Max’s Restaurant

My husband and I have just come here for dinner tonight and the service was horrible! We sat down and waited for nearly 30 minutes with no waiter acknowledging us. Thankfully a busser finally came to apologize and said that a waiter would be with us shortly. The waiter, Ki-​anna, came 5 mins after and then told us to wait again… She didn’t even give us water after taking our order, but the busser noticed and had to come give it to us. Please step up your services and management.
The quality of the food does not reflect the price and everything was far too oily. It’ll be a long time till we decide to eat here again.

This place sucks. Bad customer service. Sat down, waited, got no drinks, nobody took our order. Me and my family sat there for 10min while we saw two groups get seated and helped. So we walked out. Workers didn’t even say a damn thing. It was our first time and we got the worst service we’ve ever got at any restaurant. If you’re looking for Filipino food I’d say cook it and home and skip this awful place. Not worth it at all.

We ordered a la carte/​traditional style vs. the large meal combos or individual meal combos.
Crab Fried Rice — very tasty and «worth» the $ 10 considering the portion size.
Pancit Canton — lots of flavor and great variety of proteins, not too much filler/​cabbage
Crispy Pata — everything I hoped it would be. LOL seriously, this is coming from somebody whose dad used a turkey fryer year round for crispy Pata. We ordered the small and this was plenty for the 3 of us that had it.
For the little guy: fried chicken and spaghetti combo with signature caramel bar.
Our only complaint — the halo halo.
Don’t get me wrong it was super tasty and had a great ratio of flavors, ice, milk, ube ice cream, leche flan.
I get weirded out by the idea that you can’t order a custom made one without beans. I don’t mind the Mung beans but the white beans :-/​
Overall:
Seating time was instant
Service was great
Flavors and value for portions was excellent

The ambiance was pretty good but the service was lacking. Unfortunately, the food wasn’t that great either.
The whole ordeal — from being seated at our table to finally getting our order — took about an hour. Arrived there around 7:00p and didn’t get our food until a little past 8:00p.
It seems our hunger and frustration with the long wait could be seen through our body language because our waiter brought us some cream of mushroom while we continued to wait for our order.
When we finally got our food, the fries were cold and the lechon kawali was drowning in the oil that it was fried in. While it was nice and crispy, at least clean it up and remove any excess oil before serving it.
I can’t say that I’ll never try this place again but it’ll take a lot of convincing for me to do so.

The hostess JR checked in with us to see if we were helped after waiting for 5 – 10 minutes after being seated. Since no server was available to take our order, JR stepped in as our server. JR was very pleasant, he always checked up on us and met all our needs with a smile on his face while he continued to host other customers. As our 2^nd visit at this Max’s we were grateful for JR as our server.
We ordered Garlic Fried Rice, Pork Sinigang, Filipino Bistek and Tofu con Lechon. Everything that we ordered were delicious even my picky one year-​old son loved it.

