Monday, April 23, 2012

Max's Restaurant: Cuisine of the Philippines

Wow! I was excited to see another filipino restaurant opening in Vancouver, Max's! (3546 Kingsway, Vancouver) From what I'm told, they are known for their chicken.
So, we got there at about 10minutes to 5pm. And there was already quite a large crowd waiting. I signed us in for a table for 6 people. We were told the wait would be more or less 20 minutes. And thankfully it was no more than a 20 min wait for us. We were given our menus ( they were even opened in front of us for us).

 We asked for water to drink, and being disappointed, it took forever for our water to come. I think it came about 1/3 way through eating our meal even when I had mentioned it to 2 other servers as well. So they get negative points for that. I even had to stop eating for a bit because I got soooo thirsty!
Here's what we ordered:
This is the "Max's Teasers" for $9.49 which is a sampler of their appetizers. What a disappointment!! The yam fries were soggy, shriveled up and COLD! So were the calamares! The calamares were decent in taste though. The only thing warm was the the lumpiang shanghai, but there was only 4 little pieces. It's as if the plate was sitting out for a long time waiting to be taken to our table :(

This is the "Crabmeat Fried Rice" for $9.99
It tasted okay, but that's all I can say! Nothing special about it. Not sure where the crabmeat was...the stuff on top looked more like scrambled egg... p.s.this dish was also on the cold side!! hmm....

This is the Kare-kare, one of their "house specialties" regular size for $14.99 ( You could get Large for $19.99)
I didn't get a taste, but Denise loved it! and Bryan said it tasted like home-cooking, which I guess is a good thing. We ran out of bagaoong (shrimp paste) and they had to charge us an extra 99cents which I think is dumb...

 Here's the Pancit Palabok for $8.99. This was quite tasty actually. Again, it's nothing extraordinary, but I did enjoy it.

And of course, Max's fried chicken (whole) $14.99. This dish, everyone enjoyed. But I feel like it's still ordinary...even the chicken at Nando's is yummier! Ssshhh! don't tell anyone I said that!!

I think what we all enjoyed most was the DESSERTS! 
MMMMMmmmm!! Leche Flan! $3.29. It's a rather small piece, but enough for everyone to have a piece. So creamy and delicious!!


HALO-HALO!! $5.99 (ouch! says the wallet :)) Classic dessert that didn't disappoint. And loved the little umbrella touch :)

And finally, a Sago't Gulaman $3.29 More of a drink, not a dessert, but we preffered it after dinner. This was delicious. My little sisters drank it so fast, I was lucky to get a quick drink. Refreshing!

Service was rather slow, but they were super busy because it was a Saturday evening. Our server seemed like she was in LaLa Land half the time. When she came to take away some of our plates... OPA!! she dropped one and glass was everywhere. And it was SLOW, did I already say that? :) haha. 
I think it's a little overpriced and the food tasted so-so. I'd rather go to PinPin or Josephine's for filipino cuisine. I'm disappointed with this experience quite frankly :(

Oh wells..
Overall, Max's gets a rating of 7 out of 10

Happy Eating! xoxo,
Dina & Bryan

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