Chez Max — Restaurant in Dublin

I am not one for writing Google reviews. In fact, I don't think I ever have before. However, upon seeing that others have had similar unfortunate experiences as myself, I feel it only necessary that this restaurant's disrespectful and unprofessional customer service should be highlighted.

My boyfriend called this restaurant to make a booking during the summer. He was told that they weren't doing any more bookings at the time (this was during covid when restaurants were only doing outdoor seating). He was told to show up at 5pm when the dinner service would start and we would be able to get a table without issue as they had tables specifically for walk-ins.

I showed up at 4.45pm while my boyfriend was trying to park the car. I approached the waitress and asked her if I could have a table for two. She deferred to another waiter who asked if I had a reservation. I explained that I did not, but that we were told over the phone that they would have tables for walk-ins. He gave me a blunt "No". I asked "oh, really?" as I was rather surprised that I had just walked past easily a dozen empty tables on my approach to the front door, with only a handful being clearly marked as 'reserved'. The waiter was short with me again and said "No." I gestured over my shoulder at the empty tables and asked "there isn't even anything for later?" Again, I was met with a "No."

I left the restaurant knowing that they were refusing to seat me despite having tables (I was dressed well, so not sure how this could be the issue). I called my boyfriend and told him he would have to come in and ask for the table. I waited in the car while he went to the restaurant. They told him he could have a table but that dinner service didn't start until 5pm. However, he was told he could sit down and have a drink in the meantime.

Those who wrote comments about similar experiences were given excuses as to why they were refused service, and I would like the opportunity to rebut any excuse you have the audacity to make up, given that I was bluntly refused service while my boyfriend was not. Please, feel free to explain yourselves.

EDIT - IN RESPONSE TO YOUR COMMENT:

This series of unfortunate events took place on 11 June 2021.

I understand that there is a break in service to allow the staff to prepare for dinner service. However, after the waiter bluntly refused me a table at 4.45pm, I explicitly asked if there would be tables available later and he still told me "No." There was no explanation given nor had I even been told at this stage that dinner service didn't start until 5 and that this was the issue.

To clarify, we were not seeking to have just a drink. We wanted a table for dinner, which is what my boyfriend was told he could have but ADDITIONALLY he was told he could sit and have a drink in the meantime while we waited for it to be 5pm. Not only was this courtesy not extended to me, but I was point blank refused service. Why was there a discrepancy in how you treated me compared to my boyfriend?

With regards to your language barrier excuse: I originally approached a female waiter who appeared to be a native English speaker. While she deferred to a male waiter who may have been French, she remained present for the entire conversation. Had there been a language barrier between myself and the male waiter, your female waiter should have interjected as it was clear-as-day in English what I was asking for. And to paraphrase you: a language barrier is no excuse for bad manners.

To be completely honest, from reading similar reviews and having my own experience, I cannot help but wonder if your restaurant likes to pick and choose their customer-base and for some reason, unbeknownst to me, I did not meet your criteria. I would love to know what this criteria is, should it exist. If this is the case, I think your business should reconsider your game plan, as being a selective and exclusive restaurant is of no benefit to you when you have a dozen empty...

Only 1 star for my last visit unfortunately. I wasn’t in a position to say anything at the time as I was entertaining a group of 5 guests and it would have been poor manners to call out the service there and then but I have shared this feedback directly with Chloe yesterday. I have been a regular visitor to Chez Max and always had great experiences but last Saturday’s lunch was extremely disappointing. We were a party of 6, booked for 3pm and it really felt like we were allocated some sort of ‘B team’. The service was particularly poor, the waiter who served us had poor English and when I tried to engage in French as this is my native language, he didn’t interact at all. He seemed bored with his job and we were made feel like we were a nuisance in the middle of his day. The restaurant advertises it serves lunch until 4pm and we were not walk-ins so I would have expected a bit more enthusiasm on his part to look after us. The lunch was particularly costly at €248 and whilst the food is always good, I felt on this occasion, the hard working team in the kitchen was badly let down by the servers. At this time of day, the restaurant wasn’t busy but somehow the server struggled to keep pace. We had to chase water twice, we asked for fries to be replaced by mash, this was forgotten and arrived only after the steak was consumed (and charged extra!). We had to chase a chocolate mousse which had also been forgotten. At no point did any of the serving staff ever smiled, apologized or asked how our meal was. It really felt like we were in the way, and clearly we were… at 5.15pm we were asked could we free up the table as a group had arrived ‘early’ – the restaurant was empty! Chloe happened to be there on Saturday and remembered the interaction, she had no explanation for all of this except that the server was ‘new’. I would have thought it would be the job of a Manager to stay particularly close to new staff and jump in where needed, also smiling and apologizing for errors should come naturally, new staff or not. To top all this, I discovered the next day the restaurant had charged a €26 ‘tip’ to my bill – without my consent or knowledge. I had decided not to leave a tip as the service was well below par for such a costly lunch but to discover this was added to my bill anyway really made the whole...

Myself and my partner popped in to Chez Max on Saturday 16th. We were after a glass of red and perhaps something to nibble on like a cheese board. We walked in to ask for a table, and the waitress let us know service had ended for the afternoon (it was about 3pm) so we were happy to stay for wine anyway. About 15-20 minutes later, another couple walked in to the restaurant, and came back out to sit on the table in front of us on the terrace/patio. I heard the woman say ‘Yes, a charcuterie board is exactly what we need’. A waitress came out to them with menus to which the woman replied, ‘We’ve already ordered, so we’ll only need the wine list’. A bit later the waitress brought out a lovely charcuterie board for the couple. Seeing this, my partner asked if we could order something like this. The waitress went in to discuss with another waiter, and then let us know that unfortunately that was the last order. This made no sense as we had already been told, 20 minutes prior to this couple’s arrival, that food service had finished. It later became apparent that the couple were possibly regulars, as a couple waiters came out to chat with them in French, talk about the rugby and ask if everything was okay with their food. I’m a French-speaker myself and could quickly gather the couple must be familiar to the staff and the restaurant, but this was such a bizarre and unprofessional way of treating our request for food. My partner and I are both in the industry ourselves, and being front of house I have definitely witnessed preferential treatment to certain customers. However, in my experience, this very blatant preferential treatment would never be given directly in front of other customers who had asked for exactly the same thing. It was very odd frustrating, as we weren’t expecting special treatment if the kitchen was closed, but clearly it was not closed to that other couple. We had been eyeing this restaurant up for a while as it looks (and is) so cosy, but due to this experience we unfortunately...