By 
Two Saturdays ago, I was walking on Larchmont Blvd. on a gorgeous sunny day. As I wove my way down the bustling sidewalk, through crowds of fit people with dogs in tow and past artisanal jewelry stands, I came across LA’s new buzzy diner Max and Helen’s.
It was 12:20 pm and I didn’t see a line outside, so I asked the host confidently. “What’s the wait time right now? “Four and a half hours,” she replied. “What about just one person?” She briefly looked at the reservation book. “About two and a half hours”, she said. “That’s insane”, I said in complete astonishment. “I know!”.
“Ok, so what if I come at 8 am?” I asked more hopefully. “That’s better. People usually start lining up at 7”.
By now, you’ve probably heard of Max and Helen’s – Larchmont’s new diner founded by award-winning producer, writer and host, Phil Rosenthal. If you’re dumbfounded by the four-hour wait times, on the opening weekend it was reported to be eight hours. Since Max and Helen’s opened on November 18, TikTok, Instagram, and media outlets have spread the word with mouthwatering photos and videos of comforting diner food: waffles, pancakes, and hot chocolate with a torched marshmallow perched atop a mug. It’s been hard to deny the ubiquitous presence of Max and Helen’s on social media these past few weeks.
Since I moved to LA, I’ve always associated Larchmont with polished soccer moms, luxury boutique shops, and wealthy residents who work in the entertainment industry. So, unless you’re heading to Larchmont for a $13 Italian prosciutto sandwich from the stalwart Larchmont Village Wine & Cheese, the options for a solid eating experience in the mid-range price tier are slim to none. And Max and Helen’s is far from being a mid-range diner…
Originally from Queens, NY, Phil is the creator, writer and executive producer of the 15-time Emmy award-winning sitcom, Everybody Loves Raymond (1996). His extensive career in the entertainment industry includes his Emmy-nominated Netflix food series, Somebody Feed Phil (2018), one of the longest running series on Netflix. Additionally, Rosenthal is a New York Times best-selling author and a successful restaurant investor, backing LA hotspots like Providence, Osteria Mozza and Republique.
Although Phil is from the East Coast, he has called Los Angeles home for the past 36 years.
Diners in LA aren’t fully extinct, but they’re a dying breed. In an interview with the LA Times, Phil said: “There used to be diners everywhere. The other reason I want this is because I want to preserve a sense of community in my community. If you lose diners, you lose that center of town. You lose that meeting place for people rich, poor and everyone in between.”
It wasn’t until 2022, while filming his show, that Phil visited the place that became the inspiration for his own diner: Palace Diner in Biddeford, Maine – located in a railroad dining car.
Phil was astounded at how diner food could taste so good. With a small menu and the most expensive item being the Palais Royale burger with fries priced at $23, Phil wanted to bring that to LA. A place that focused on diner classics by only using the best ingredients.
The name is an homage to his late parents, Max, who passed away in 2021 at 86, and Helen, who passed away in 2019 at 95. They are both caricatured on the restaurant’s menu.
To make the best possible diner food known to man, Phil has teamed up with Chef Nancy Silverton. Boasting a whopping 339k followers on Instagram, Nancy is a two-time James Beard Award winner (it’s the Oscars of the culinary world), author, co-owner of Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles, as well as the co-owner of the ever-expanding Mozza Restaurant Group.
Unlike Palace Diner in Maine, the menu at Max and Helen’s is far more extensive and comes with a much steeper price tag: $14.50 malt shakes, a $27 patty melt, a $27 breakfast combo, and a wide range of salads starting at $16, with the green salad being the cheapest and the Chef’s Salad being the most expensive at $23. A smoked salmon platter with a bagel from LA’s cult following, Courage Bagels will run you $26.
Spending $20 on a smoothie in Los Angeles, as alarming as it sounds, is becoming more normalized. With such exorbitant prices for diner food, he might as well capitalize on the least expensive item on the menu, a $2.75 bottomless coffee.
Excerpt from The Hollywood Reporter:
“He is just as serious about the coffee. On a block where a basic drink often starts at six dollars, he wants the cheapest cup around. “One of the goals is to have the cheapest coffee on the block,” he says. ‘I think we are going to try to keep it under three bucks. If you want your latte, go to one of the seven other places on the block. This is a diner. It is not fancy.’ “
When talking about the diner, he said to Variety: “It’s going to be as cheap as we can possibly make it. I don’t do things for money, I never did.”
Based on Phil’s statements from previous interviews, he wants Max and Helen’s to reclaim the essence of diners. In order to understand the essence of diners, let’s briefly go back in history.
The first diner appeared in the late 1800s in Providence, Rhode Island. Initially, diners were horse-drawn wagons that provided quick and affordable food to late-night workers who couldn’t afford eating out. Overall, their true essence lies in the working class.
