Food Review: Max Lager's Atlanta Georgia

Max Lager's is a brewery/restaurant in down town Atlanta that makes several homemade brews on the spot and has availability for sampling their brews as well as several other imports and domestics shipped from all over the world. For more information you can check out their website at http://maxlagers.com/


Several of my friends/family and myself were down town Atlanta Sunday July 17 for a meeting and decided to get some grub before heading home. I'd eaten at Max Lager's several years ago and remember a pleasant experience, so I was happy to repeat it when Max's was suggested for dinner.
Was I in for a major shock this time.

We got there, 10 of us total. I knew there would probably be a wait, on a Sunday evening, with such a big crowd. We were told an hour and a half. Expected, but not excited about it. I went back out to let some of the other folks know and in about a minute, one of the ladies said they had a spot for us. We were pretty happy about this, and within 5 minutes, the hostess was ushering us toward the back door. (I thought we were getting kicked out already!) Turns out they have a nice back patio with ample seating to accommodate us. We were a little scrunched in back in the corner, but hey, we're all close buds so we didn't mind. The guy comes out and introduces himself and his partner that will be taking care of us. Unfortunately I do not remember either of their names but they were both pretty nice.

So they asked for drinks and any appetizers, offering up home brewed root beer that's made right there on the spot. Several of us perked up and a couple ordered it, only after the fact to discover there are no free refills on the homemade root beer. No big deal, they'd stick with water. So the guy left to go put in our orders, and the lady brought us all water while we waited.
Then the guy comes out and says 'bad news, we are fresh out of root beer'. Well go batch up some new stuff since you make it right here buddy! So the two in our crowd settled for Pink Lemonade.
We finally got around to making our dinner orders in which surprise 2 was about to brink. The food was MUCH more expensive than I'd remembered. But I suppose for a nice restaurant down town Atlanta this was to be expected. We made our orders which ranged from burgers to chicken to an appetizer to fried cod and a few other things, but mostly we stuck to the burgers. I myself ordered the Max Bison Burger, in which at this point I'll say that my menu said the price was 13 dollars, where everyone else's menu had the same burger for 15. I asked the server about this and he said he'd give it to me at that price, then backtracked and said he'd have to check. Granted, we all pretty much just considered this in good fun, but he should have offered to check first, offer discount later.
Anyway, the Max Bison burger offers Cheddar Cheese, Smoked Applewood Bacon, and fries on the side, all for the modest price of 15 dollars, after he conferred with his manager who told him it would be 15 instead of the 13 as advertised. Guess they had a recent price change and forgot one menu.
Of course with most places now, they offer the typical garnish on top, lettuce, tomato, onion, and they give you condiments to put on as you please. My wife ordered the regular Max Burger, Medium Rare, and please no onion anywhere on the plate. The orders were placed, the servers came back at random intervals offering refills, delivering one appetizer that was ordered, and we had our merriment while waiting on our main courses.
With a decent wait time for food preparation, it came. Mine, the Max Bison Burger, looked well, but definitely not the size I would expect for a 15 dollar burger. When I removed the top to add my condiments, I notice, the Max Bison burger which boasted Cheddar Cheese, APPLEWOOD SMOKED BACON, only had 1 medium slice of bacon. As did everyone else who ordered the burgers. My wife, who has an extreme distaste for onions, removed the top bun to discover a ring of onion on her burger, and one slice of bacon, of which she was nice enough to offer it to me.
One of my friends ordered the Codfish, and it comes with a side of tartar. He said it tasted very well, but for 2 moderate sizes of fish, you get a small cup of tartar, of which I believe when asked for more, the server said it would cost extra. Does everything cost extra these days, on top of almost ridiculously overly priced food?
So, with most of the food being precise of what everyone ordered, barring a few small complaints, we began eating. My wife, who ordered the Max Burger, medium rare, no onion, noticed that her burger was more done that my Medium cooked burger. But she was still willing to eat it.
At this point I will discuss the overall taste of the food. The Max Bison Burger was adequate, nothing really special about the taste. The fries had a very nice light seasoning on them definitely leaving me looking disappointed as I ate the last fry because I wanted just one more. Very tasty indeed. I did not hear any other complaints on the food from my friends.

After all was said and done, I finished my meal, assisted my wife with some of her friends, and helped finish the chips off from an appetizer that was ordered. I must say, it is the first time I have ever ordered a burger that expensive, and walked away hungry. I'm afraid I must say I was not overall impressed with my visit to Max Lager's.

Overall I give this a 2 out of 5 Hammers on the Hammer scale. Might I suggest either sticking to brewing, or reconsider how you do with your food.


Hammer