Max & Erma’s

This is a typically American fare restaurant. I love the uniqueness of this location (German Village), Good service… good food.
Their frequent visitor program is a nice bonus… free banana cream pie.

Review for bar only: friendly enough bartenders, big TVs for sports, small if still rather decent beer selection.
Lots of character inside, too.
Sure, it’s a chain, but it’s not a bad spot to hang out, at least in small groups, while waiting for your meal, either here or at a nearby competitor.

My boyfriend and I dropped in here during a visit to Columbus, and had a wonderful time! We’d been walking around the German district, and vetoed a few other restaurants before landing at Max & Erma’s. We sat at the bar, where we felt part of the neighborhood, and had a couple of beers, talked with the awesome bartender Jodi, and devoured an order of nachos. FYI the nachos were good, and the order was huge, like pizza-​pan sized. Also, the only bathrooms are downstairs.

What a gorgeous day for a stroll through historic German Village and a lunch at the original Max and Erma’s.
The service was great! Tara (that is pronounced tar-​ah) was sweet and accommodating. Though she forgot the bbq pork on the nachos and we only wanted guac on side of our nachos, she was otherwise attentive and anticipated our needs. Pretty awesome, but don’t miss that opportunity for upselling! Good job with the cherry Coke suggestive sell though.
For was par. Pretty tasty but nothing wow. Tortilla soup great. Burgers ok. Nachos pretty good. And a fun time with my nana

The setting itself adds a star to what would normally be a bland three star rating. This is the original Max and Erma’s, bought in the 70’s from the actual Max and Erma. Their bars name kept by the buyer, is now seen on prefabs throughout the suburban Midwest.
The chain is well known to most residents in the surrounding states. For outsiders, here is the lowdown: M&G is of the type that Applebees, Chilis, and TGIFs are; casual sit-​down places that serve comfort, non-​challenging, über-​familiar food in a pure mainstream style as to attract the most diners but not impressing a single one. Think Jennifer Aniston in Office Space. The type often boxed in front of the asphalt seas flowing from giant shopping malls.
It specializes in hamburgers and typical appetizers; the burgers in which I had Saturday night, are a bit above average of its league. A Sautéed Mushroom burger, the patty wasn’t too squeezed up with garbage, and carried a meaty taste. (They also have a burger called Garbage. It has lots on it.) The apps are middle of the road. The beer selection is typical. The prices are on par.
And yet what is usually a meh experience is nicer here at this original building with nice woodwork, soft lighting, and muted acoustics. The bar area glows nicely like a bar should, and is beautiful. The seats are comfy with nice back supports and are of the perfect height. The dinning room is split: a roomy section, and a quaint hall behind the bar overlooking the street corner the building sits close too. The building itself, almost a century old, is cool. With two stories of brick snuggling 3^rd Street, it couldn’t be further in ascetics than the typical M&E’s. At night it glows warmly in the surrounding village darkness. (I wish I had a camera!) It seems more of a local haunt, like the many other around it. It’s a nice environment to eat.
Location is also a problem. With many better places to go in its German Village neighborhood it is often forgotten. Yet when, like I, you bring out-​of-​town friends to a football game, and you are all tired from the game and the traffic, and you don’t want to wait 3 hours, and you just want something simple and indistinguishable, you pick a place like this. And if so, why not pick the original one, in a great building in a great neighborhood?
(Note: the service here can be, shall I say, inconsistent.)

Service was very good, food was excellent! Good selection of draft on tap. Friendly staff.

I haven’t been to this location in quite some time, but it’s great. I think their chicken tortilla soup would be my dying meal. I also don’t like chocolate chip cookies (tragic, I know), but absolutely love theirs served warm. The décor is like their other locations, but even more eclectic. Great food at good prices, and a cool location – especially since it’s their first one!

This has quickly become my lunch constant! For around $ 8 you can get your hands on an ever filling half a sandwich and a bowl of soup. I will always recommend their french onion soup to everyone, the seasoning is perfect and you get great flavor from the onions. I will say that we have had a few issues with the quality of food during their lunch rush but its not a consistent issue which is really what matters. Besides coming in for a good lunch you can always talk me into coming down for a massive burger or their wings (the sauce is deeeelish!)
For those out of towners this is kind of a cool place to take them too and let them stare at the memorabilia on the walls while you guys sit back and enjoy a nice cold brew and people watch!

The food was gross. My husband ordered a steak that was fatty, and I ordered a chicken salad; my chicken taste like precooked rubbery strips. I complained about my chicken and they took off $ 5 (the price to add on the chicken), no apology given. I was not impressed!

Came here around 5:00 on a Tuesday and place wasn’t too busy or too empty. Sat down and had the immediate attention of the waiter. I ordered the fish tacos but they took a bit too long to come out in my opinion. That was the only downside. Food was excellent and I will definitely come back here next time I am in Columbus.

Nice local joint, beer was cold, steak was cooked right. Service was slow, though.

I wouldn’t come back, even if the food was free. I’ve heard so many great things about their tortilla soup and cookies so we stopped in. We were set in the dimly lit back and even though the entire waitstaff sat in the back talking, no one came to ask us for drinks or our order. I had to get up and actually ask the group for someone to serve us. The waitress messed up all three of our orders and overcharged us for things that we didn’t ask for. I’ve always heard nice things about the food so I thought the trip would be worth it, but our burgers were dry, tasteless, and our fries were cold. Even when they messed our order they didn’t make new ones-​they just added what they missed and gave us the old fries. I’m not sure what they used to be, but it’s clear that their standards have fallen. There are so many better places in Columbus.

