Max’s Restaurant

1.5÷5
*The service here was a bit lackluster in terms of speed and just trying to get them to notice you.
–Lumpiang Ubod — $ 12.99
I didn’t like this dish at all. It was like eating a crêpe filled with raw vegetables and meat. There was no flavor and the peanut dip was somehow really sweet, and didn’t go well with the savoury meat at all.
–Lechon Kawali Sisig — $ 14.99
the sisig here was crunchy and every bites was explosion of flavors. It also has a texture contrast of soft pieces as well as crispy since the dish was served on a hot cast iron plate. Toward the end the sisig became quite greasy and it would have been better if there was something tangy like lemon to cut through the fat.
–Lechon Kawali — $ 15.99
The skin was super crispy while the inside was dry and hard to bite. It also lacked seasonings but the mild tartness of the liver sauce helped to cut through the «supposed to be» fattiness of the lechon kawali.
–Pancit Palabok — $ 10.99
There was something strange about the texture of the rice noodle and the sauce that didn’t work for me at all. The noodle was overcooked, mushy and sauce was really. flour-​y? I also found the noodle to be quite bland and the cracklings were incredibly dry, it just added no flavors to the palabok at all.
–Garlic Rice — $ 6.95
The garlic rice was a must order when you are having Filipino food and we also had a lot of saucy dishes as well. It was very garlicky with real bits of garlic, but in a good way.
–Leche Flan — $ 3.99
Nothing special. Tasted just like any other flan that I could make at home.
–Ube Crème Decadence — $ 4.99
Technically we received this dish for free as there was a check-​in special on Unilocal that day. On the initial bites, the texture was similar to a panna cotta, rich and creamy yet light in flavor. When you dig in further, you will find the rich ube crème in center. The milk and cream muted the starch of the ube to make a perfect pair, finished off by the ube roll crumbs. I thought it was a light and refreshing dessert to cleanse the palate all that oiliness from the lunch :).

OVERPRICED!!!
Service is great.
But food is just ²⁄₅ (considering the price too). Plus the pork sisig is a HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT.
I’ll give a star for buko pandan.
And lechon kawali.

Overpriced Filipino food chain. Ordered the whole chicken but it was quite small, like malnourished and no taste. The oxtail soup was pricey and even worse was only 1 piece of meat (oxtail).
I really don’t understand the hype over this restaurant. I purchased 2 of the $ 30 for $ 15 offer and even at that price, you don’t get much. It was worth a try for the special price but there is no way I would pay full price for their food.
Tip: I used the «check-​in» on Unilocal to get the free decadence desert (it was good), but when I used the $ 30 for $ 15 coupon, they informed me they will be charging for the desert. Can’t «combine» deals apparently.

Food is good but the service is amazing! We went there for thanksgiving lunch and Ram and Justin were so nice! The restaurant was packed but Ram was so patient with our additional orders, even helping us with our choices. Justin was kind enough to stop, even though he was rushing to get back to the kitchen, just to take our picture. I really appreciated how they didn’t seem to mind AT all.
Music is legit Filipino too (E.g. Rey Valera) which is a plus!
We got Laing (good), Lechon Kawali Sisig (meh), Bulalo (good), Max’s Chicken (Ok. To be fair, even the Philippines’ recipe changed. Incomparable to the chicken I had during my childhood), ube decadent (goood), and halo-​halo (good everywhere).

This restaurant has not been consistent in taste and quality. Service is slow. I ordered halo halo for $ 6.99 and the sweet ingredients is less now that their usual servings. What happened? Don’t they want customers coming back and excited to order more and bring friends?

Yummy authentic food. I ate like there’s no tomorrow. You got to try their fried chicken of course, like the chicken I used to eat in Baclaran branch. Crispy pata-​yummy. Kare Kare-​yummy.

Great authentic Filipino cuisine. Service is great and food is delicious. Prices are a little hefty, but as a treat, it’s a great place to go.