Every so often our family just wants to sit down and have a nice meal in a restaurant. While there’s a dozen of delicious restaurants on the island, let’s face it… sometimes you just don’t feel like breaking the bank just to be able to have a sit down meal. That’s when you start searching for the «in-​between» restaurants like Max’s.
Let’s start with the positives. Max’s is conveniently located in Maui Mall where the movie theater, Whole Foods, Guri Guri and arcade are situated. The times we’ve gone have been during non peak hours so we’ve rarely had to deal with wait issues. The service is good (at least when we went) but the food was a different story.
We’ve been here twice and while we can’t say we’ve ordered everything on the menu, I’m confident enough to advise that you should stick with the popular dishes if you want to enjoy your meal. The fried egg rolls, fried chicken, palabok, and halo halo are just some of their popular dishes. They’ve been consistently decent; however, we’ve ordered a couple of dishes that just didn’t hit the note.
Let’s start with the Kare Kare. Traditionally, this dish is made with oxtail, peanut butter and tripe. Sometimes the oxtail can be substituted for beef but the original recipe calls for oxtail at least that’s what my Filipino mother in law tells me. The Kare Kare I ordered had neither in the dish. The oxtail was nonexistent and was replaced with 6 pieces of beef. The tripe either disintegrated while it was being prepared or that was excluded too. I’m going to guess the latter. The sauce or stew it came in tasted like all they did was mix in the dry seasoning packet and skipped the peanut butter. In case you didn’t figure it out, I did not enjoy it and don’t recommend this dish. For $ 14.95, they could have thrown me a bone and gave me a sliver or two of tripe or even give me one oxtail. But nope didn’t happen.
The hubs ordered his usual and favorite Filipino dish which is the Lechon Kawali. Those who eat Lechon Kawali know that you’re pretty much eating a hard attack with a side of crispy fried pig skin. But it’s so worth it when you bite into that meat and get a little bit of crunch from the skin. It’s not worth it when you bite into straight chunks of fat. While the hubs has never been above eating fat but he draws the line when the majority of his dish is fried skin with fat posing as meat. Again, throw us a bone here. A little meat won’t kill you.
This is an almost decent restaurant to go to if you want to sit down at a clean restaurant and break bread with the family. It’s probably equivalent to a Filipino Denny’s except a tad bit more expensive. There’s some good dishes and some not so good dishes. Just be sure to stick to the popular dishes. Veering left field may get you a plate of fried fat.

Horrible service. We waited 30 mins for the server to take our order and 40 mins to receive the glass of water that we asked for when we first got seated. For an empty night and ample wait staff roaming around I don’t see the reason behind such a wait. The food is okay. Just make sure to remind your server to come back since they tend to forget about customers.

Atmosphere was good, but the service was not so good. Came in for dinner around 5pm, about 20 customers already seated, and eating. No line, no wait. We were seated and that was it for about 12 minutes, nothing no drink order no server, zip zilch, nothing. I looked around and there were, easily 10, what looked like wait staff, hanging out by the kitchen/​drink area. Seriously, just chilling.
Then, another customer came in and was seated at the booth right behind us. Y’up you guessed it within 1 minute, water was poured and a server came over to them.
That is when I begged for water and a server. Y’up you guessed it, even after that it took 3 minutes. doesn’t sound like a long time, but after 10 minutes of nothing it was.
I could easily pull the race card, as we are white as they come and the customer that was served within 2 minutes was Filipino and being a Filipino restaurant it probably pulls a lot more weight then some average white family.
I understand it is newly opened, but they have over 600 restaurants and one would think that they would fly in a trainer or at least have some kind of training. Or perhaps they overlook the customer service part of training. Heck hire a high school student to just serve water, greet, and say «A server will be with you shortly». Jeez, bare minimum here, people. Heck, even a service dog walking up to our table, with a Max’s Hat, would have shown some kind of interest in customers wanting to spend their hard earned money at the establishment.
Q Rant #3201

My husband, daughter and I were walking through the parking lot heading to maxs. We passed 3 cooks taking a break. 2 in the parking lot 1 on the bench. We walked in, place looked great. Stood at the door for 10 minutes. One table occupied with a party of 2. A cashier just stood behind the register. A bus boy setting up a table. A waiter taking an order. 2 waitresses sitting down having lunch. Not one of them acknowledged us. Not a welcome, hello or be right with you. The worst service I’ve ever encountered on maui. It all starts at the front of the house. They need to hire a new staff if they want to stay in business here on maui. We left after standing in front of the «please wait to be seated» sign for 10 minutes.

