Saved By the Max

I was a huge fan of the television show “Saved By the Bell” when I was growing up. I remember watching it on Saturday mornings after my favorite cartoons were over, and then when I was a little older I watched it everyday after school. Episode after episode, no matter how many times I’d seen each and every scene, I would still watch. I loved the characters and the storylines- and I of course dreamed of going to a high school like Bayside High. It was escapism at it’s best- and I just really loved the show. So needless to say, I was beyond excited when I heard that a Saved By the Bell pop-up restaurant was coming to LA!

We made our reservations a couple months in advance- we found a date that worked for our group and booked it online. The website is really user friendly- you can find it here. It’s a prepaid reservation and the price is $40 per person, which includes your choice of appetizer and entree. When you book your table you have a choice of dining at “The Max” or in “Beldings Office”. We chose to dine in The Max which is basically the main part of the restaurant. Beldings Office is sort of a separated area inside the main area. The restaurant is located in West Hollywood and there is a parking structure located right beneath the plaza the restaurant sits in. Okay, so onto the fun stuff!

We arrived about 15 minutes before our 5:00pm reservation time, checked in with the hostess, and then took some pictures with AC Slater while we waited 😉

After about 5 minutes we were welcomed inside. Walking in you immediately see the familiar scene of the Max from the show. The iconic door with the pay phone right next to it, the red shiny booths, the neon-light signage, the jukebox, etc. They also play the music from the show in the background, and there are TV screens showing classic episodes of SBTB.  Our waiter greeted us with a “Hey Preppies” which we thought was super fun. He then explained the menu-one appetizer and one entree are included with your reservation,  drinks and desserts cost an additional amount. He also and assured us that we’d have time to look around and take advantage of all the photo opportunities. Your time here is limited though- I think each table is given an hour and a half until you need to move along. Considering they are a very busy restaurant I feel like that’s fair. Service was prompt, so we had plenty of time to eat and take a ton of pictures.

The menu is great- everything has a fun name relating to characters from the show. The menu offers plenty of variety. Drink prices are what you’d expect them to be.

We put our order in and our drinks arrived quickly. They were followed almost immediately by our appetizers. I ordered the Zachary Daiquiri, and my friend ordered the Albert Clifford. Both were good.

For appetizers we got the Poutine Engel and the Mac and Screech. I was really surprised by the food here! I figured we were kind of just paying for the “experience” and the food would be average at best, but no. The food was really good! I loved the poutine especially- the braised pork and gravy was really delicious. I definitely recommend it!

 

For my entree I chose the Big Bopper’s Bopped Salad and it was super good. It was a big salad, it was fresh, the dressing had great flavor, and it had a ton of blue cheese. Delicious! I stink at remembering to take pictures of my food because I’m a pig and I dive in quickly. So I’m sorry I didn’t get any other food pictures. My husband had the Tori’s Fried Chicken- it looked really good but he wasn’t crazy about it. He tends to be really picky though. Our friends both had the Bayside Burgers and they said they were good. After our food we got some Lisa Turtle Milkshakes and they were absolutely delicious! Get the milkshakes guys- they stole the show for us!

We also took full advantage of all the photo spots in the place! They have an area set up near the entrance with all the lockers and in each characters locker they have props relating to that particular character:

 

In Zack’s locker there was the iconic Zack Morris cell phone, a Dodger’s hat(clearly a man of good taste!), and Becky the duck(remember her from the oil spill episode??):

 

Hahaha! Yes, we are completely aware of our ridiculousness…

Kelly’s locker had pom-poms and lots of pictures of her and Zack, Tori’s had a helmet and a leather jacket, Jessie’s had caffeine pills and women’s lib books, Slater’s had a football and his wrestling singlet, etc. You get the idea- fun props to take pictures with for sure! The staff here is great too- they were super nice about snapping pics for us.

They also have these giant cardboard heads you can take pictures with- we had a lot of fun with that:

 

We were also able to go into Belding’s office and get pictures in there. Although I’m glad our table reservation was in “The Max” and not in Beldings Office- it was really fun to be able to go in there and get pictures.

We had a total blast at this place! If you were/are a fan of the show it’s definitely worth a trip. For the price we thought it was a great value, parking was convenient, the food was delicious, and the staff was great. This is just a pop-up restaurant, so it won’t be around for too long. Currently the last month available to make a reservation is March of next year, so go snag a spot now before Saved By the Max is gone You won’t regret it 🙂