A prime example of this is Emma Jean’s Holland Burger Cafe, about an hour and a half from Los Angeles on Route 66 in the small town of Victorville — think the Cars movie, a roadside diner deeply rooted in nostalgic Americana. When I went there, workers in reflective jackets came in, greeting the waitress by name, and a couple of elderly locals were perched on the barstools chatting with her. If you love diners, you have to go! The diner was featured on the iconic Food Network show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (2007). Read my full review HERE.
Jongewaard’s Bake n Broil in Long Beach is my all-time favorite diner in LA (why does it have to be so far?). The food is excellent at affordable prices, and their mouthwatering pies have been made by the same baker for 40 years! At Bake n Broil, the patrons reflect the diversity of Long Beach: from African-American to Hispanic families to white, elderly couples and blue-collar families.
Phil highlights the community feel of Max and Helen’s, just like the diners you read above. Yet at its core, Max and Helen’s is really a restaurant posing as a diner, helmed by a famed chef serving “elevated” diner comfort classics. If you consider Nancy’s Omelet — priced at $18 and made with fine herbs and farmer’s cheese — to be elevated diner food, you might as well go to Petit Trois and have a fancy omelet for just $10 more.
For Phil, whose estimated net worth according to Google is $200 million, Max and Helen’s is his childhood dreams come to fruition. It’s his adult self stepping into a real-life version of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory he built from the ground up. “I see it as a passion project for myself,” he said to Eater LA.
Curious to see if Max and Helen’s elevated diner food was actually as life-changing as Phil claims it to be, I took the day off and went there last Thursday.
Coincidentally, that Thursday was the first day of their outdoor seating.
I got there at 7:20 and there was already a family of four waiting. “Is this your first time?” I asked the blonde daughter. “It’s actually my third time”, she said. “Is it really that good? What do you think of the prices?” I asked. “It’s definitely elevated diner food. Yes, it is expensive, but it’s sooo good, oh my God”.
As we were waiting, the stylish mom and the daughter’s husband were talking about real estate and a house they sold.
A middle-aged couple queued up behind me and proceeded to peruse the menu. “What’s a farmer’s cheese?” said the man. “I don’t know,” she replied.
By 7:55 on Thursday, this is what the line looked like.
Before letting us in, the team stepped outside for a quick check of the outdoor seating layout. Then the moment I’d been waiting for arrived — I finally stepped into Max and Helen’s.
Interior
The space was thoughtfully curated, with framed vintage photos and rich, wood-clad walls — but it failed to replicate the warmth of old-school diners. I didn’t feel like I was stepping back in time in the same way I do when I walk into Pie n Burger in Pasadena.
It felt like I was at a restaurant in glitzy Larchmont with a dash of old-school New York deli.
As soon as I sat on the barstool, I placed my order right away. The server complimented my order. “You’ve done your homework”, he said.
Single pancake
When I tried Du-Pars’ buttermilk pancakes for the first time earlier this year, I was at a loss for words. It was a fluffy, golden masterpiece, with a perfect balance of sweetness and a malty flavor that seamlessly blended with the melted butter. I had to call my friend, who told me about them ASAP because they were that good!
People have commented on Yelp that the pancakes at Max and Helen’s have a citrus note. I couldn’t pinpoint the exact flavor, but something felt off when it was clear as day that this was not a buttermilk pancake.
Additionally, even though my order was the first to come out of the kitchen, the bottom of the pancake was burnt, which affected the taste. I left half of it. After so much research on how to make the best diner food, I couldn’t believe Phil and Nancy didn’t have the best pancake recipe on lock. Pancakes are the quintessential American breakfast!
Months ago, I wrote an article about the best pancakes in Los Angeles. Part of my wanting to try Max and Helens’ pancakes was to potentially include them on the list and sadly, this one did not make the cut. Judging by the picture below they reposted on their stories, I guess they don’t care that their pancakes are overdone.
Update: According to SFGate, their pancakes are made with spelt and rye flour.
Max’s Fluffy Eggs
One of my biggest pet peeves when I go to diners is how scrambled eggs are treated like an afterthought, with a bland flavor and rubbery texture from being cooked too fast.
Phil took the assignment of creating the perfect fluffy eggs very seriously to honor his late dad, Max. Phil said to CBS: “My dad loved fluffy eggs so much that on his tombstone, it says, ‘Are my eggs fluffy?'”
The texture was perfect: fluffy and tender curds that just melted in your mouth. Flavor-wise, I don’t know if I would be able to differentiate these $12 eggs from another upscale breakfast place in LA. They’ll ask you if you want to add cheese, but if you order them plain like I did, they won’t even add salt or black pepper.