****MUST READ BEFORE GOING!
SO! My boyfriend and I wanted to try out this location because we had a gift card. It was busy because it was Valentine’s Day, I get it. But we literally waited about 20 minutes for someone to take our order, and I had to ask the waitress if we could order because she kept passing us. We didn’t have any water. nothing! It’s like no one addressed we were even there. I then decided to time how long everything would take. It took 40 minutes for us to get our food. At this point, I’m trying to stay calm because our waitress was really nice and continually apologized and thanked us for waiting. I am all about service at restaurants. And this was just going terribly. AND then! After we got our dessert she handed us the bill. That was the fastest thing we got while we were there. We waited about 15 – 20 minutes till she was able to grab the bill. I told her we had a $ 50 gift card and we gave cash to pay the rest including the tip. We waited about 5 minutes and thought everything was ok with our bill. Right when we stand up to leave, they tell us that our gift card is NOT VALID AT THIS LOCATION! That «it’s not a universal gift card» even when it says «VALID IN HAWAII» on the card. Apparently it is only valid on Oahu! By this point, I’ve lost it. I am done! NEVER NEVER NEVER am I going back to this Max’s! NEVER! If I could, I would have told the manager all of this. But I was just pissed off by then and just wanted to leave. I’m sorry. but never again will I go here. But thank you to our waitress who stayed calm and continued to serve us with a smile, I do appreciate that considering how stressful everything looked. If I could. I would give a 0 out of 5 stars but Unilocal makes me pick at least 1 star

Tha wifey and wanted to eat at max’s cuz heard to food was good. So we arrived and told the hostess a table for 2 and she took my name down. After 15 min 4 couples that where ater us had been seated b4 us, so i go and checked whats goin on, come to find out she never took our name down. So that was a epic fail. Then it took another 15 to get water and 10 more mins for the waiter to take our order.
For the wait staff i give a thumbs down do to the fact they arent organized. the busser was more organized and more helpful.
The food was a 7 and 10 being the highest. But i was look8ng for the standard full plate. Portions were a tad bit small. Agian the service super horrible. They all look like chickens wit there head kut off. Will come back when they get there shit together.

congratulations on the new opening. Place looks good and classic… Tables/​Seating Arrangments are very terrible. Hard to get through to other tables. Even towards the inside of the restaurant. Service wait time was too long. We ordered Chicken sisig, Pork Sisig, Large Family Garlic Rice, and Regular Kare Kare. While waiting for our order, I had to use their restrooms. Sad to say its too tight, the configuration of the whole restroom was just upsetting. Washing your hands on the sink area is too tight, and the door is just right there and you can get hit everytime a person comes in. Its simply too small.
I got back from our table and food was still not delivered to us and we waited for over 37 minutes even to an hourish… Almost felt like we were going to leave the place. Music was too loud… TV available. It is possible to charge your phones on the wall. So whenever you have your phones and its lowbattery, feel free to bring in your charger.
Air conditioning unit is good. Noise level of was too loud again because of music and people… I could hardly hear my friends…
Finally our food came in after hourish… sigh…
Chicken Sisig had toooo much mayonnaise… It was overloaded with too much mayonnaise and I am not exaggerating. I posted a picture. Pork Sisig was hood though. Good job on that. Garlic Rice wasnt even what I expected… compared to Oahus and other places, their large garlic rice wasnt even large at all. Its small size portion. As a filipino, we gotta love rice. Somehow this even upsets me more. My Sagot Gulaman drink came in… It was super sweet even my cousin said the same thing. I wish they took notice of it. It also has a bug in it and clearly took a good picture of it.
I asked the waiter about it. And he acknowledged that many customers has been complaining about it and he quickly apologized and said he will replace it with a new one. He came back with another drink. Still too sweet! Was just checking if theres any bugs at all. And again I found another one! took another picture! Wow it upsets me a lot! I didnt drink my sagot gulaman all the way. I didnt wana cause any ruccuss or any attention to the other people, but was trying to be discreet and nice about it. Still my day was upsetting to see this… sigh
Kare Kare bowl came and it was small and had 4 meats in it? small portions and 2 pechais/​bakchoys only? most of it is just soup… I was just saying to myself, I didnt wana eat anymore.
Manager in blue uniform was walking nearby, and I had to call on him and he asked how was everything. I replied truthfully that it was ok but upsetting. Regarding Gulaman drink and etc. I told him the situation, and he was nice enough to offer the drink to be not charged into our bill. Now that made me happy. His name is Jeffrey. But I wish him and other managers also waiters like Josh take notice what they need to improve on more. I and the friends will give Maxs Kahului Maui location another chance once we get back.
Sad to say I will give this review only for 2 stars. Thanks again. Yes it is my first time in Maui Max, but will try again next time. 1÷18÷16