In Toronto, Filipino food is often served on styrofoam plates with plastic cutlery, and diners are crammed into a grocery store where the televisions are blasting the latest drama. This is one of the reasons why many Torontonians have never eaten Filipino food.
Enter Max’s Restaurant, which is an easy entry-​point for those who are trying Pinoy food for the first time. Overall, the presentation is good, the atmosphere is cheerful, and the staff are friendly. And from the often long wait times, it’s clear that there is a market for Max’s.
I’ve tried the kare-​kare, the pancit, the halo-​halo, and more, but my favourite dish is the lumpiang Shanghai, which comes in its own bowl made of a deep-​fried eggroll wrapper. That’s a nice touch.
Many diners have complained that the chicken is bland and dry. Could it be the type of chicken that the chefs are using? I hope that this can be changed to avoid more disappointments, so that more first-​timers will be coming back for Filipino food!

I’ve been to this place for quite sometime now and I find it very busy especially on the weekends. I tried their chicken and I can say it is one of the best I’ve ever tasted. The pansit also is mouth watering and the kare-​kare is worth the drive.
The place is a little bit small considering that a lot of people goes there for lunch or dinner. The ambiance is quite off. The crews are great and very helpful.

A very cozy and clean restaurant with super friendly service and delicious home style Filipino food. It’s a full service restaurant, so the prices are not obviously as low as a take-​out only resto, but still reasonable. A large variety of dishes to choose from, including my favs, sinagang and kare-​kare. My dining partner and I both had the quarter chicken with garlic rice. The skin was really crispy and the chicken was juicy inside. Garlic rice was flavourful and a fair portion. We had the Ube crème decadence for dessert… sooo good, I wanted to order another one!
My only suggestion would be to lower the volume of the music. I felt like I had to really raise my voice in order to be heard. Other than that, I’m looking forward to returning!

It’s so bright! It’s so cheerful! The servers are polite! The whole place is buzzing with people! I really wanted to love Max’s (you can go ask my wife), but at the end of the day the result was rather disappointing.
I’ve been telling my wife that we should come here for a visit and check out this Filipino phenomenon (I hear it’s HUGE back there) for a long time, and a few weeks ago after making a reservation and using the awesome Unilocal coupon we finally did. The whole place was packed, and despite our reservation we were seated a few minutes late. Not great, but the servers do the best they can and I’m not one to whine about a 7−8-minute reservation delay despite us being there a full ten minutes before our time.
We ordered the chicken, naturally. It was pretty good. The meat didn’t have a lot of taste, though the skin did. So in a way it was reminiscent of any other good-​but-​not-​great fried chicken offerings at other places. Mixing it with banana ketchup was quite fun, while the garlic fried rice was nice, if not mind-​blowing. It was a little bland, though nicely garlicky.
We also ordered the kare-​kare. This Filipino beef stew had huge chunks of tender oxtail. But even after dumping the whole bagoong (shrimp paste) in it, the whole thing felt… bland. We had to dump more salt into it, as all we tasted was an overwhelmingly peanutty taste.
And we had to try the huge halo-​halo. Coming from Southeast Asian (and also having eaten at Casa Manila), I had a pretty good idea what this is supposed to taste like and again… it was bland.
So in summary: bland bland bland, good texture on the meats, decent chicken. With the reservation + coupon, it was an OK experience. But without them… I don’t think I’ll be back. It’ll be back to Casa Manila for me next time. And believe me, with a second location opening soon near my house, I BADLY wanted to love and embrace this restaurant. But everything is just so… BLAND. Which to me is a «cardinal sin» (LOL, Filipino joke, anyone got that? No? OK then) when cooking Southeast Asian food, a cuisine that I am über-​über-​sooper familiar with.

