Max & Ermas. My wife loves their salads and the burgers are pretty good. It’s a family place for sure. They have a bar separate from the dining but I’ve never sat there. The staff is usually young students but they do a pretty good job. If you’re looking for a decent place to eat with the family then stop here.

How can I describe this visit other than subpar? The waitress was nice towards the end-​but aren’t they always when it comes to the time to tip? It took her well over 10m to greet and us get our drink order and then we practically had to beg to get refills. The food… oh the food. The «sizzling fajitas» came out in a bowl! A bowl of fajita meat and veggies-​it looked like Chinese food and I had to look around to make sure I wasn’t at a Chinese restaurant. Anyway-​the reviews on this place are on point-​weird smell, okay service, food is awful. Just my humble opinion, but we won’t be back to this particular M&E’s.