Waffle
As the guys next to me spread the maple butter on their waffles, I followed suit. Do you know that feeling when you eat something, you have a hunch is not going to feel good after but you keep eating it anyway? That’s exactly what happened with the maple butter. It was so salty I could feel it in my stomach five hours later. I was expecting it to have a different consistency, just like in those TikTok videos. Clearly, their morning batch was different that day. 😭😭
“The best waffle you’ll have anywhere” wrote one user on Yelp. “I’m not exaggerating when I say it was the best waffle I’ve ever had,” someone else wrote.
The hallmark of a good waffle lies in its soft texture, crispy edges and a flavor that doesn’t rely on syrups, and Max and Helen’s checked all of these boxes, especially texture-wise.
It was good, but not significantly better than other waffle contenders in LA. Also, the overkill of the salty maple butter ruined the experience.
Lily’s Hot Chocolate
Named after Phil’s daughter, Lily’s Hot Chocolate ended up being my favorite item out of the four.
The server ladled hot chocolate from a stainless steel pot sitting on a burner. It was rich, with a smooth, velvety texture and not so thick that I needed to rely on the spoon to drink it. The sweetness level was really well-balanced: not cloyingly sweet and not bitter at all. If you order it, watch for any remnants of chocolate and marshmallow around your mouth!
Was this hot chocolate so good to make me shout it from the rooftops? In my hometown of Madrid, chocolate con churros is a beloved dessert, so I had plenty of options to indulge in decadent hot chocolate growing up. Lily’s Hot Chocolate was a pretty solid hot chocolate, but not enough to make me go back just for it.
The moment of truth. My total came to $51.03
I almost clutched my pearls when I realized I forgot to order the $2.75 coffee!! So I did, and I really liked it. It was very smooth and robust in taste. Definitely not your average diner coffee, where it feels like you’re drinking 90% hot water and just a little bit of coffee with high acidity and bland flavor from the cheap coffee beans.
While I was eating, a middle-aged married couple were enjoying the New York Crumbcake. “Oh my God, this is so good. Wow,” I genuinely thought he was going to shed a tear. He said to the server, “We live in the neighborhood. I’m from New Jersey, where diners were a big thing growing up.”
This wouldn’t be the first time someone has cried over how good Max and Helen’s food is. On their Instagram account, they posted a video of a customer crying with joy over the Reuben sandwich, bringing him back to when he was a child and eating it with his dad. The caption read: “This is literally the point of this diner!!!! Nostalgia forever!!! We love you, we love a Ratatouille moment in real time.”
Comedian Caitlyn Reilli shared in the comments: “The potatoes tasted exactly like my mom’s and made me cry at the table. Not kidding.”
The husband asked the guy sitting two seats next to me what he thought of the food. He said he really liked the sausage — mentioning how crispy it was. He didn’t touch much on the waffle, and neither he nor the guy sitting next to me commented on the pancake.
As I was leaving, I walked past the table with the family from earlier. “What do you think?” asked the mom. “It was good!”, but my response didn’t come off very enthusiastically.
Phil’s affluent friends, his Larchmont neighbors, and even Jane Fonda have all sung their praises to the diner, along with a devoted legion of customers who clearly don’t mind repeating the experience over and over.
For Max and Helen’s die-hard fans, it’s a combination of nostalgia flooding back and effusive claims of “the best version of (insert diner food) I’ve ever had.” Despite being the new kid on the block, Max and Helen’s has already amassed an impressive cult following. For now, my own Max and Helen’s moment remains at Du-Pars.
Before I left, I asked the server about the infamous $27 patty melt that I was going to order, but couldn’t because they serve it at 11. He said, “Oh my God, it’s soo good. It’s actually a big patty melt. We use a mix of ground beef and wagyu beef”. He mentioned the bakery that supplies the bread but I forgot the name.
“What do you think of the food?” I asked. More eye rolls followed. “Ugh!! It’s the absolute best!”
The hype surrounding the diner has definitely worked in Phil’s favor, especially with an already established fanbase from his ongoing Netflix series.
Some people have said that the hype will eventually die down. I think Max and Helen’s is here to stay for a long time, and will ultimately become a pilgrimage destination for out-of-towners who have either watched the show or found about Max and Helen’s on TikTok or Instagram.
Phil’s daughter, Lily Rosenthal, who works at the restaurant with his chef husband, Mason Royal, shared with Variety that if things went well, they hoped to open a Max and Helen’s location in New York.
“We would love if this could build into becoming a big, national diner chain. That would be great. But for right now, we have to focus on getting this 100% right, because the worst thing you could do is go too big too soon,” she said.
What are your thoughts? Have you been to Max and Helen’s?
Max and Helen’s: Website and Instagram
Hours: Monday – Sunday 8AM – 8PM
Address: 127 N Larchmont Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90004
