Antica Trattoria Max — Restaurant in Ferrara

The length of the dishes list on the menu (about 10 main courses of meat and same for fish) should have been a sufficient deterrent but all the other restaurants in the neighborhood were fully booked. So we tried nonetheless and regretted it immediately. The food is simply not good and we could not finish our starters nor our main courses. One of the main courses (at 28 euros!) was a baked eel: for sure it was frozen food, for the fish flesh was very chewy, damp and tasteless. We wanted to leave before dessert and when they saw our unfinished plates, the staff offered us small pastries (industrial doughnuts with cream on top) that we could not finish either… That’s when they finally insisted on giving us a 9 euros bottle of sparkling red wine… Just to put that into perspective: we had 4 glasses of (way too warm) red wine at 8 euros each! That ridiculously expensive for Ferrara. It’s just a bad restaurant that should focus on the food and reduce the number of dishes drastically. The waiters were very professional and...

A lot of places were closed and we happened across this place. Luckily we were able to get in, as it was quite packed. I believe this restaurant is new as well. The staff was friendly and attentive. Dinner did take 2 hours which we don’t mind but could be a turn off for some people. Since it’s our first and only time eating there this may not be normal. The food was excellent. A lot of flavour and good portions. We also liked that they had a selection of gins and was free poured, which is not too common. We just wish they had better tonic. A gin mare with a schweppes is almost a sin. The only thing we did not like was the inside. We felt it was cluttered and there was too much going on with all the bottles everywhere. We recommended this place to some friends visiting as well so hopefully their experience is similar. Definitely recommend giving this...

The restaurant has a very long menu and you can feel it - both in waiting time as well as in taste and freshness of the ingredients. I know I’ve been on Monday so the ingredients couldn’t have been the best but still if they’re in the offer, they should be well preserved. The dishes were overcomplicated and technically not the best. It’s like someone was trying to do some shortcut and do fancy dining before mastering the most important techniques. The fish was overcooked, the polpo was overseasoned The service was really friendly but moderately helpful and there was a long waiting time. They have a great atmosphere though and nice music in the background. And most of all a wonderful choice of alcohols and...