Not our first time at max downtown, but likely the last. My wife and I occasionally are able to step away from the kids for a bit and go to dinner. We were very much looking forward to the excellent service that we enjoyed previously. We’ve been Max vantage members for quite some time as well, not that it really matters.

We sat down, ordered our apps, drinks, food. Drinks and apps came out just fine. Entree comes, my filet was well done when ordered medium. No big deal it happens. If only I knew where our server went. He said he would be right back but didn’t actually come back. I had to flag down the assistant manager who took the steak and said they would make me a new one, would be right out just a minute or two. Tick tock, 5/10 mins later the steak comes out, just as my wife finished her entree. So now we have to eat separate. But wait, the new steak is now medium rare, still not as ordered.

They offered to bring it back yet again but since we had limited time we wanted to move things along, and again my wife had already finished her entree, didn’t want to eat alone. They ended up just packing up the steak to go. Not sure I’m going to enjoy microwaved filet tomorrow but not the point. At this point no comp drinks offered no comp bottle of sparkling water, nothing.

On to dessert, ordered baked Alaska and soufflé. Told the soufflé would take 15 mins, no problem, we usually love the desserts here. Not offered coffee, cappuccino when ordering dessert. 15/20 mins go by, our server brings out baked Alaska, soufflé will be right out….asked if we wanted cappuccino, would have been great 20 mins ago but too late. 5/10 mins later still no soufflé and we have finished the baked Alaska. Asked Brendan the general manager for a word and told him we were extremely disappointed with this experience, we rarely get a night out, this is not the max experience we expected. Sorry sorry sorry was the response and he would take a few things off the check.

Our server was monotone, not responsive, just came off as not caring. Didn’t apologize once. Sort of avoided the table to be honest after the entree issue. Again when you are paying top dollar at the “flagship” max restaurant you expect a high quality of service. This is not a fast food restaurant.

I said something to Brendan on the way out about how this was horrible experience and a date night ruined that we don’t get to enjoy too frequently. Again just an apology. I also suggested that the entire meal should have been taken care of which I believe would have been the right thing to do. I recognize Brendan will be reading this so when you do, how would you feel in my shoes, out for a special night with your partner/friend and the same thing occurred. Imagine you had to eat 15 minutes later than the person you came with, because someone couldn’t cook a steak appropriately. Is this truly the experience that people should have leaving your restaurant? We both know the answer, you know what you should have done and your team failed. You could have made it right in the moment, taken care of the meal and perhaps even invited us back. But you didn’t do those things, you just said sorry. It’s a lot simpler to be the manager when walking around saying hello to people, a little tougher when things go wrong. We were looking for a response such as “how can we make this right?” Or “we don’t want you leaving feeling unhappy”. But instead received a “sorry”.