Max's Bistro - Fresno

For my girlfriend's 40th birthday, we decided to eat at Max's Bistro. It was one of the few local restaurants that was open on a Monday. Ambiance- It is so adorable! Looked like a fancy Italian restaurant in another city. I honestly can't believe I have never been here. A few of my friends were needing to get back home due to it being a Monday so we did not get to see much of the restaurant. We were seated in the back in front of a few gorgeous paintings which showcased their worth. Service- Wonderful, Michella was awesome and so was the front desk host. Food- Crostini appetizers with olive tampanede was good. I ordered an espresso martini because work was tough and I needed a pick me up. It was good and milky and had the 3 bean! Overall, 1st experience was amazing. Planning to return with my husband for date night and wine. Dessert- Molten lava cake, it was good. I ordered it not realizing that they do an icecream for bdays so I just took it home. Lol.

We were very excited to finally try Max 's Bistro and Bar since we heard great things about it. We went on a Saturday evening, and we were pleased to be seated quickly. For starters, we ordered the spicy jerk chicken skewers with basmati rice. This is where things went south. The chicken skewers came and were so thin, the chicken had no flavor of jerk chicken and there was absolutely no spice. The chicken was also very dry. The basmati rice had no flavor as well. It was very disappointing. For entrees, my husband ordered the Kobe meatloaf, I ordered the garlic and herb rack of lamb, and my daughter ordered the cheeseburger sliders. Let 's start with the Kobe meatloaf; the meatloaf itself has no strong flavor profile and it was also dry. The Caramelized tomato glaze was just too sweet to be paired with meatloaf. And the mashed potatoes were just not good. It was bland. The cheeseburger sliders were also very dry, it tasted like the Patties were cooked a while ago and has been sitting in a food warmer. The fries that came with the sliders were probably the best thing on our whole table. The garlic and herb crusted lamb rack lacked everything. There was no garlic and no rosemary on the lamb, and there was no crust. I gotta say, the cook on the lamb was perfection, but there was just no garlic and rosemary crust like how it was described. The thyme jus had no taste of thyme at all. And the Parmesan risotto did not pair well with this dish. And the stem of the wilted kale were inedible. Now onto the service, the service was absolutely terrible. I understand that it was a Saturday evening, but we noticed that our waitress checked on every single table twice before coming to us. And we had already stopped eating for almost 20 minutes. Our water glasses were empty and had no refills. We called for our waitress three times and she never heard us, she just kept walking. We have never been so disappointed in customer service in a restaurant before. Overall, we are very disappointed and may not be returning.

My wife and I went there for our anniversary; made a reservation, got there early and a table was ready. Very greetable front staff, and even the manager was up front welcoming people in. Food was amazing!! (No pictures were taken cuz we chowed down so fast). The wife had the seabass special, and I had the meatloaf. The only downside was the waitress didn't try and upsell us an appetizer, just went straight to dinner after getting our drinks. Max's is definitely a go-to for us!!

Very good service, variety in the menu, meats are high quality and the appetizers were amazing! I like the atmosphere inside, it was edgy and modern show casing a local artist I believe.

Service was incredible! We got seated right away once everyone from our party arrived. Our server so very nice with our big crowd and really patient. She shared their specials and everything sounded really good. Prices were high especially for the quality of food.... We each got something different and tried each others dish. The ratings were 4-7 out of 10(being the highest). We were pretty disappointed with the food and probably wouldn't be our first choice to come back.