Max and Louie's New York Diner — Restaurant in San Antonio

July 2025 I had a friend come to town and thought it might be nice for them to get a little taste of home at Max and Louie's. We arrived for dinner. I order the French Toast (its really good here), another ordered was Chicken Fingers (there are 2 sizes), and Tuna, Chicken, and Egg Salad.

In traditional fashion, it was ALL good

March 25 2025 Stopped by Max and Louie's for breakfast, while my car gets serviced at a nearby dealership. I bought a friend breakfast if they would pick me up at the dealership, have breakfast and take me back.

I had the French Toast with 2 eggs and bacon, and bloody mary. My guest had the country breakfast - biscuits, gravy, eggs, bacon and hash browns. They also got a cup of coffee from Melvin's (located nextdoor to Max). I've add some pictures and videos for review.

Shelby, our server, was good, efficient and professional.

Just an FYI, this place will not allow you to bring in a thermos of your own coffee.

Jan. 1 2025 We were looking for a place for breakfast on New Year's Day and pleasantly found Max and Louie's was open. The three of us decided to go there and get some breakfast. We arrived around 8:30 am. and were quickly seated and greeted by Twana (known as T). She knew the menu and everything about the place very well, and after watching her work, you could tell she was a tenured employee.

It was my second time, and another one of us one of us needed some additional time, as it was their first time.

T returned with our drinks orders, water, and coffee. We place our order Pork Chops with vegetables of the day and side salad, French Toast, and the NY Deli Hash and eggs.

The food arrived, looked and was delicious, and was plentiful.

I really like this establishment and hope you will take the time to visit and have the experience we enjoyed.

Notes Pictures of the food are attached to this review. Additionally, Twana let us know about a new place that opened next door, a specialized coffee bar, ice cream parlor, and expresso place named, Melvin's.

December 13, 2024 We were looking for a different place to try out for breakfast. I had passed by Max & Louie's many times and just thought it was a lunch, dinner place, high end at that. In doing some research, I found out they serve breakfast, too.

So, today was the day to give them a try. We arrived on Wednesday morning, 12/18, at around 9:30 a.m., and luckily the place was not too crowded. The parking lot was fairly full, so I had some concerns about the wait time before I opened the front door. The staff member there greeted us in a courteous and professional manner. They asked how many people would need to be seated, and I indicated two people. They took us to a booth back in the corner of the restaurant, and I was just really captivated by the inside interior, atmosphere, and layout on the diner. It just grabs you in a real nice way and takes you back in time to a 1960s - 1970s diner environment. Wholesome feeling, good service, good amount of food for you money. Family owned and meals made from scratch. What more could you ask for?

Our server, Sara, greeted us and made sure we were seated well and had all of our utensils. She then took our drink orders, coffee, and water, and upon returning with our drinks, she took down our food orders for breakfast.

I ordered the French Toast with a side of 2 eggs (scrambled) and bacon (I requested the bacon crispy). The other order was eggs Benedict.

The food arrived within 15 to 20 minutes, and the presentation was great (see pictures). The food tasted even better than it looked. My eggs were made to a soft light and fluffy texture - perfect for me and my bacon crispy. For me, it was nice to get something delivered to the table exactly as I would have cooked it at home. The other dish looked and tasted great, too.

I will say that I now understand why the parking lot was full over the many years I passed by this place. This is a little gem.

Just know that I will definitely be back !

I also hope that if you decide to visit that your experience will be as...