I don’t really see myself coming back here.
Like the other reviewers said, the service here is a bit lackluster, in terms of speed and just trying to get them to notice you.
The food is only pretty good. My boyfriend and I had ordered the lechon kawali (deep fried pork belly), shanghai lumpia, Max’s famous deep fried chicken and the extremely expensive kare kare (oxtail in peanut sauce).
The lechon kawali doesn’t even come cut. It’s legitimately one huge slab of deep fried pork belly that you pretty much have to cut yourself. Lechon kawali is usually cut into mouth size cubes. When it came out … A knife wasn’t even offered, we had to ask for one. I found that to be a little ridiculous.
The shanghai lumpia was good … But then again, it’s a little hard to screw up spring rolls.
Max’s deep fried chicken was a huge huge huge disappointment! Makes me really question just exactly why is this supposed to be their specialty? It was quite bland and very dry. Room temperature at best.
Though, I gotta give them credit for the kare kare which hands down might have been the best kare kare in Toronto. Even better than my grandma’s! (sorry grandma) But if I remember correctly, I ended up paying around $ 23 for a decent sized bowl. I do understand that ox tail isn’t exactly the cheapest, but come on now!
All in all, like I said at the start, I don’t see myself coming back here, due to the service and disappointment of over hyped food. The kare kare was really the only thing that made me push this review to two stars. The only time I see myself coming back to Max’s is if I was with a huge group or my over sized family. Because what Filipino restauraunt doesn’t accomodate huge familes right?

The staff is very very nice. The service was excellent. The food was just not spectacular… We had appetizer sunflower deep fried, it was ok for an appetizer but felt undercooked. Then my husband had telapia fish that was supposed to be spicy and beside the hot red little pepper on top there was nothing spicy about that dish. I had milk fish that I had to put aside after one bite, the waiter said it traditional fish so it is probably just me, but he was nice and did not charge me for it.:)

I previously wrote a review for Max’s and it wasn’t a pleasant experience at all. That event occurred 2 years ago.
I decided to give Max’s a second shot and dropped by here with a colleague of mine on a Friday evening. My friend was new to the filipino food culture, so I wanted to make sure he had an enjoyable time at a filipino restaurant and what better choice but to take him to a renowned name.
I made reservations for two, assuming that it was busy on a Friday evening. As soon as we arrived we were seated within 2min. The server didn’t take our order soon enough, but it was forgivable. That evening, my colleague and I had a lot of fun. The music was great, the ambiance was inviting and happy, and the other people in the restaurant were entertaining. I’ve noticed that with every birthday celebration, all the staff or servers would bring a dessert to the celebrant and sing a traditional filipino birthday song while everyone else clapped, in which we joined in as well.
Due to the service and the whole service that evening, Max’s has redeemed themselves in my eyes. We had so much fun that evening; part of it was from the whole experience as well as good company. I must say that they had an excellent playlist running that evening that my friend and I couldn’t stop bobbing and humming to everything that was playing. There was also a party next door and other people couldn’t help but get into the rhythm of the awesome music.
Thanks Max’s for the excellent experience. You’ve definitely regained my loyalty and I’m excited about the new location opening in Scarborough. I hope they maintain this flow of service. Only one thing to point out; some of the dishes weren’t that good. Maybe I’m just so used to home-​cooked filipino dishes.

I agree on most reviews… The wait is horrible.
Last time I came down for dinner I waited 2 hours and gave up…
I went down for lunch it was quick but their debit machine is out of service… If I want to eat I have to go to at machine… so I end up eating somewhere else.

Very nice and bright place, well-​lit area, very friendly Filipino staff, great selection of Authentic Filipino food. Their music is great! A lil bit pricey but Good food and worth it esp when you are craving for Fili food!

one word to describe this place is SLOW.
The greeter at the front, keeps guest waiting when there are empty tables available.
the waiters are slow, the tables are not cleared at a timely matter. takes them awhile to come around.
Not really good Filipino food, small portions and overpriced for what it is.
The pork sisig was greasy, mushy, and no crunch in it.
the fried chicken is very basic, dry, no taste, needs sauce, overpriced, I’d rather have popeyes chicken any day over this.
the rice seems like a lot, but it’s not and gone in a second, overprice also.
I’ve been here a few times and tried almost every dish (it’s best to come here in a large group or with family to share)
nothing really stands out besides the halo halo
there are not a lot of choices for Filipino food, but if it’s not too far away, I’d suggest Casa Manila over this.

I think this place is great and they should expand. I find some of the comments here misleading, expensive? Are you kidding me? It’s average price for a filipino restaurant that is not take out… You actually get served here. Not sure where you guys eat when going out, but the usual chain restaurant’s entrees are approximately 20 dollars each. The flavour of the food is fantastic (albeit, I don’t like the palabok) but the taste is very authentic. The chicken is an acquired taste? What blasphemy is that? It is the best fried chicken because it is crisp; it is similar to the carribean fried chicken — guyanese style, which I love. My only problem is the service, they are slow.

