Max
“Located in Tribeca a friend of mine I stay with in NYC recommended this place to me.”
“We shared two pasta dishes the Fettucine Al Sugo Toscano and the Spaghetti del Marinaio.”
“I eventually settled on the Spaghetti del Marinaio ($15.95).”
Max
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Nice atmosphere and decor. Then there's the food and service.
We were seated at our table. Then we wondered when our server would appear for about 10 minutes. When she appeared, she simply asked if we were ready to order. She did not ask if we wanted a drink. She did not offer to explain the specials. So, we ordered a few starters and a salad.
When the pasta, mellanzane and salad arrived, we had to ask for parmigiana as if at an Italian restaurant, this is a "special" request. The entrees were OK. The service continued to be poor – somewhere between indifferent and incompetent.
We managed to pry more cheese from the servers. I did not like the food. The tomato sauce seemed to be the same for the mellanzane and the pasta. That would be OK if it tasted good but, it didn't.
The bar was pretty nice. The bartender was good. I guess it's a decent place for a drink but aside from that…I dunno.
My friend and I were around the area and decided to pop into Max for a late lunch. It was 2pm on a Friday and we were the only ones in there. We were seated immediately, given menus, and served iced water.
Not feeling particularly monstrous since this was actually my second lunch and my friend is on her bride-to-be diet, we decided to order one salad and a pasta to share. While we waited for our food to arrive, we were served complimentary bread. The bread is your typical sliced loaf bread at room temperature served with plain olive oil – nothing exactly exciting.
The pasta we ordered was the spaghetti del marinaio, which is squid ink spaghetti with shrimp in a spicy tomato sauce. The tomato sauce was nicely tangy, however I felt that with so much sauce it really overpowered the subtle flavors of the squid ink. The sauce was not spicy at all. We actually had to ask our waiter for some cracked black peppercorn to be sprinkled onto the pasta as well as a side of red pepper flakes. The portion of pasta dish itself was rather generous and there were plenty of shrimps to go around.
For the salad we ordered the del pollaio which is grilled chicken, fennel, apple, avocado, celery, tomato, frisee with lemon vinaigrette dressing. The salad served as a great counterbalance to the pasta. It really adds a fresh and lighter component to our lunch. I apologize in advance for being "that person" who posts a picture of some gosh darn salad but it really was much better than I had expected… you know, for a salad.
Overall, I think this restaurant has some decent food however I would not go out of my way to come here. Service was attentive and friendly.
I had a lovely lunch at Max this afternoon that has put me into a food coma. Heavy carbs is not a good choice if you want to be productive at work for the rest of the day. Max is not at all packed during the lunch rush hour and there are plenty of tables all around. I'd say it might even be a good spot for a larger group for lunch.
My colleagues and I started off with a couple of appetizers:
– Truffle fries – not crispy at all, but good flavor and somehow still quite addicting, though they weren't really that salty and I prefer crispy fries
– Pane all Aglio (+ anchovies for an additional $4) – the roasted garlic pate is SUPER strong and garlicky – perfect for garlic lovers, but make sure you have mints handy for sure. Add the anchovies and make sure you don't plan on kissing anyone for a week. This was delicious, but I can only handle so much garlic (and I loooove garlic).
For my main, I ordered the special – spaghetti alle vongole – I pretty much order this or something similar at every Italian restaurant I go to, unfortunately. The spaghetti was al dente and a lovely texture. There were TONS of clams in this dish… I was very surprised. The waiter took away my shells before I could snap a picture. The dish in general was slightly lacking in sodium content… didn't look like they used much butter/oil which is a good thing! It's not the best clam pasta I've had, but not the worst, either.
It was a nice meal, but nothing I would personally call home about. My colleagues seemed to enjoy their spaghetti and ravioli very much.
Took forever to get our food even though the restaurant was not busy but once it came it was delicious and fresh and perfectly cooked. We both had pasta dishes that were perfect. Definitely will come back.
A true delicious hidden gem in Tribeca
I'll admit it, we usually troll the highly populated, highly-reviewed places when we're in the city, but I had our friend, who lives in Brooklyn, pick a place for dinner and he chose here
It's a small, dimly lit, quiet, and intimate place off the beaten path of busy streets. We had a reservation and were quickly seated.
Their bread is divine! As a fellow carb-lover, I had to restrain myself from filling up on the bread
I ordered one of their daily specials- fresh fettuccine in a fresh spinach pesto sauce. It came in a bowl and appeared to be a normal sized portion, when in fact, it turned out to be a lot! I ate a lot, but barely made a dent in it. The pesto was so good, and just reeked of those fresh ingredients. It came with a huge dollop of ricotta cheese on top which complemented it perfectly. Mmmm!!
Lasagna- hubby and my friend both ordered this, and turns out they could have shared. It was huge, and the small pot it came in proved to be quite deep. The sauce and cheese were delicious, but the noodles were kind of soggy in the bottom half and started to have the consistency of spaghetti-o's
Lobster ravioli in spicy tomato sauce- my friend's girlfriend had this and it was also delish. The ravioli were fresh, meat was sweet, and the tomato sauce accompanied the ravioli perfectly
Dishes are decently priced, about $15-24. Service was attentive, my water glass was never empty
I wish I was hungrier when we came here, because all the fresh pasta was really wonderful! But the portions are huge, I'd definitely recommend sharing!
My Cousin and I were in Tribeca having drinks on a Wednesday night and got hungry. He used to live in the area and this is one of his favorite Italian spots. Very typical of New York tiny hole in the wall restaurant you don't even know exist until you walk in front of it. They seated us immediately. We ordered some drinks and a delicious squash soup they had on special. For the main course I got the gnocchi he got the spaghetti. I ate the entire bowl of gnocchi. It certainly did not disappoint! I'm usually a fan of gnocchi with white sauce, with Gorgonzola cheese but this one was different it was with tomato sauce basil and mozzarella. His spaghetti was with lamb Ragu and pecorino Romano. Definitely in a pasta comma when I walked out of there. I would definitely recommend as a great Italian spot if you're in the Tribeca area.
Dined here for dinner last Monday with a girlfriend to catch up while in NYC. Cute, comfortable, and cozy Italian eatery tucked aside an apartment building. It is pretty easy to miss it from the street if you do not see the glass windows that subtly say Max. I really enjoyed dinner here because it was relatively quiet and easy to talk.
We ordered 3 dishes to split – the beast/goat cheese/avocado salad, chicken cutlet with tomato and arugula, and rigatoni with meatball/sausage. All dishes were super tasty and affordable! Favorite was surprisingly the chicken – it was juicy, perfectly cooked with a crisp breading, and topped with refreshing greens/tomato.
Definitely worth stopping by for affordable Italian if you are in Tribeca and want someplace on the calmer side!
Pizza was was better than I thought it would be. The dough is very flour-y, and it wasn't too thick or thin. I ordered it with just cheese, arugula, and mushrooms. The ingredients were fresh and he mushrooms had flavor. They don't have that many topping choices which was a little bit of a bummer. I would give it a 3.5 if I could, it's not one of my favorites in the area. But it deserves more than 3 stars…. If Adrianne's is closed, I'd definitely order from here again.