This is such a hard review I want to give them a two or two and a half but 3 is too good but I'm going to have to leave it as a 3 . I was originally going to Magnolia Pancake Haus and the line was very long and on the way in we passed Max & Louie's so I went to this restaurant on the recommendation of another East Coast native that said it had some good stuff. So I went with a level of expectation that was not met up to the so i was a little disappointed. Let me start by saying they call themselves and New York diner that's a tall order to fill because the avarage New York diner the service is quick they have a huge assortment of all kinds of foods and everything is served hot and fresh, down to the pickles that they usually make in their basement, the fresh coleslaw, and bread and pastries that are either made in house or delivered daily. If you go to most diners in New York the first thing they greet you with this would you like coffee or something to drink and usually on the table they Place either a bowl of their homemade pickles or some coleslaw and definitely a basket full of bread this was completely missing at Max & Louie's .Most diners in and around New York City Long Island brooklyn-queens are all owned by Greeks nowadays but we're definitely started from Romanian or Russian or Eastern European and of Jewish descent. I ordered an assortment of different foods that would be Regional things to the north-east New York and New Jersey a potato latke, a hot potato knish ,hot pastrami sandwich, cheese blintzes, loaded french fries with cheese and pastrami and an 1/2lb Angus avocado bacon burger. Our server Omar was very attentive. It was not his fault that the restaurant was completely packed and it took us nearly ten minutes just to get two coffees and 2 waters and a chocolate egg cream. The servers that served our food not Omar another two people we're just interested in getting food on the table fast did not even bother to ask who had the burger or who had the pastrami they put all the food in front of me and I had to hand it out to everybody. I could go into great detail on the food like the knish was frozen and then thrown in a deep fryer instead of baked , 1/2 pound Angus burger it was completely dry and thin and pressed not a real hand formed burger, the pastrami sandwich was packed with a lot of meat but it lacked a lot of flavor and was quite dry, but I'm just going to put it this it was okay. The french fries are okay and the cheese blintzes were okay. The only reason I'm going into such detail on this was because it was not a cheap meal for 3 people for almost $80 when I'm paying that kind of money for a meal I'm expecting a different level of quality. At a New York diner this probably would have cost me about $40 in New York with their High rents ,,,case in point if you ever make it to New York and get on Long Island go to a place in Wantagh called the East Bay Diner the food is out of this world and at a reasonable rate you can never finish what they give you. Will I be rushing back to Max and Louise...

Max and Louie's was an utter disappointment.

Took my mom and brother there for the first time after seeing the restaurant featured in a Beardmeatsfood episode. It was my mom's birthday and we wanted to try something different.

The food looked good on YouTube but we were really disappointed.

I ordered the New Yorker, which was too have roast beef, cheese and horseradish. When my plate was brought to me, one half of my sandwich had no filling in it. The meat and cheese feel out onto the plate. The onion rings were not piping hot (lukewarm at best) and were premade frozen food from a bag. C'mon Max and Louie's, if you're gonna charge $6 for onion rings can you not bother to hand bread them? The Cole slaw was decent. Creamy the way I like. But someone forgot to leave the pickle in the pickling juice because that pickle had no zest or flavor. My mom thought it was just a mini cucumber. Nope that's not what was said on the menu.

My brother had the roast beef sandwich which was a sorry excuse for a New York style sandwich. It had two slices of flat tasting beef. The au jus sauce was also ultra bland. We couldn't believe it!

My mom was the winner. Her open faced roast beef sandwich was topped with brown gravy and she was given a mound of mashed potatoes, also topped with the brown gravy. I'm glad she enjoyed her plate.

As far as service, we had a waitress that was way too loud and didn't match our more laid back vibe...she was trying too hard to be entertaining it something. Service was also slow. She only checked on us once or twice.

I had eaten half of my bland sandwich only to realize it was missing horseradish sauce. I let the waitress know about it and asked her to bring me a serving of horseradish sauce. She made no apology for the missing sauce and of course took forever to return to the table to get my sauce to me.

I ended up taking the other of l half off my sandwich home and ate it the next day. I reheated by splitting it in halves and placed it in my air fryer oven. When I tried the horseradish on it, that sauce also has zero flavor and zero nasal clearing qualities. Seriously Max and Louie's?

So I don't recommend this restaurant at all. We don't plan to go back and give them a second chance. For the price we paid, they do not emulate New York delis at all where you would normally get a fully loaded and stacked sandwich. I suppose if you like bland food you might enjoy this place but you've been warned.

Oh, and I let the front desk know it was my mom's birthday...either they forgot to do something special for her or they don't do anything special. Not sure. Don't care...