Max’s Opera Cafe of Palo Alto

Food was good, but the service was impeccable. Our waiter, Jorge, certainly made my wife and I feel pampered.

Was hungry after a whole day at Stanford (right across the street) and popped into the first sit down restaurant we saw. In sum, the service was horrible. We sat outside and was essentially ignored by the sever. Saw him only three times, when he took our order, when I complained, and when he gave us the bill. Will never go back.
Ordered a medium rare prime rib that came well done. I pointed this out to the person who brought us our food (not the waiter) and he insisted that it was medium rare. Given that I was starving I didn’t want to wait further thus with great chagrin I ate a prime rib that was dry — almost burnt. Ugh!

I go here with my family for the great salads, matzoh ball and chicken soup, and other good entrées. The portions are generous.
Desserts are tasty and filling. My brother loves to get the Niagara Falls Chocolate cake with a scoop of chocolate ice cream, and I like their gargantuan chocolate dipped coconut dipped macaroon, which I cut into multiple servings, because the macaroon is so large. Sundaes are good, too.
I’ve been going to Max’s for many years, from the days when voice students sing in the evenings, which still happens occasionally, just not so regularly. There is a software guy who moonlights on the weekends by playing piano and singing– he is actually quite good. Staff is friendly and remembers us, so that is always a plus.

Love this place. Everything is delicious. The Ruben is hard to get past but the salads are also awesome. Dessert is spectacular… I can’t eat one after a meal. So when I want dessert I get only that.

I got delivery b/​c for now I am stuck in a joint with really bland food and super mushy veggies. $ 35 minimum through
. wait was an hour.
Pretzel with beer cheese sauce. $ 8. was good. nice and chewy. beer/​cheese sauce was just ok. it didn’t seem mixed enough. needed a few shots of hot sauce. It is large. I wish my phone had been charged so I could get a pic.
French onion soup. $ 8.50. beef flavor was weak, but there were plenty of onions and a nice chewy glob of cheese.
Prawns and sausage. skip this. even for the somewhat reasonable price of $ 13 there were 6 shrimp, 7 slices of spicy sausage, about 4 slices each of onion and red pepper drowning in a muddy brown, flavorless sauce. the sauce needed some zip. there were two slices of chewy bread dunked on top. inedible as when it got to me were soaked. they should have been packaged separately.

Nauseating.
I had the dinner Salmon Salad (with quinoa, etc.), and it was almost entirely flavorless. For $ 20+, that’s inexcusable. The salmon filet, while a decent portion, was extremely oily. I ended up very ill — up all night trying not to throw up. I haven’t been that sick in a long time. You couldn’t drag me back here for anything.

The first things that come to mind when I hear American Brunch is «No Vegan Options Ever. (Except maybe hashbrowns).
So on the train ride down, I studied the menu and tried to get creative with the offerings.
This is what I came up with for Vegan options:
Definitely Vegan:
1. Roasted Vegetable Wrap. Ask for no cheese or dairy spread. Arugula salad on the side-​omit cheese if any.
2. Any Salad. Omit Cheese or dairy dressings. Add Black Sesame Seed Tofu! The Roasted Beet salad looked the tastiest to me.
Maybe Vegan (Ask your server!):
3. Breakfast Burrito. No eggs, cheese, or dairy. Maybe Add Tofu? (I didn’t ask, just an idea I came up with)
4. Portobello Mushroom Sandwich. No egg or dairy.
So it’s possible to have a few choices here. Because it was Mother’s Day and it being a packed house, I didn’t want to burden the server and risk a messed up order, so I chose the Veggie Wrap. It is actually made with hummus to give it a creamy texture.
It was oversized and quite delicious! I only ate half before I was stuffed. The arugula salad was more salad fluff than arugula, but still really good. It was tossed in a white balsamic vinaigrette which I really enjoyed.
The table enjoyed glasses of mimosas while I had the Sparkling Sangria, which I highly recommend.
Service was great, food was great, and the ambience was just right. Afterwards, we were able to enjoy a stroll through Stanford Shopping mall.
One more tip: definitely make reservations and give yourself plenty of time to find parking. You’ll be glad you did!

