max's tavern

nice ambience, but can get very busy during dinner hours on any given day of the week...friendly servers who are very hard working...bartender put my order in right away as he was hustling around, trying to serve an over-crowded bar. overall, a good menu, good service, but abitpricy.

tasty calimari but basically overpriced and poorly prepared. i went to max's for lunch. the atmosphere is nice. there are shiny red booths and lots of brass and dark wood. music from the 40's played in the background. our waitress was polite.

the fried calimari was tasty but greasy, it could have drained abitmore before being plated. the fish and chips was quite bland and the "chips" were shoestring which did not fit since the menu boasted that they were supposedly english style and steak fries are the norm in england.max's macaroni and cheese was a soggy mess. the cheese was runny and the taste was not at all tantalizing. i was not at all pleased with the price paid for this food and quite abitwas left on the plate.

excellent food but the price is more than abitrich. menu features new style american cuisine and traditional chop house. it is worth a visit just to see what the fuss is all about but bring $$$. the restaurant tends to be very noisy when it is crowded. located at the basketball hall of fame, there is often live music outside in the summer. bar is very popular with the money set and was usually packed before the economy went south. the disgraced former ceo of massmutual insurance, bob o'connor, (by way of aig no less) used to hold court here with sue albano, a local opportunist who started out at mm as a file clerk and ended up running the company with bob. more recently mayor susan "i am not a home wrecker" dawson of agawam (age 44) got beat up by the wife (age 61) of her honor's boyfriend (age 55). a busboy who tried to break up the beat down was put in a choke hold by the aggrieved wife. keep an eye out for angry longmeadow matrons.