The short: An atmospheric place with an inviting, smokey smell and pleasant outdoor seating. The food, though, is lackluster. Average BBQ at best.
The long: A 2-star review here said it best. The ribs were too fatty and the initial draw of the place was soon overridden by a so-so meal. My ribs were tasty on the bits that were meaty and roasted. Unfortunately at least half of each rib was covered in fat so thick I'd have gotten sick trying to eat it all. I understand fat can enhance the flavor as meat cooks, but this was excessive. And this is from a guy who prefers to strip meat down to a cleaned bone. The meat was also inconsistent, with some bits being rather overdone.
Sides were tasty enough but overall lacking. I don't know why so many places treat mac n' cheese so wrong, but this side deserves more respect! In Max's case, the pasta was overdone and mushy. A disappointment to combine with such a tasty cheese sauce.
The one bright spot was my friend's mashed potatoes. Creamy and full of rich garlic flavor! This side was perfection. Unfortunately one side can't make the dinner.
Service is fine here, nothing to complain about.
I left thinking I've had better ribs at chain places like Outback. And that's kinda saddening for me. Overal,l 3 stars I feel is generous. Would I come back, though? Probably not.
As they say in text-speak, "o.m.g."(oh my Gosh(substituted for God)). Â No words can actually describe how delicious this place's meals can be. Â Whether it's the SuperMax burger or a steak, or just some other barbequed specialty, it all tastes delicious. Â And when you add that to the fact that they start you with a few slices of cornbread, where's the justice in leaving room for scrumptious desserts which they also sell. Â And best of all, the service is plenty adequate-the server knew exactly what she was supposed to do, and did it with a passion. Â Even the doorman greeted and seated us within a minute or two. Â I've never seen such a great place with that exceptional service so close to home before.
Although I did find a few problems, such as the tone of the music in the room(with a loud volume) was loud, when you factored in a major mismatch on the lock on one of the door latches to the handicap stall, it just downgraded my review from 5-stars to only 4.
And second, when you factor in the mood lighting in the eating rooms being as low as it was, and the setting containing a candle on just about every table, be careful where you walk.
Personally, although I've never seen anyone been eating outside, there were a couple of tables outside. Â Personally, I don't know, and I don't care why this was the case...(forgot where I was going with this viewpoint, but it was something I had to mention).
Although prices are a bit higher than what's to be expected, the prices can't be beat when services play a factor in the decision. Â The main drawback would be the prices (from making this place a major eating establishment), but on slight special occasions, I might start eating at your establishments. Â I'll remember this visit. Â Please hold up your end of the bargain and fix that door latch, and quiet the music just a little bit. Â It seemed like no one was around that I could speak to, to turn that music down a bit.
Good BBQ, good corn bread, good beans, good Mack-n-cheese. Good beer and good friends. Plates/food could have been hotter, but seasoning and flavors where on point. Front of house was a little choppy/inexperience and made some mistakes, but at least was smiling and accommodating. Definitely will come back and bring new people... specially bringing my bro. Highly recommend aside from the the little touch ups Max's could improve on. Being able to smell it down the road = a big +
Review Source:I came here with my boyfriend and another couple. The collard greens were probably some of the worst collard greens at a restaurant. The macaroni and cheese was beyond bland, and the cheese grits were basically a creamy, thick, but yet watery substance.
The brisket was oh so very dry. The horseradish sauce that came with it barely helped, if at all. Our waitress forgot about us, unfortunately... We still tipped her, because we all believe in tipping for the hospitality industry.
I'm really torn between 2 and 3 stars. Despite the sides being pretty tasteless, I did take my pulled pork home, because it was actually pretty good. My friend's boyfriend got the ribs, and they were pretty good.
In my opinion, I don't think this place deserves a 1 star at all... But I'm gonna have to go with a 2.5, so a 3, because the collard greens and macaroni and cheese had no excuse to be so.... sub par. Plus, this place is kinda nice to go on a double date.
Max's tries to be a more upscale version of a rib joint - and fails.
When we entered, we were extremely optimistic based on the smoky atmosphere which greeted us. We ordered a combination of appetizers, entrees, and sides to try as much as possible. Very few items lived up to our expectations.
The pulled pork sliders could have been more flavorful. They were also too moist, bordering on mushy. Â The corn bread that came with our appetizers and salads was small and dry, possibly because it was only about 3/4" thick and probably would have been moister had it been a more appropriate thickness.
The smoked sausage had fennel in it, leading us to believe it was actually an Italian sausage smoked in bbq sauce. It was also a bit too charred.
I was optimistic for my beef brisket when I stuck my fork into it and it shredded immediately. But like the pulled pork, it was moist but did not have much flavor. I had to get all my flavor from the horseradish dipping sauce. The beef was also too fatty.
