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I recently moved back to Los Angeles and Crystal booked a ticket to visit me during the President’s Day weekend in February. The first thing we had on our minds for “Things To Do” in LA was the Saved by the Max Brunch. Crystal has been a huge fan of Saved by the Bell, a popular 90’s TV sitcom, and she was beyond excited to visit this cafe.

Reservations

Reservations are required if you want to secure a table and enjoy the entire Saved By the Max experience. They do offer walk-ins when tables are open; however, this is random. It’s not guaranteed the day you want to go that walk-ins are available, so it’s best to make reservations ahead of time at www.savedbythemax.com. Tickets are non-refundable, but they are fully transferable and you can always transfer your reservation to another person.

The Diner - AKA “The Max”

The main room, “The Max” diner is where all the kids from Bayside High hung out. The neon-lit cafe is definitely an immersive experience as the diner is made to look and feel exactly like the TV show, which aired from 1989-1993.

We were the first diners at 10AM and had the place to ourselves

It was pretty entertaining looking over the clever menu item names. Crystal ordered the “Beat Valley Buttermilk Pancakes” and I ordered the “Tori’s Fried Chicken Sandwich”. We also had the “Mac & Screech” appetizer and a “B BA B BA Bloody Mary”.

We read mixed reviews about the food, but luckily the menu had some new items and everything we ordered was a lot better than what we anticipated. Our favorite was the Beat Valley Buttermilk Pancakes. The pancakes were slightly crispy on the outside and moist on the inside and that’s exactly how we like our pancakes. The friend chicken sandwich was okay, but not something we would order again. Our least favorite was the “Mac & Screech”. We thought it was hard to mess up a mac and cheese, but this one had an odd texture and the cheese was watery and bland. We loved the Bloody Mary as it came with a bacon and cheese curd garnish topped off with a Slater flag!

Photo-Ops

The only rule to the photo-ops was to order your food first. Since we were the first customers (we arrived at 10 am), we had our orders in pretty fast and then started our self-guided photo-op tour.

Locker Corner

The locker corner was the first place we headed to as it was by the entrance. We loved looking inside the different lockers to see what the gang had stored in their little personal space. There were also some fun props like Zach’s iconic brick cell phone, big cut-out heads of the characters, a plastic megaphone, Lisa’s crutches, and cheerleader poms. A lot of the props emphasized school spirit or were references to both popular and infamous episodes.

Zach Morris’s Bedroom

Zach’s bedroom was recently added (February 2019) and we were so impressed by the attention to detail. We wonder who was in charge of finding all the vintage props because they were spot-on. From the old school computer to the 90s Sports Illustrated magazines, we were having a nostalgia trip.

Malibu Sands Beach Bar

The Malibu Sands Beach Bar is also a new addition to the Max and stays open late for the preppies who are of drinking age (21+). This is the only section that is always welcome for walk-ins.

Mr. Belding’s Office

Have you ever been to the principal’s office? There wasn’t a whole lot of excitement for us in this corner, but we completely understand why they added Mr. Belding’s Office as he too was a big character on the show.

Arcade Room

Crystal and I grew up in this era, so arcade rooms were definitely part of our after school routine. Crystal especially was an arcade fan and was known to be the Tetris queen amongst her high school class mates. The cool thing about this little arcade section was that the games were completely free to play.

Verdict

We could not have asked for a better time down memory lane. When we made our reservations, we honestly didn’t really care about the food. We were all about the photo-ops and we got plenty of it. Every corner brought back so many memories and even the (loud) music playing throughout the restaurant blasted all the popular nineties music we grew up listening to.

If you want to experience this nostalgia overload, reservations will be open until April 30, 2019 at the West Hollywood location. There has not been any announcement yet as to where they are headed to next. Their first semester started in Chicago, so we doubt they will head back to the same location. Anyone want to take a guess?