I enjoyed the free meal consisting of tortilla soup, cheeseburge, and french fries. This topped off my Veterans Day.

We decided to spend a beautiful fall day in German Village with the kids. We stopped first at Max and Ermas for a late lunch.
First impressions… we were told they needed to find a clean table for us. Maybe that should have been my first warning. It was 2pm on a Sunday, and there were hardly any customers. After seating us, we made our drink selection. My coffee came back lukewarm, and weak. We placed our lunch order, and sat and waited and waited. Without any crayons. The kids are older… I don’t carry crayons any longer. However, if they need to wait 25 – 30 minutes for a lunch to come out, crayons with the kids menu help out.
My husbands soup took 25 minutes to come out. The meals came out probably 10 minutes after the soup. Never once did she refill any of our drinks without our prompting. We didn’t have utensils and napkins on the table. I ended up grabbing those from the table next to ours. After waiting for so long for the food, I got up and went to the host stand to ask about crayons… and that we needed refills and inquire about our food.
5 minutes later, our lunches came. I ordered the 3^rd Street salad with chicken. It was the… well, pretty terrible. I LOVE this salad. It’s one of my favorites as salads go. The chicken was so dry and tough. I ended up putting all the chicken to the side and eating the rest of the salad, which was overly dressed. My husband said the fish in the fish tacos was also dry… overly done. The kid’s meals… eh. I tried my daughter’s brat burger, and yes, it was dry and overcooked also.
Our takeaway is this is the last time we’ll visit that Max and Erma’s. The staff obviously don’t care. Watching them stand around and chat while we needed refills or utensils was just aggravating. The place is just tired and dirty.

I like max and ermas. I don’t walk in expecting fine dining. I do expect that the service will be a bit more attentive

Eh. Food isn’t very good. I got the tortilla soup because someone told me that that was ok and I wasn’t very impressed. The cookies were delicious; hot out of the oven. Other than that I had a regular olé beer and my boyfriend’s food didn’t look very appetizing. I’m glad I opted to eat my main course elsewhere!

Delicious! Dinner was fabulous. Fish and Chips! I’ll take that any day! Wedge salad with blue cheese — LOVE! Service was great. Waitress’ name was Heather (my name too!) and she was just the nicest and most accommodating. She was clever too! talked us into ordering some home made cookies — BAKED TO ORDER which we took with us! Who does that??? Max and Erma’s! that’s who! Cookies were divine! Chocolate Chip and Double Chocolate Chip! Will definitely go back next time I’m in town!

We recently visited Max and Erma’s and were a bit apprehensive to enter since we were 4 adults and 5 children under the age of 6. They were beyond welcoming and accommodating. The food was delicious and service was great.
I did not give them 5 stars due to lack of wine selection (they only had 3 brands) and the fact that there were no German beers available. The restaurant is located in historic Germantown and it would have been nice to enjoy a German beer with our lunch.
Dessert was good.
The signs say they are famous for their cookies and I see why. They serve them to you all warmed up. The kids ordered sundaes and the bring the ice cream to you and allow you to serve yourself from an array of toppings they bring to the table.
I would definitely visit again.

The atmosphere of this particular Max & Erma’s alone is worth coming in for. It doesn’t feel as ‘chainy’ and as commercialized as the other locations. It’s small, yet roomy and very very comfortable. This is a favorite spot for my sister and I to get together when she comes in from CA, which we did today. Except this time we had a large party because other family members (Aunts, Uncles and Cousins) were with us as well.
Our server was fast, personable and always attentive, yet she wasn’t overbearing and in our faces every 30 seconds. She took the orders promptly and the food came out in a very reasonable amount of time, considering how many people were in our party. Not one person at our table had anything negative to say about the food or the service. Plus she asked if anyone wanted dessert. That seems to be a lost art these days. I can’t count how many restaurants I’ve been to where you get the check slapped down in front of you, sometimes even before you’re finished eating, because nobody pushes desserts anymore.
All in all we had a great experience and despite sitting there chatting it up for 2 hours catching up on family time (some of them I haven’t seen for over 10 years) we didn’t feel pressured to leave. You know how some places are, they’ll come to your table and perform the ‘in your face’ dish collecting. You can just tell the difference between a wait person who wants to cheerfully clear the dishes just to get them out of your way and the wait person who’s pushy about as if to say, «Okay, you’ve been here long enough, now get the hell out.»
That never happens here. It’s a great place to sit and talk, eat, drink and, well, be merry!
Edit to add: the only thing I did NOT like was the dressing on the Caesar salad. I don’t know if it’s bought-​in dressing or house-​made, but it was sour and not very pleasant at all. So that’s one thing I won’t order from them again. Otherwise, everything was great.

Every time we’ve stopped in here, no matter where we get seated, we wind up with the same waitress — Somer — and she’s great! Super attentive.
Now, if you’ve been to any other Max & Erma’s before, you pretty much know what the menu offerings are. This location has all of those standards, but, since it’s the original, it also gets all of the new tester items as well. The last time I was in, they were offerring several new burgers. My beau and I each ordered one and were astounding at how huge they were. Massive! And delicious to boot. And they came out from the kitchen really fast too!
I have to say, if you are in or around Columbus and have a hankering for Max & Erma’s, try this location. It is the original afterall and probably the best one out there.