The ribs were the biggest disappointment. Â The flavor was inconsistent - one bite would have it, the next wouldn't. The ribs were also fatty. Quite frankly, I've had better ribs at both TGI Fridays and Ninety Nine.
As for the sides, the cole slaw was great, really tangy. Â The green beans had a nice buttery coating but could have been cooked slightly longer. The collard greens were just wrong. They were chopped up much too fine and served with small amounts of cheese and slightly too much liquid - it looked and tasted more like creamed collards.
If I stayed local more often and this was my only BBQ option, I'd live with it. But I've been to enough other places upstate and in larger cities to know what one should expect at a place which specializes in bbq.
Max's: a.k.a., my Tuesday night hang out spot. I've been here more times than I can even count. There were some weeks where this was the one thing I looked forward to more than anything else. I literally had dreams about Max's. Yeah. it's amazing.
Of course, wing night is the day when this place has no parking left. Max's is seriously packed when it's wing night, and you better believe they are that good! You have to get a minimum of 10 wings, but when you're paying 40 cents a wing this only adds up to $4 for a great meal-best deal around! My favorite flavor is the barbecue sauce, but you can also choose from mild, medium, and hot sauce. The spicy wings are REALLY spicy. I had friends visiting say "Oh no, give me the hottest sauce you have!" and the waitress usually answers "You sure? They're pretty spicy." They bring them out, and they are indeed pretty spicy-so spicy they can't finish more than 3 wings. Ha. I like to take a knife, dip it into the cup of blue cheese they give you and put it all over the wings and nom away. Yum!
Having tried a lot of barbecue in my time, I'd have to say Max's has EXCELLENT barbecue. If you don't want wings (a crime, by the way), the burgers are also INSANELY good. If you want a more hefty meal, you can get a bbq chicken or ribs with some added sides. The mac and cheese-so good! My all time favorite side is the cheese grits-OH MY GOD. They could potentially become part of my last meal on Earth. The collard greens are also another excellent side. I'm getting hungry just thinking about Max's...also, $3 margaritas during happy hour!
Service is good, maybe a little bit too hovering for a couple out when no one is waiting for a table. Nice cozy place.
A lot of food, well prepared. Horseradish sauce served on the side was too tame. Come on this isn't Arbys.
Wine by the glass could be upgraded. Maybe offer more than one Chard, the Chilean one offered tastes like bathwater.
Nice beer selection.
I feel like Max's getting three stars from me is partially my own fault, because I was expecting greatness and got....meh. Â I feel like Max's is a little confused....this building with columns, and it's a BBQ joint? Â Alright, enough, it's about the food....
Ok, wait, before I get to the food. Â The tables are small. Â Narrow, and small. Â Once they brought the food out, it was even tighter. Â I don't know how you can get all up in your ribs and such without injuring your fellow diners. Â Ok, NOW on to the food...
The cornbread they bring out was fine. Â We ordered two dinners, you order your protein and get two sides. Â Hubs got the pulled pork, chili and mac&cheese as his sides. Â He also had wings. Â I didn't try the wings, but he devoured them and said they were good. Â His pulled pork was ROCKIN delicious, and it was an enormous pile of meat. Â The mac&cheese was...fine. Â Mine is better, but this wasn't horrible, just nothing special about it to me. Â The chili had no meat in it, and was alright, a little soupy for our liking. Â I got the brisket, with cheese grits and baked beans. Â The brisket was good, didn't realize that there were carmellized onions underneath it, and the horseradish sauce that came with it was pretty good too. The cheese grits were delicious, and holy lord, they took up half my plate! Â The baked beans...man, I was so disappointed. Â I love baked beans, and there was a flavor in these I couldn't put my finger on, but I couldn't eat them. Â There was nothing WRONG with them, just whatever flavor it was I just could not eat. Â Oh, the salads that came on the plate were unexpected and delicious! Â That was a nice surprise.
Oh, they sell cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon for $3. Â Just another thing that confused me about this place. Â Low-lit dining room, $3 can of PBR? Â
It was good enough, we probably would've enjoyed the dining experience more if the snobby folks behind us weren't so friggin loud and obnoxious, but oh well. Â All in all, we wouldn't drive the hour to go back.
I have to say this this place is pretty good! The service was really good. They started out with cornbread. I have to say they were really tasty. I ordered the combo of spicy sausage and bbq chicken. Really tasty. You have to try it out yourself to know how good it is. The sides I got were chili and cole slaw. The chili was good, but not the cole slaw.
I would come around 5:30-6:00pm to avoid the crowd.