We loved Max’s of long ago with their delicious entrees and decadent desserts. After being away a few years, I ordered takeout from the menu items listed on their website. Two Fresh Pear salads with raspberry vinagrette dressing. I noticed a strong grease/​grilled smell from the salads while driving back home. When I opened the containers, I thought, «Omg, there are grilled potato wedges on our salads!» Come to find out, the salads I ordered from Max’s website was not the same salads from the restaurant’s menu. I actually received Fresh Roasted Pear salads with pomegranate vinagrette dressing. The «grilled» pears were nauseating. I took out the roasted pears and added my own fresh pear slices. We absolutely love bleu cheese, but couldn’t eat it with its overpowering flavor. The pomegranate vinagrette tasted nothing like its name. We finally couldn’t stand the pungent smell of our salads and threw them away half-​eaten.
The one positive to our evening was going to Baskin-​Robbins for ice cream cones to take away the taste and smell of our disappointing dinner from Max’s.

My daughter and I have always loved Max’s but we went there for lunch and there were live cockroaches in the Parmasan cheese sprinkle jar! No joke! The waiter was very apologetic and offered our lunches free but just couldn’t eat after that! Won’t EVER go back!

Two of us went for lunch on Friday. Crowded but we didn’t have to wait for a table.
Service was good, food quality — mixed feelings.
Paella could be very good, but 2 pieces of chicken on top ruined it, it was very dry. It would have been better if they served it without the chicken.
Potato skin was very tasty, a little on the heavy side.
Ahi poke was interesting, it’s a fusion dish but was done very cutely. Had a unique flavor of mixed avocados and wasabi, hit of sweet.
Buffalo wings was so so, not their best, also on the dry side.

We were looking for a place to eat around the time most of the shops were getting ready to close. Max’s looked like a comfortable place, so we stepped in. They gave us a beeper and we were seated in a booth within a few minutes.
I usually say, when in doubt, order from the kid’s menu. It’s a good way to try a small portion if you’re not sure you’ll like something, that is if the restaurant allows you to order from the kid’s menu. Well, I thought I ordered from the kid’s menu. Turns out the Not-​So-​Mini Reuben is actually on the Bites & Noshes list.
Not-​So-​Mini Reuben w/​Corned Beef — good-​sized sandwich sectioned into 3 pieces. There was a good amount of sauerkraut & dressing on toasted rye. Some parts of the sandwich could have used more corned beef. Also, the cheese could have been a little more melted.
Chicken Matzo Ball Soup — I haven’t had too many matzo ball soups in my life, but it is basically chicken soup with a large round dumpling in it. The matzo ball was rather spongey. I don’t know if matzo balls are supposed to be like that, but it soaked up the chicken broth nicely. There were some noodles in there too.
Burger w/​guacamole — not bad, patty was rather dry, kind of overpriced for a typical diner burger
The food was fine, nothing too interesting. The rest of the menu reads a little bit like a buffet list of options and several random dishes.

Yeah, it’s a chain and feels similar to its slightly less urban cousin, The Cheesecake Factory, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good.
Large sizes, decent prices, live music and casual atmosphere. Tons of options, ranging from jambalaya to Reuben sandwiches to fish tacos. For a place that does so much different stuff, it surprisingly does everything fairly well.
Good place to go with family if you’re in the Stanford shopping mall and have different palates to please.

The big question at Max’s is always whether they will get around to serving you or not. It seemed on my last visit it was a «not» day. Despite that, I really LOVE the food at this place, and have a hard time thinking about scratching off my regular rotation.
We sat for several minutes, someone gave us water and menus were on the table: it was good that we could look and see what we wanted. We made our decisions and put our menu down (a sure sign we are done) and waited… and waited… a couple of wait staff walked by but we were not their table. Finally, someone came and took our order. After a bit we were brought our drinks, and we began our wait again.
Now I can understand if the place is jumping and there are folks all over but the dining area was about half full and everyone was moving at a leisurely pace. My friend and I had lots to talk about but even after we had solved all of the world’s problems we were still waiting. The wait might have been better passed if there was bread or something on the table (Max’s used to bring a basket of rolls, but I guess it really was a «not» day…)
The food came, and it was what we expected, excellently prepared, and delicious:
— Not so mini Reuben: This is an appetizer-​sized Reuben sandwich. Not as heavy on the meat as the regular sandwich. Grilled between two pieces of rye bread, cut into sixths, with toothpicks in each sixth. Came hot to the table, and the meat was moist and tasty, with the Swiss cheese nicely melted into the sauerkraut. Still good.
— Soup and half sandwich: soup was potato leek, and for my half sandwich, I got a corned beef, pastrami, and Swiss with 1000 Island dressing. Soup was little thin for my preference. A little bland, needed salt. Half sandwich was great! Meat was nicely piled, with cheese melted everywhere. Spread on some deli mustard and horseradish sauce, and it was ummmmm…
I would love to rate this visit higher, but the wait just killed it for us; I was even tempted to only give 3 stars. The meal was great but it didn’t seem to move well and while they were friendly, they were s-l-o-w…so I felt the need to knock off a star… ah well… chalk it up to a bad day and the memory of the food will probably bring me back eventually :-)