Found 3 bugs in my rice. 2 alive and 1 dead. Honolulu has bigger portions of food. When I told the server I found bugs, he said «in your rice!» As if he already knew…

As much as I love to try new places as soon as they open, I’ve learned that it’s better to wait, let the staff get accustomed to their new surroundings, learn, and feel more comfortable at their jobs.
ATMOSPHERE:
Max’s is the newest addition to Maui Mall’s growing list of «chain» businesses, and are located in the former Dragon Dragon Restaurant. They completely gutted and redid the entire space. The look is contemporary, with an inviting living room-​like waiting area complete with plush chairs and decorative tables. There are just 4 booth seats, and the rest are regular tables that can be configured to accommodate very large parties. Unfortunately, the plethora of tables are squished together with no dedicated pathway for foot traffic, so my chair was constantly being bumped and kicked by staff and customers passing by. What’s even more intimidating is that the staff carry huge trays full of food, all while squeezing in between the tables. One misstep and you’ll have a big mess and safety concerns.
Oddly, they open at 2pm for business. We walked in at 3pm on a Sunday without reservations and got seated in 5 minutes. The place was pretty busy.
SERVICE:
The hostess promptly greeted us with a smile and asked us to have a seat. She escorted us to our table, and said by name who our server was.
Jedhan was our server. He was very friendly, professional, and checked on us often. He took our order in about 10 minutes.
Like the majority of the reviews state, food delivery time is their weak point. We waited about 30 minutes until we got our appetizer dish. But, someone must be reading the reviews, as we were offered complimentary bowls of their soup of the day «while we waited for the food to arrive.» Nice touch!
FOOD:
Cream of Asparagus Soup — This was their soup of the day. I was surprised at how tasty this was. Creamy with nice savoriness, and not heavy. The only downfall were small traces of the tough, stringy fibers here and there. No biggie though.
Lumpiang Shanghai — The only disappointment of our lunch. It’s a pretty big portion for being an appetizer, so it’s great for 4 to share. The pork filled rolls look like lil’ smokies, and came in a cleverly shaped bowl made of deep fried lumpia wrappers. The flavor and texture were a bit «out of the freezer.» Not a fan.
Classic Chicken Adobo — I really loved this dish. At first I thought they brought the wrong dish as it looked like pork, but it was not! Contrary to versions I’ve had, this one is very unique. The sauce was dark and had a very strong soy sauce flavor, with very subtle hints of vinegar, and kind of similar to Chinese black bean dishes. They used parts of the whole chicken, so it was a bit boney. The hard boiled egg halves were a surprise but went well with the flavors. Two yums up!
Pancit Bihon — Rice noodles are my favorite style when eating pancit. The flavor was a bit mild, but nothing that a little soy sauce couldn’t fix. Aside from the usual veggies mixed in, it also came with chunks of boneless chicken.
Max’s Fried Chicken — The half portion was perfect for two to share. The bird was a bit oily, but everything else made up for it. Crispy skin, juicy and tender meat, with a delicious, pure flavor. The side of fries were a bit soggy. Highly recommended.
TIP:
No alcohol and unsure if you can BYOB.
OVERALL:
Average prices, very tasty food, great service. Can’t wait to go back and try more!