This is an ok spot, with some good deals on bbq. They have a .10 cent wing night, and there wings are pretty good. I went with a large group for dinner once, and the dinner wasn't so great, especially for the price. It was a lot of meat! (i know its a bbq place but still). The staff is great and restaurant is cozy. I would come for wing night, dinner is questionable.
Review Source:Haven't eaten here in years since my wife graduated from Bard College. I still remember the ribs, cornbread, crab cakes and greens from Max's...
Whenever my wife and I have a craving for BBQ we would think of Max's and reminisce about those tasty dinners we had there....
This review is based on my memory of the place and not having eaten there recently. Though it seems some things might have changed in the past few years just skimming through the other reviews, but my wife and I will have to pay Max a visit if we're ever passing through.
Max's is ok for a local BBQ fix. I don't think there is another BBQ place around so it's certainly cornered that market. It is not overpriced for a restaurant in general, but often BBQ is street food and priced so. Entrees here will range from $16-$25.
The staff has always been young and friendly, though certainly not foodservice professionals...it is a BBQ joint so we aren't expecting first class service. The tables are comfortably spaced apart and it's decorated nicely. The margaritas are very good.
All that being said, the BBQ itself isn't so great. My pulled pork was not as tender as it should be and it was also quite dry. I will say that it's one of my favorite foods and I eat A LOT of it so perhaps I'm a bit more critical than the average customer. The sides are better so it hasn't ruined my experiences. All in all, I like Max's and will continue to patronize. One note--they do tend to close on the early side--sometimes earlier than the time advertised, just an FYI.
It is a nice place that is inviting with good service. Â At the end of the day, however, it comes down to the BBQ. Â It just simply was not that great. Â The flavor was not there and did not really do justice to one's expectations.
The final hint was as we drove out from the parking lot we saw the large containers of commercial BBQ sauce piled near the dumpster. Â A BBQ place that does not make it's own BBQ sauce can't be taken seriously.
Having gone to Bard College (graduated May '10) me and my friends would often come here for Tuesday night wings (used to be 30 cent wings, then went up to 40 cents...damn inflation).
I will caveat that I haven't been here since I graduated, but the wings were always very good. The hot is definitely hot, and sometime in the last year they got a new chef--a Mexican guy I think--so what used to constitute hot is probably more like medium now. For the truly brave they also have a habenero sauce, but even as a lover of spicy food, I had to get the waitress to bring me a glass of milk because my mouth was absolutely burning.
It used to be absolute chaos to get in for wings, because they restricted it to the bar, so unless you got there right at opening at 5 PM you could easily be waiting an hour to get a seat, but I think they've opened up the whole restaurant for wing night now, which helps a lot.
As for the rest of their food, I didn't eat it that often, but it was pretty good from what I had. I had this really great beef rib there, but I think they stopped serving it, sadly. Their normal menu is also about average pricewise ($10-$15 for most entrees I think), but as a college student, I was mostly interested in their cheap wing night.
A few notes on service: the service can deteriorate when it gets really busy. Since I was mostly going there for wings and maybe one or two of their drink specials (like a can of PBR or a frozen margarita which on wing night would run you $2-$3), and spending under $10 (with tip) for a meal that would leave you absolutely stuffed, I'm not really complaining and I'm not going to deduct a star. I would probably be miffed if I was spending more money there, though.
There was also this absolutely miserable bartender who worked there--he actually argued with me when I was trying to order a coffee instead of a drink when sitting at the bar, I was sick and had class afterward, not that either should have mattered--but the bartender before him was really nice and I don't know if the bad bartender is still working there, so I'm not going to deduct a star for him.
For what I went there for, the wings, I liked it very much. The wings were very good and it was a great place to have a weekly off-campus dinner with my friends. The main ding is for the service, it was especially frustrating that it could take a good bit of waiting to actually pay and get out of there. It's on this basis that I'm giving it a 4/5.
Three of us loved the pulled pork with collard greens and garlic mashed. Â A little loud when busy, but the ambience rocks....my friend said he wanted to redo his house in the style they used. Â Young staff is inexperienced but very pleasant and get the job done. Â Portions were generous and prices very reasonable....will definitely be back a third time!
Review Source:I was here on a busy Saturday night. Â Service was a little slow. Â Ambiance was acceptable, although the place is a bit cramped. Â There was no wait for a table, though, so there's that.
I was disappointed with the food, though. Â For a place that claims to be the best in the area, the pulled pork lacked flavor and was tough, and the macaroni and cheese was no better than the average cafeteria. Â My dining companion had the brisket and also found it lacking. Â
I love BBQ, and have been to many places, from the Carolinas to Kansas City, and all I can say about Max's is that it is indeed BBQ in the Hudson Valley. Â It may be the "best" in the area, but it has a long way to go to live up to the standards of other regions.
