Max's Place — Restaurant in Franklin

I have just moved back to Franklin after being gone for 2 years and saw that the owners of Max's Place had completely re-designed their location. The owners have known my parents for a very long time so you could say that they were friends. My parents have not been able to get out much as of late and when I saw that they have live music now (which franklin has never had inside a location) I decided I would go see how things have changed. I walked in and the door greeter giving the wrist bands was extremely friendly and nice. I asked if the owner was in and they went and got her. I said hello and re-introduced myself and stated that my parents said to tell her hello and hope all is well. I would have never expected someone who was a friend of ours to act the way that they did. I promptly got an "okay" and a shoulder shrug like I just was wasting her time. I thought well maybe she is busy. I watched for a little while and right after my interaction she went to a lot of people in the place and had smiles and chatting with them like everything was great. Now as a business owner myself I would always make sure that even if I was stressed about something none of my customers would ever be able to tell especially if I owned a business in a small town. That was my first concern of the night. My second concern came when I went to the bar in which there was only three people including myself. I stood there for ten minutes before I decided to hold my wallet in my hand on the bar. I finally got told by the bar tender it will be a few more minutes. All during this time both owners were just standing there and no one even offered to help me other than being told after ten minutes it will be a few more minutes. My third concern is that I have been watching the amazing new foods that have been posted on their Facebook page for a while now and decided with my first trip back to Max's Place that I would love to try one of their famous steaks. Come to find out they closed the kitchen tonight and only had hamburgers and hotdogs. Needless to say I will not be back unless they completely change the most basic thing in business which is customer service. This was very disappointing on a professional level and a personal level.

I am having to edit this due to the owners response… To clarify I DO NOT and HAVE NEVER work for this place and based off of the owners response I can see that they did not even read the review at all…. This review was strictly posted and based on a terrible customer service experience. As a business owner who makes sure to personally answer my reviews please make sure you fully read and understand the review so that your response does not appear to be unfounded...

My husband and I met with my brother and girlfriend for dinner, and arrived shortly after 6:30 on Saturday, Feb 15, 2025. Upon our arrival, the hostess asked if we were staying for the band, and we explained that we were only there for dinner. When our waitress came to the table, we quickly ordered drinks and food. However, when our meals were served, we still hadn't received any utensils or napkins.

While dining, we ordered a second round of drinks, but it took an eternity for them to arrive, and by then, we had already finished our meals. After waiting about 10 minutes, we had to ask for our dirty plates to be cleared and for our bill. When the bill arrived, it was incorrect, even though we had specified when we ordered how to separate it. We waited around 15 minutes before I went to the checkout desk to get it corrected. The owner told me they would fix it once we were ready to leave, and I informed them we were indeed ready. The female owner instructed the waitress to amend our bill.

Once the bill was corrected, we paid and had barely been at our table for five minutes when the male owner approached us. He said, "I know you don't want to pay for listening to the band, but the cover charge is how we pay for them," and essentially asked us to leave. I explained that we had just settled our bill and were about to leave. It was incredibly rude!

We have supported this local business for over a year, even during bike nights when there were only two bikes in the lot—ours and the owner’s. After this experience, I will never return to this establishment or spend my hard-earned money there again. What a disgraceful disservice to the community! If I had wanted to stay for the band, I would have gladly paid, but I was there solely for dinner and was treated with such disrespect.

Edited: I want to mention that if the service had been better, we would have left before the band started, AND the venue wasn't...

I went tonight to have a good dinner with my friends and received the opposite. We waited a while for our drinks however the server apologized because it was her first night. we understood that it was her first night & we had a larger group (10 people). it took about 30 minutes for her to come back & take our order, and then another 45ish minutes to get our food. she also was very uneducated about the menu when anyone had a question. three meals were not brought out and we were told that it was taken to another table by accident and they were remaking it. then it came out and they had an entire meal that was unaccounted for, she forgot to put it in. no big deal i completely understand being overwhelmed, and we told them we no longer wanted the food. the owner, im assuming, came out and was being a total jerk- cussing and being hostile which was very uncalled for because he nobody was angry until this moment. he told us “shit happens” and that since we wouldn’t be back he was going to comp the meals that didn’t come out but he did not and we needed up paying the whole bill because she was confused on how to split it. the whole situation was handled very poorly, when all that needed to happen was for someone to help our server since it was her first night & we were a group of 10. i had high hopes but i most definitely will not be back because of...