Artisanal ingredients prepared and served with aplomb. Be it the seafood, meats, or house-made pastas, there is something for everyone (including a wine list from the most discerning to economical of palates) The best upscale dining experience in the area

You are greeted by the valet, who whisks your car away. The entryway into the restaurant is dark, cold and echoing. The restaurant looks like a cafeteria. Most of the restaurant is ignored; you are shuffled into a little side area. The artwork is borrowed from Artisan Works. Hopefully, it’s been changed since we were there. Huge, ghastly pictures of ugly cartoon characters. Definitely not suitable for a restaurant.

It’s been a few months since I’ve been there. What jumps into my mind is how my party was treated with a condescending air by the waiter (a middle-aged man who showed up long after our waitress mysteriously disappeared after introducing herself.)

I’m sure the food was fine. My husband still talks about the huge amount of mussels he received as an appetizer.

I was dining with my husband and two female friends. It started gnawing at us about the same time. We just weren’t being treated as well as the other diners. I know it started when we were shown to a table with a red wine stain on the tablecloth but the hostess just put a napkin over it without even offering to change the linen. It continued when the chef greeted diners at a select few tables and swished right by others (including ours). It didn’t help when my husband actually had to leave the table to find our waiter. If a party of four is going to pay almost $300 for dinner, they should be treated……well, they should be treated well! I'm not expecting high kicks from a line of waiters, either.

Then, my friend who made the restaurant choice ‘fessed up. She said she had dined alone at Max on Eastman Place a month or so earlier. She said she had been treated the same way then. She wanted to see if it would be different if she came with a party. She finds that she is often treated like a second class citizen if she walks into a restaurant alone. In this day and age?!?

PS: I was out with a friend recently when the subject of this restaurant came up. Guess what? Same thing happened to her and her husband! They felt like "uninvited guests," and the chef came out to hobnob with his friends, then swept right by the other tables without even nodding his head.

Service is incomparable to any restaurant in the city. Food is out of this world. Chef Tony Gallace has godâ€"like talents. The setting of MAX mirrors something out of a European city. A "must eat" to all restaurant go-ers!!!!