Great decor and I would visit the bar again some time. Food was good, especially the brisket. Service though leaves much to be desired. Our waitress was well-meaning, but as soon as a table of five was seated nearby, we were suddenly ignored for the rest of our meal. We were not brought any water and our second round of drinks, which we ordered when our entrees arrived, only came to the table after we had finished our entrees. We sent the drinks back and got the hell out. Noticed other tables having issues with the non-attentive young wait staff. Be warned.
Review Source:I'm giving 3 stars but it was really a 3.25ish. My friend's rehearsal dinner was at Max's and to be honest I had lowish expectations. I was pleasantly surprised-normally in a situation like this the portions are small but the portions were quite big-the piece of cedar plank salmon that people had was HUGE. The servers were a bit harried but it all worked out. Can't really speak to what it is like when you are not at an event.
Review Source:Max's consistently touts the titles "Best BBQ in the Hudson Valley," but really, who's your competition? What gets me is the claim "Best BBQ in the Northeast!" Quite a bold statement considering the far superior Capital Q Smokehouse sits about 55 miles north in Albany.
Here's my biggest issue: the sauce. Fine Max, you prefer the thick and sweet Kansas City style sauce. People like the sweet stuff and you gotta keep up with the demand, but at least offer different varieties for those who don't care for this style! Especially since you don't even make your own sauce. According the the staff, someone named "Kenny" makes the sauce specifically for Max's. Hmm. Not so sure how I feel about a BBQ place that doesn't even make it's own sauce...
Onto the meat. I choose the pulled pork sandwich on my latest visit and was rather disappointed. The torpedo shaped bun, already soggy by the time the sandwich hit the table, lacked the integrity to stand up against the pork and quickly fell apart. The ribs were cooked fine, though I prefer a dry rub opposed to ribs slathered in their sauce.
Max's does do some things well. I really enjoy their BBQ wings, their sides and the chicken sandwich (where the chicken has been cooked with a sort of dry rub). I downgrade this with a heavy heart. Max's, I still like you after all these years but unless you change, I'm keeping this at three stars.
Me & Max's have been tight for 6 years. Â Best BBQ in the Hudson Valley for real. Â The ribs, the pulled pork, the crab cakes, the whole damn menu melts in your mouth baby.
The atmosphere is genuine and warm. Â The patrons and the staff are always friendly. Â The staff are my peeps man. I eat here, party here, I DJ here; it's the hot spot in Red Hook. Â
You can keep Rhinebeck with its fake "New Hamptons" attitude.  My ass is at Max's.  You sleep on Max's, your ass is missing out. I would give this place six stars if I could. Never have I ordered something and say to myself  "why did I order that?"  Kenny, the head chef can throw down with the best of them son.  MAX'S.  It's BBQ.  Best in NY.  Any Questions?
After a day of learning how to snowboard (aka tumbling down Belleayre Mountain with the words "toeside turn! toeside turn!" providing the background music) a bunch of us decided to head over to Max's in Red Hook for some BBQ.
First of all, the food was awesome - from the free corn bread to the sides (garlic mashed potatoes mixed with corn - my own personal preference) to the entrees my tummy was a happy camper. Hands down the best BBQ in upstate NY outside my parent's backyard (my pops knows his way around the grill).
Second of all, the price was so right it hurt. When we looked at the  cost for our portion (three entrees, an appetizer, and two beers) it was well under $70. WHAT?!? Coming from NYC and looking at the amount of food we had been handed, I was expecting to at least drop $100.
Thanks, Max's, for being another awesome upstate NY find.
Was on my way back from Kingston, New York which had me passing by Red Hook. When in Red hook, you need to stop at Max's Memphis Barbecue. This is my favorite Barbecue place on the Northeast. I had the Beef Brisket which just dissolved in my mouth. Â I bit the hand off of my guest who attempted to have a taste. Prices are reasonable, the wait staff is attentive , young and pretty (females).
Has a nice bar for when things are busy and you have to wait for a table.
The 5 best restaurants in the 2015 Denver Restaurant Week
3,611 Views | Category: Denver
The complete list of 2015 Denver Restaurant Week businesses
1,972 Views | Category: Denver
The tourists' guide to Portillos: 5 must have dishes
3,318 Views | Category: Chicago
Pho = Pronounced "fuh" not "foe" for pho-king sake
2,915 Views | Category: Denver
Indulgery selected to exhibit at Collision Conference
2,987 Views | Category: Press Releases
Not Logged In
BUSINESSES
Local Businesses
Near Me
My Favorites
SOCIAL
Blog & News
MY ACCOUNT
Login
Register
Contact Us
Add Your Business