Everytime I’ve been to Max’s Opera Café at the Stanford Mall, the service has been super slow. Even though there are plenty of seats (booths) in the front, they prefer to seat people in the back. Twice I’ve had lunch with party of 6 – 8 and twice they sat us way in the back, in a cramped round table behind a partition wall. Another time I ate lunch here with my husband and they still sat us way in the back. When you’re way in the back, and out of sight, you are out of mind and the servers don’t check on you often.
The food is decent. I’ve had a salad, a wrap, and sandwich here. Nothing outstanding to write about except for the fact that it’s pricey. I’d prefer to go next door to Cocola’s for a better salad/​sandwich.

I was so surprised how good this place is! My coworker told me that this was worth trying and so I did. We came on a Monday night so there was no wait for dinner! We got seated right away and the servings here are huge!!! I was skeptical to try the food thinking it would taste bland since they make everything so big but to my surprise the food was very tasty!!! I got the calamari for appetizers and the addition of lemons and green beans was really good. I then ordered the flank steak… Omg!!! Their potatoes gratin was amazing!!! I’m so so satisfied eating here! Our waiter was nice and very at tentative! Plus they have 5 dollar margaritas all night long every Mondays which made my night. Will be comming back here for sure!

Parking is easy to find, there are a lot of tables, and the ambiance is nice.
Ate here today for lunch.
I got a burger, my husband got the chilaquiles, and my cousin got the reuben sandwich. My husband’s food seemed to be the best. It was really good! My burger was good, but my cousin wasn’t a fan of the reuben. Apparently the sauerkraut wasn’t very sour and the meat was just bleh. Service was good! I would just say it’s a little pricey, but for the portion you get and the area you are dining in, it’s not bad at all.

Parking: I think can be tough. We arrived the weekend after Christmas and it was packed! Got lucky with finding a spot within 5 mins though!
Ambience: awesome upscale NY style boutique diner. I loved it! Without doubt, a great spot to dine with friends & family.
Food quality: huge portions for a reasonable price. You’re paying a couple bucks more because of the location. Juicy burgers and a pretty mean tuna melt. Max’s is a great spot to fuel up before or during a shopping break.
A MUST TRY is the calamari. It was fresh, crisp, and oh so good. Definitely a noteworthy starter.
Service: a little slow, considering it was lunch and only a few tables dining. Regardless, the waiter was very friendly and always checked up on us.
Bottom line: I would come back & recommend Max’s. I really enjoyed it.

This is a fun place that is almost an institution in the Stanford mall. The atmosphere is upscale New York deli. Many traditional New York delis provide sandwiches that have lots of ingredients where you don’t feel cheated that the price is high. Max’s strives to compete at the same level. We didn’t have corned beef or pastrami, to compare quantity, but the salmon sandwich on ciabatta was excellent.
One thing you cannot transplant from New York delis is server and management attitude that is characteristic east coast. The vivacious, loud and opinionated chefs and servers were missing which could be good for many.
Max’s, as a whole, seems to be having problems because stores are closing. Some of the negative reviews imply he same. The corporation is having to monitor costs which may be why menu seems smaller than I remember.
If you are looking for a place to eat in the mall, give Max’s a try.

I can’t believe I’m saying this about food at Max’s…but the food was just okay. Granted we didn’t order the popular entrees Max’s is known for, but even the small plates should be up to par. My wife ordered the Chili– it was bland, not a lot of beans and barely any meat. It was chili flavored soup. I told her to return it, but she’s not the person to do so. I ordered the sliders and fries and luckily my food was yummy… but then again, how can you screw up sliders? It’s meat and mini bun. My niece ordered the Caesar salad and they forgot the shaved Parmesan. My daughter ordered the Mac n cheese and she said the Max’s in Burlingame is better. All in all, not the greatest meal experience…

Bay Area chain that serves a generous sized food leaning towards deli style dishes. My only issue is consistency. No, not consistency of the food. Consistency between locations. This location in Palo Alto’s Stanford Shopping Center is much better than the ones found in Burlingame, Redwood City (which is now closed), and Westgate.
They are also pretty accommodating as I wanted a side of pastrami meat with my potato latke appetizer. Thanks! It was crunchy, salty, and delicious. We did not try any of their desserts, which look like they were on steroids! Huge portions!