Ulrik A.
Yelp
Chez Max is a cozy traditional French restaurant with a cozy ambiance, a friendly and helpful staff and good value for the money. It's good for either a simple meal or spending a little more for that extra goodness.
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Approaching Chez Max, we were a little wary, as it is located just across the river (on the "wrong" side) from the center of Epernay.
But our worries were soon blown away by a buzzing cozy atmosphere, lots of people and friendly faces.
The decor looks a little like it's stuck in the eighties with salmon colored walls and high-gloss ceiling and the lighting is bright, but with a warm hue giving the place a cozy and unpretentious air.
The service was good humored and nicely paced, we didn't wait long to order, and each course was served with very pleasant timing. Of course it helped that we watched the preparation of the bœef tartare (more on this later).
We almost took one of the set menues, but having been disappointed two nights in a row on similar ones, we opted for the a la carte, and were very happy with that choice.
For starters we had goat cheese on toast and scallops carpaccio. The cheese is almost always good, so that was no more or less than we would have expected, but the scallops were finely sliced and marinated in a little oil and herbs. A little lemon would have complimented the taste nicely, but we thought of asking for some way too late.
For the main course we had rack of lamb and bœef tartare.
The lamb was beautifully cooked to our taste, a perfect rosy color and came with a bit of mashed potatoes, a little ratatouille and a small portion of cabbage, carrots and parsley that all went really well together.
The bœef tartare was prepared by Max himself "at the table" which in our case was across the stairwell. As we hadn't reserved a table, we were seated upstairs sort of behind the staircase with no room on the sides, but that didn't prevent Max from preparing the tartare sauce at the top of the stairs where we could see.
Being huge foodies it was a treat to witness a proper tartare in the making.
Both dishes were generously sized, so we were too full to try the cheese plate, even though it looked delicious.
We were driving so we only had a single glass of local wine each. Considering the price of €6 a glass, I would recommend someone in the same situation to look at the half-bottles that ranged from €15-25 instead.
