Maxwell's Little Bar — Restaurant in Salt Lake City

A Maxed Size Meatball!

As a recent trip, out to SLC for a convention was coming to an end, my wife and I wanted to hopefully find a restaurant that would be good enough to send us out with a hurrah. We hadn't had the most exciting culinary experience the previous few days of being in SLC and our final night in SLC was no exception.

We started with a place called Gracie's which was just a couple of blocks away from our hotel, tired from walking the last few days, learning about one of the worlds' greatest companies from some amazing executives and we just wanted to get some dinner and go to bed. We sat down at Gracie's, ordered a water for my wife and a water, I mean beer for myself. 20 minutes went by and we never saw our server again. Left a few bucks to cover my water and left!

Walked a couple more blocks and ended up at Maxwell's. They had a full list of reservations and we were just about to leave when another hostess stopped us and invited us back in, a table had just cleared and they squeeze us in. It gets busy when the biggest game in Utah is on - Utah vs. BYU and at Maxwell's, it's all red or go home.

Since I already knew that my beverage was going to be water, I just ordered what I already had during our trip, the Hooker Blonde Ale from Park City Brewing. My wife got something sweet, but I'm not able to remember what it was. Drinks arrived and we placed our order for some food. The words "Famous Philly Cheesesteaks" caught my attention and a maxed size meatball caught the attention of my wife AND I. A 10 oz., softball-sized meatball!

As we waited for our food to arrive we learned that Maxwell's was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. So now, I'm getting more excited about what my meal will turn out to be and if we're going to receive what we had been looking for the rest of our visit. As our food arrived, I noticed this enormous meatball and a Philly that looked tasty.

My wife's sgeds' and giant 10 oz. meatball was outstanding! The sauce had really good flavor and the meatball was cooked perfectly and full of flavor. We made sure that there was nothing left of that bad boy. As for my Philly, perfect! If Maxwell's was in Minnesota, it would be towards the top of my top 10 Philly list. Finally, we found a place that gave us what we had been looking for, a quality culinary experience and the service we received while at Maxwell's was also very good. In fact, we spoke to the manager to let her know how wonderful the staff was and how much we enjoyed our meals.

I'm glad we definitely stopped by Maxwell's our last night of our trip and it will be a place we stop back and visit during our 2018 convention...

I can't agree with many of the reviews being given on here. The "best New York Style Pizza in Utah"!? I don't know if the person is trying to insult Utah or simply hasn't eaten a slice of New York style pizza anywhere else. Or how about the reviews that say something to the effect of, "the foods not great but it's convenient and I like the atmosphere." Really?! I'm not a douchebag so I don't need to go to a place to make me feel as though I am part of some scene and downtown has many different options to offer someone. Instead, I go to a place to get something to eat that's good and reasonably priced (I'm willing to pay a little more for something that is good enough to make the price worth it). Unfortunately, I got neither at Maxwell's East Coast Eatery/Fat Kids Pizza.

I dropped in to Maxwell's East Coast Eatery/Fat Kid Pizza to watch the game a little and grab a bite to eat. So, I checked the menu and decided to satisfy a craving I had been having for a slice of New York Style pizza and grab a couple slices. Against my better judgment considering the price for a simple pepperoni slice was going to run me $3.50 ($7 for two) and no New York style slice of pizza is worth that much. Sure enough, this instance was no exception. The pizza didn't even rank in the top 100 of best of New York style pizza I have had. In fact, I have had better pizza at Domino's Pizza which should tell you something. The slices were weak and for $7 I was not happy, not to mention still hungry as the two slices likely came in weighing a measly quarter pound all together. So, for $7 I hadn't even gotten a decent amount of food.

The icing on the cake, the definitive event that guarantees that I will never return, was the menu did not include the soft drinks available or the prices for soft drinks. Unfortunately, I ordered a soft drink when I was seated before I had a chance to look at the menu figuring the price would be reasonable and only when I got a chance to look at the menu did I find that the price was not included with the other menu items. When the check came I found out the soft drink that I had included with my sub par meal cost me an additional $2.50.

All together, two slices of pizza and a soft drink ran me $9.50+tax bringing it to a grand total of $10.95. Absolutely ridiculous. What a rip off. This place is sad, and if you go somewhere for form rather than function, then be my guest go there and help support these guys. But if you go somewhere to spend a little extra to get something worth a little extra then certainly skip Maxwell's East Coast Eatery/Fat Kid Pizza because you will likely be disappointed...

Worse than terrible was the nature of my last two experiences at this "East Coast" Eatery - both times they were closed during their posted business hours. This establishment advertises itself as open until 1:00 AM and ostensibly serves food until the same time, but the past two times I have come to eat, they were already closed and appeared to have been so for at least long enough for all the patrons to have left, the patio chairs to have been stacked and chained-up, the inside to have been cleaned, and all but a few employees to have gone home. The first and only other time I came here, it was also after midnight and also to eat - I was required to pay a $10 entrance fee b/c I was "male and arrived after midnight." Despite paying to enter and merely wanting to eat they would not sit me anywhere, and I had to order at the bar. I was lucky enough to catch the attention of a bar-back whom took my order for food but was unable to take a drink order nor alert the bartender I wanted to order a beer. As I sat eating I was lucky enough to place a drink order. I say "lucky" b/c I witnessed more people wait and never have the chance to order a drink than I witnessed successfully order. The bar was massively understaffed and many people received no service. I heard more people complain to the bar-back about their inability to order a drink than I heard people successfully order one. I am from Philadelphia, and I felt disrespected by this establishment's self-association with the "East Coast," although its overcrowded atmosphere, poor management, and the off-putting attitude of the employees with whom I dealt were quite reminiscent of many of my negative experiences in Philly and the rest of the North-East corridor. I will not waste any more time traveling to this business to find a locked-door during their posted business hours. If you plan to attend, I recommend calling ahead to confirm they are actually open during the business-hours posted on their front-door, website, and Google. ...