Jan 2, 2016 at about 5pm. Having eaten at Max’s in Honolulu a few times, was excited to eat at this location when it opened up :). We ate here hoping to get our appetites satisfied. Knowing Max’s serves family style plates, I ordered 3 dishes for the two of us thinking it would be enough.
Dishes:
Pork Adobo, $ 12
Pancit canton, $ 10
Max’s fried chicken (half order), $ 9
Our food came out in less than 20 min. Everything tasted delicious. Besides the pancit, the other dishes were small portions. For the price of the pork adobo, it only had about 8 to 9 pieces of pork (some w/​bones); sadly, we’ll leave out this dish next time we come back. In hindsight, we should have ordered more food. Like, maybe next time, a full order of fried chicken ($ 15) as it was a small chicken (lol). We’ll come back again & try their other scrumptious dishes (shrimp sinigang & crispy pata). :)

Back again!!! Host Manilyn took care of us right away and guess what Maria was our server!!! Love her she’s great and welcoming. Gives great customer service. She knows her menu ask her anything! Today we ordered Buko Pandan, sagot gulaman, Max’s teaser, garlic rice, tapsilog, pancit canton, & crispy pata!!! Everything was delishhhh!!!. We just became a regular customer!

Wanted to Check out Max’s it all the buzz in the local Community. Came by on Wednesday to get a Table but the wait was Too Long. Tonight the wait looked shorter, sadly the Hostess skipped over up name on the list and our table was delayed few minutes. Like a Movie this was a bit of Foreshadowing of things to come.
About 20 mins after placing our order the Waitress came to my guest and I and said the Kitchen was backed out and asked if we still wanted our food order. I took a double take and realized the server was told by some in the Kitchen that our order for two really did not mater. At this point I went over the evening events with the server, That Restaurant sat us at a table and took our order it was reasonable to expect that my guest and I were going to be served food. Sending us away without being served food would really make a poor impression of the business to me. A manger came over and after some back and forth he agreed to try and get order ready in ten mins. While we waited for out food a younger women who overheard my interaction with staff said I was funny (made me smile) she was part of a large table and they had also been waiting for their food as long as we had been.
Luckily the Peanut Beef Stew and the Chicken Adobo we were both good dishes I would have put more veggies in the Beef Stew, the Adobo seen fine the garlic white rice was tasty.
Our server was great, the other patrons in the restaurant were nice and were talking the slow service in stride. I think Max’s has some bugs to work out in their operation.

The food is good just warm not too cold not to hot after we wait more than an hour we are so hungry already, the service was good but it’s just took so long to get the food:(
Tips: make sure if you have kids bring them there with a snacks not empty stomach because it’s a freakin long wait.
I’m gonna try to take out next time:)
The chicken is awesome and the palabok it’s ok not as what I expected.
Well I still gonna eat there but just take out:)

Location: ⁴⁄₅
Quality of service: ⁴⁄₅
Products offered: ³⁄₅
Prices: ²⁄₅
Would I come again? Maybe when the fire hype dies down and when the cooks are a little bit more experienced.
Other: the wait was not worth the food, but I understand the wait only because it’s the newest hype that everyone on Maui has to try it. I thought the food would make up the time. The menu options are less then other Max’s. The items that we wanted wasn’t available so we ordered a few other items: pancit palabok, fresh lumpia, kare-​kare, fried chicken, garlic rice, laing, pork sisig. First of all when out late-​Kate arrived I was so excited then took a deeper look it only had two decent pieces of meat, there were other but little tiny pieces of meat floating around; but are you kidding me we’re paying $ 20 for TWO pieces! I let that go since there were other things coming. Then the fried chicken came, it wasn’t crispy at all it was plain soggy. The rice was over cooked it made it seem like we were eating mashed rice with garlic. We also order buko pandan, it was too sweet that I only ate two spoonfuls and wasted the rest. If you knew me personally you know I never waste food but I didn’t even want to take home anything. I could go on more but I just can’t because I get upset thinking how much we spent to only go home with our cravings not fully fulfilled. I’m basing my opinion on their quality of food and comparing it to the other Max’s franchises (hence the two star rating). I will try them again in a few weeks to give them another chance to see if anything changes.

We had take out when 1^st day they opened.
Chicken was really soggy
Fried rice was mushy
Palabok was ok
Maybe because it was take out…
I’m going to try dine in just for curiosity. Will update.