Max's Restaurant - Filipino Cuisine
The other day I saw a picture of a vibrant purple ube (purple yam) ice cream cone on my Instagram, and I decided that I had to try it. A quick google search showed that ube ice cream is usually part of a Filipino dessert called Halo Halo, and I could find it at an authentic Filipino chain restaurant called Max's Restaurant in the west end. Then I realized that I had never been to a Filipino restaurant in all my years of dining out, so I was intrigued by the idea.
I visited on a Friday night with no reservation, which was a bad idea since I was told the wait would be half an hour. After I was seated, it was another 15 minute wait just to get the order placed. And then it took more than 45 minutes for the food to arrive! I was starving by the time I finally got to eat. The soup that came with one of the meals basically tasted like canned chicken soup, only worse because it was super starchy.
I ordered Max's platter which consisted of a Max's chicken leg, pancit bihon (rice noodles), garlic rice, and a caramel bar. The fried chicken is Max's signature dish and it's what made the chain famous to begin with. Maybe that's why I found it so underwhelming. The skin was crispy, but the whole thing was so overcooked that it was tough and chewy. The garlic rice was good, and the pancit bihon was decent, but it was no different from any stir-fried noodle dish you could get at Good Buddy or any other mediocre Chinese restaurant. The caramel bar was not even removed from its plastic packaging to be served, so that basically told me it was something they took out of a box and threw on the plate. It was a soggy thing with a texture somewhere between cake and fudge.
After the disappointing and very greasy meal, I finally got to try what I came for — the halo halo dessert with ube ice cream. I suppose they were trying to jazz up the presentation with the paper umbrella, but that hardly helped since the other toppings looked so carelessly thrown together. Tastewise, everything tasted like it came directly out of a can. In fact, I could probably recreate this at home after doing some shopping at T&T. The flan was hard and chunky, and I found out that I didn't like the flavour of ube ice cream.
After this meal, my dining partner and I both had stomach pain and indigestion issues. This could be due to the extremely long waiting time followed by such a greasy meal. In any case, I would not recommend this restaurant.
I visited on a Friday night with no reservation, which was a bad idea since I was told the wait would be half an hour. After I was seated, it was another 15 minute wait just to get the order placed. And then it took more than 45 minutes for the food to arrive! I was starving by the time I finally got to eat. The soup that came with one of the meals basically tasted like canned chicken soup, only worse because it was super starchy.
I ordered Max's platter which consisted of a Max's chicken leg, pancit bihon (rice noodles), garlic rice, and a caramel bar. The fried chicken is Max's signature dish and it's what made the chain famous to begin with. Maybe that's why I found it so underwhelming. The skin was crispy, but the whole thing was so overcooked that it was tough and chewy. The garlic rice was good, and the pancit bihon was decent, but it was no different from any stir-fried noodle dish you could get at Good Buddy or any other mediocre Chinese restaurant. The caramel bar was not even removed from its plastic packaging to be served, so that basically told me it was something they took out of a box and threw on the plate. It was a soggy thing with a texture somewhere between cake and fudge.
After the disappointing and very greasy meal, I finally got to try what I came for — the halo halo dessert with ube ice cream. I suppose they were trying to jazz up the presentation with the paper umbrella, but that hardly helped since the other toppings looked so carelessly thrown together. Tastewise, everything tasted like it came directly out of a can. In fact, I could probably recreate this at home after doing some shopping at T&T. The flan was hard and chunky, and I found out that I didn't like the flavour of ube ice cream.
After this meal, my dining partner and I both had stomach pain and indigestion issues. This could be due to the extremely long waiting time followed by such a greasy meal. In any case, I would not recommend this restaurant.
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