I went here recently with my parents. We had the Lumpiang Shanghai (Spring Rolls) ($ 7.99), a whole fried chicken ($ 14.99) and a large Garlic Rice ($ 3.99). We wanted the Crab Fried Rice ($ 9.99), but they said it wasn’t available that day (we went on a Tuesday. Maybe it’s only available on the weekends? I don’t know). We also had a Halo-​Halo ($ 5.99) and a Buko Pandan ($ 4.99) for dessert. Yeah, I know, our meal was completely devoid of vegetables, but none of the veggie dishes looked that appetizing.
Anyway, so the Lumpiang Shanghai came in a basket made of fried spring roll wrappers — a neat idea. The spring rolls are tiny, but you get quite a few of them. They were delicious and flavourful. I’m not sure what spices are in them, but they taste different than Chinese spring rolls. They came with a nice sweet and sour dipping sauce.
The Garlic Rice was 5 large scoops of rice with bits of fried garlic in it. Very garlicky, but tasty. The fried chicken was good, but not spectacular. I have to admit that I was expecting more from a place that is famous for its friend chicken. It was a bit oily and there is no breading. I think they just rub it with some spices and fry the entire chicken whole. The chicken was moist, but not all that flavourful. Although it tastes really good with the «Banana Ketchup» which incidentally doesn’t have any tomatoes in it, so it’s really a banana sauce (although it’s red and looks like ketchup).
The Buko Pandan was the most delicious part of the meal. It was chunks of pandan flavoured jello, coconut, and tapioca in a rich cream sauce, topped with a scoop of coconut ice cream and toasted rice flakes. So rich and creamy and heavenly. You have to try this if you go to Max’s.
I was actually looking forward to the Halo-​Halo most during this visit and while it was good, it was overshadowed by the Buko Pandan. The Halo-​Halo was a typical mix of palm seeds, coco de nata, macapuno strings, red beans, a piece of flan, a scoop of taro ice cream and toasted rice flakes, all on top of shaved ice mixed with coconut milk. It is very colourful and comes in a big glass with a paper umbrella in it. It was less sweet than the Buko Pandan, but still good.
The server we had was very friendly and efficient. He even offered to take a picture of us (with our own camera of course), which I thought was nice of him. We weren’t even taking pictures, he just randomly asked us if we wanted him to take a picture of us. Some might find this strange, but I thought it was nice. So I pulled out my phone and he took 2 pictures of us.
This was my second experience with Filipino food (my first being at the now defunct Manila Hut in Ottawa), and I’m looking forward to trying more of this cuisine.
I think I want to try the Crispy Pata (deep fried pork hock) next time. I’ve heard so much about it, and other people in the restaurant were having it, and I was going to try it but felt intimidated by the size and artery-​cloggingness of it all.
Casual dining atmosphere. Lots of parking, as it is in a strip mall. If you’ve never had Filipino food before, I think this is a great place to start. There are lots of pictures and descriptions (something that was severely lacking at Manila Hut, which is why I did not have a positive opinion of Filipino food after my first experience. Had my first experience with Filipino food been at Max’s it wouldn’t have taken me 7 years to try Filipino food again!).

As a Filipino, I felt obligated to come here. I mean, my default Unilocal search bar says «Find: tacos, cheap dinner, MAX’S»! You can say it was kinda in my face.
I recommended Max’s to my friend to have his birthday celebration at. As the only Filipino there, everyone asked me what to get. Remembering what my relatives in the Philippines told me, I advised them to try the fried chicken. I followed that same advice and got the Half Chicken Dinner.
The chicken’s skin was good, great even. It was seasoned to perfection and I couldn’t get enough of it. I can’t say the same for the actual meat, though. While still satisfactory, it was on the dry side and wasn’t special. I was surprised with how little rice they provided with the dish. Anyone that knows a Filipino knows how important rice is to every dish, yet the portion of rice given was only a little more than five spoonfuls. I’m not too much of a fan of rice myself so I didn’t mind, but I can see how this can bother other people.
TL;DR? The chicken here is definitely worth trying at least once.