Max Fish — Restaurant in Glastonbury

My wife and I typically go to Max Downtown, and for her birthday she wanted to try Max Fish for the first time. The experience is one that will make sure we never return.

Ambiance: the first thing we noticed was how loud the restaurant was. Sure, it was a busy Saturday night, but even without all the chatter from customers, music was being blared throughout the main area of the restaurant, making it feel like a club, not fine dining. In addition to all the noise, the ambient temperature in the restaurant was over 90 degrees. It was so hot, my wife had to take off her thin long sleeve shirt and just wear her tank top. You guys ever hear of air conditioning? I shouldn’t have to show up in the winter wearing a tshirt and jeans, because Max Fish doesn’t want to pay to run the AC.

Appetizers: we ordered a mixed selection of clams from the raw bar, and the calamari appetizer. Before I stopped eating any more, 3 of the 4 clams I ate had MULTIPLE shards of shell in them. Apparently Max Fish can’t even hire a clam shucker who can do it right for the obscene prices they charge. As for the calamari, it arrived a clumped up greasy mess (there was so much grease the breading fell off) OVERLOADED with salt. Don’t get me wrong, I put salt on everything, but there was so much salt on the calamari it would make your lips pucker. And then when I asked the waitress to take it away, she responded with “we’ll tell them not to put much salt on.” How about you just tell them not to put 10x the recommended daily intake of salt on the calamari?

When taking it away, she did offer to remake or bring out another appetizer and that they would be comping it. The fool I am, I agreed to try something different, but equally as bad, the stuffed clams. The stuffed clams lacked any taste, because 95% of it was breading, onion, and red peppers, with a few chunks of chorizo in each clam. I’ve had better stuffed clams from Highland Park Market.

Soup: I’m always one to try New England clam chowder anywhere I go, so I went for a bowl. Have you ever heard of a seafood restaurant that uses frozen/canned clams? Well, that’s what you’ll get at Max Fish. The taste of the soup was fine; not the best, but what was worse was how chewy the clams were. It made it apparent that there were no fresh clams in the soup.

Entree: After all the misses with the rest of the meal, I ordered the Waygu bavette steak medium to play it safe. They made sure to make me regret that choice as well. The steak arrived cooked rare, and when I mentioned it to the hostess, who came over to check if we were happy with our entrees, she took the plate to have them fix it. Unfortunately, apparently Max Fish cooking staff think the appropriate way to address an undercooked steak is to just heat it up some more. What kind of fine dining restaurant HEATS UP an undercooked steak, and throws it back on the same plate? How cheap and lazy are your cooking staff? That isn’t even acceptable in a mom and pop restaurant, let alone a chain that specializes in fine dining.

Dessert: after our experience with the rest of the courses, my wife just wanted to go home, and not get desert. The waitress offered it to us on the house, so we took some home with us. Not going to get into the details here, but even the premade desserts they have leave much to be desired - it reminded me of the quality of desserts at a casino buffet.

I can’t blame the wait or host staff for what happened, and they tried to do their best to fix all the problems. However, Max Fish doesn’t live up to the Max name, or even resemble a fine dining establishment in any way other than their pricing. The chefs and general manager should be ashamed of how they run the place. We will never be going back here any day of the year, let alone for...

Food was Great, Portions are much too large! I ordered their Beet and Barrata salad. It was amazing, even my wife who is not and adventurous eater enjoyed it. The pickled beets had different flavors and textures and the mozzarella really set off the flavors. I would definitely order it again. My wife had the Tuna Tare Tare lettuce cubs as an appetizer. Those were underwhelming. Lacked flavor. That's unfair. They had flavor but it wasn't very impactful. If you like your tare tare with a subtle flavor, you may enjoy this. For dinner my wife had the Sesame Seared Tuna with brown rice and a Miso tahini. This was an excellent dish and another would order again. I had the Seafood Paella. The Scallops in this dish were perfection! Sweet which a satisfying bite. The entire Paella was delicious. To be completely honest this is not as flavorful as a Paella you would get made to order in Spain, that is on a different level. Regardless this was very good. None of the seafood was overcooked which is not easy to do. Now one of the issues we both had here, the portions were massive, Not something I generally complain about, I over leftovers but neither of these dishes would reheat well. I was very sad to waste so much food. We both barely ate half our dinner and I'm not a small person. We had to leave room for desert as we looked at the desert menu before dinner and some things caught our eyes that we had to try. First off was the Creme Brulee, this was one of the best Creme Brulee's I have ever had! That is no small statement. Easily in my top 5 around the world. My wife never understood my love of this dish until she tried this one. She was hooked! I had the Max Hot Fudge sundae. This thing was massive and could have easily been shared by 2 people. This would be a perfect desert to share on a date.. the ice cream was smooth and creamy. The fudge was awesome but the Star of this show was the caremelized bananas! Man these were amazing! I could just have these bananas alone on a plate and I would be happy! It's basically a sliced banana with the Creme Brulee sugar layer on one side! This is a must order! This place was expensive but...

Came to Max Fish for a fancy night out. Left disappointed. By the end of it including tip, a drink each, a soup, an appetizer, and two mains, we spent over $200. Keep that in mind.

We got the artichoke dip and a cup of lobster bisque to start. Bisque was good, but we felt like it could use some salt.

The dip was watery, had too much spinach which was strangely kept whole, and they only gave us four tiny baguette pieces.

For our mains, we got surf n tuff filet mignon and the stuffed lobster, and I got a Paella.

The filet was cooked perfectly and tender. The potatoes were creamy, but once again, were under seasoned.

The stuffing for the stuffed lobster, once again, tasted under seasoned. The shrimp mixed in the stuffing was overcooked and rubbery. The lobster meat itself was fine.

Most disappointing however was the Paella, a Spanish dish historically meant to have bold flavours and spice. The rice did not taste seasoned. The shrimp was overcooked. The scallops and clams were fine, but nothing to write home about. The only thing that tasted of spice was the sausage which there was only a small amount, and even then, did not wow me.

At least however, the drinks were nice and the server was kind. I appreciated her boxing up our food for us. Also, the bread and butter was tasty.

As for the atmosphere, it felt dark where we were seated, and the music was a strange pop mix. For such expensive food I was expecting classier music.

Word of the day here is SEASONING. I genuinely felt like they did not put standard seasonings into each of the things we ate. Salt, Pepper, Garlic and onion are basics that a restaurant at this price level should have down pat. I cannot recommend this place...