Max Amore

Great food...great atmosphere. I love the bread and there are no better pasta dishes in Glastonbury.

None of the Max restaurants are on my list of restaurants to dine at with the exception of Max Burgers in West Hartford. I have dined repeatedly at all their locations and have discovered that all their restaurants have the same common pluses and minuses. On the plus side, their appetizers, salads and desserts are all uniformly well above average. On the minus side, their main courses are all over priced and well below average in terms of the quality of their ingredients and their preparation. Their service while attentive studiously avoids the problems of failures in cooking and meal preparation.

This past saturday night at Max Amore was typical of all my previous experiences with the Max chain. The appetizers, calamari, and arancini (seldom seen in central CT) were exceptional and well done. The salads were made to order from greens that were not only crisp but chilled. The main courses were for the most part unsatisfactory. The duck was not only dry but well done and inedible. This despite the request that it be cooked medium rare at best. The veal was also way overcooked, dry, very undersized for the price and with a spot or two at best of sauce. A veal chop ordered medium rare was served medium well and appeared to be child sized (way way over priced for the serving size). One pasta dish arrived with mushrooms, despite instructions and assurances to the contrary. This is typical of all my main course encounters at any of the Max restaurants, main course meals that are overpriced, under sized and not cooked to order. At both Max fish restaurants my tuna steak has been over cooked by a wide margin. Ditto on sword fish and cod entres as well. What is especially frustrating is a pattern of service that once the main course is plated and served, your server never, I mean never, inquires as to whether you've received what you ordered the way you ordered it. I did note that this saturday night there was one older man whose only function appeared to be checking each plate against what was ordered on the check. Nice idea but pointless if the food is not cooked to your request. Once served, our waiter vanished until it was time for the next course. Never once were we asked about what was served and whether it was satisfactory. Once abandoned by our waiter, only a hostess was available and she was a poster child for everything that can be associated with poor service, rudeness and just plain bad manners.

I dine at Max's only at the request of others. This had been a favorite place of my son and we were there saturday night to celebrate his birthday. He was outraged with the ouput from the kitchen, the poor service and a $300 bill before tip for a party of five. He has now deleted Max Amore from his list and replaced with Cavey's in Manchester. R.I.P. Max Amore.