China Max

This place is expensive for dinner (we ordered normal food like entrée dishes of poultry, vegetables, noodles).
noodle dish is $ ¹⁶⁄₁₇? I’m not use to paying expensive prices for just chicken noodles.

Came here on a Saturday at 2pm. No more dim sum. I asked what do you guys have. The person at the front said «I don’t know» what a joke. Garbage service

This place is old school. They offer a nice variety of authentic Cantonese dishes served up dim sum style (sans carts). Americanized Chinese favorites grace the menu as well. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I felt China Max was a little stuffy with all the white linens and staff dressed as if they were working a wedding banquet. Our food was good, but in the back of my mind I was wishing we were at the Sichuanese joint a few doors down in the same Convoy Street strip mall.
Back to China Max, note that they specialize in seafood dishes, so if you’re not into the fishies and the shrimps the oyster sauces, your options become quite a bit more limited here.
If you want to play it safe food-​wise, China Max is a good bet. There’ll be something the whole family will like plus a few house specialties that’ll that satisfy more adventurous eaters.

While visiting my brother and sister-​in-​law, I get a phone call from my sister saying she was in the area with my mom and that our other sister was in another part of San Diego already. Of course, we decided to meet up and grab a late sit-​down dinner together. We didn’t want anything too heavy so we thought dim sum would be great. Unilocal led us to China Max but, unfortunately, they weren’t serving dim sum at the time we arrived.
We ended up placing our orders from the menu. Little did we know that the food we ordered individually would be served Family Style! It was no biggie since we all were there for the company.
INTERIOR
This two-​story restaurant was spacious and the interior was brightly lit. There’s plenty of room on the main floor for strollers, walkers, or wheelchairs. Every table was covered in white linen table cloth, which was a nice touch for a restaurant on Convoy. I was really impressed!
FOOD
I wasn’t expecting much from China Max with the Unilocal ratings; however, my family and I really enjoyed the entrees we ordered! There was one dish we all enjoyed and I can’t remember the name but I believe it was Ginger Chicken. Their Jumbo Shrimp with Lobster Sauce was really good. The shrimp was succulent and cooked to perfection, and that lobster sauce was delicious. The Sautéed Green Beans were crunchy — just how I prefer — and flavorful. The Singapore Mei Fun was prepared the same way I cook it at home so, obviously, it was delicious (LOL)! Really it was! The Beef with Ginger and Scallions was delicious as well. Even the fried rice wasn’t heavy nor greasy. Very well made! I also liked how the oranges came at the end of the meal with fortune cookies. Basically, the food exceeded our expectations!
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Well, our servers were really nice and friendly. They accommodated our requests and treated us well. At one point, it was hard to get their attention to refill out waters so I’m sure it could have been better. They were also pretty busy that evening (11÷21÷15).
PARKING
Parking spaces are so tight here. Forget about driving your large SUV or truck because each space was made for compact cars — or so it seemed. You’ll have to be careful where you park if you drive a nicer vehicle. It’s not China Max’s fault but just thought I’d point that out.
Overall, dinner was great but service could have been better. A fair 3.5 stars but rounding it up to 4 because we were really impressed. I’d have to come back here again to try their dim sum and give an updated review.

I am Chinese and this is the reason I never step into a Chinese restaurant in America
food is mostly over $ 15 a dish and super salty
Dirty soup dishes — I am not sipping someone else’s crumbs!
I miss the real Chinese food.
Only reason for 1 star was for the survers. They are attentive and friendly

Please avoid their dim sum, you will regret it. It taste like frozen TV dinners and reheated in a microwave. The staff are not rude but they are a bit abrupt and it feels like you owe them a favor by being a customer. As for their regular dishes, no comment, I only tried their dim sum, lesson learned.
But I would like to thank the owner Cindy W. for sending me a message, thank you. My humble response, when it comes to food you cannot have an off day.

I am disappointed with the dim sum here. Selection is small and the food is not good. The shui mai was small and dry. The chicken feet had WAY TOO MUCH food coloring. Dim sum doesn’t come in carts. You have to order on paper.
They don’t ask what type of tea you want. I assume they don’t really have a selection for people to pick from. They do charge for tea per person.
Service isn’t that great. They all seem like they’re in a hurry even though it wasn’t that busy.

The dim sum I got today was all dry and yucky. Temperature was luke warm, what was wrong with their steamer in the kitchen?
Tea was super watered down.
Parking was impossible dduring lunch hours.
Price was expensive too!

I had a great experience. Service was excellent and the food was delicious.
Started off with soup (forget which kind). Good start.
Pecking duck was amazing. We got the dual course and enjoyed the lettuce cups thoroughly.
We also got the black bean clams. Odd choice, you say, and it was surprisingly yummy. Amazing sauce.
Complementary sesame dessert was a plus.
Will go back.

The GOOD: The dim-​sum is quite yummy. We chose a variety of dim-​sum on the menu, and everything was fresh and tasty. The chicken cilantro dumplings were awesome!
The BAD: The SERVICE was awful. We literally had to flag down people to get them to ask for something. I might understand if a restaurant was understaffed, but there were a lot of employees rushing here, rushing there, rushing EVERYWHERE… but not to us. They were practically bumping into each other and into our table. But to get one to notice you, good luck! I noticed people at tables around us having the same issue.
More BAD: They seemed extremely DISORGANIZED. Although we wrote down our order by marking items on the dim-​sum sheet, our order was messed up. Instead of one type of shrimp dumpling dim-​sum, they brought 4 plate orders, saying that we ordered all 4. When we told them we ordered 1, they checked our sheet and instead said that we ordered 2 (we only ordered one). How is marking «1» on a paper interpreted as «4», and then «2»?
More BAD: We also ordered an order of lo mein, which was on the lunch menu, but not the dim-​sum menu. So it was a verbal order and not written on the dim-​sum sheet. It took us flagging down 3 separate people throughout our 1-​hour long lunch to ask where the lo mein was while our son sat patiently waiting. At the end of the hour we asked to cancel the lo mein. The came rushing out with the order, and then looked annoyed when we asked for a box because we were leaving.
Even more BAD: We never got our shrimp rice noodle dim-​sum. I know it takes a long time to prepare, but after the 4, then 2, then 1 order mix-​up, along with the hour-​wait, I just decided to forget it. They didn’t charge us for it, so I doubt they even were making it for us, even though it was clearly marked on the dim-​sum sheet.
The UGLY: I read a lot of reviews from Unilocalers that had similar experiences. I also read responses by the owner explaining that many issues may have been due to cultural differences. What I’d like to clearly state is this: CULTURAL DIFFERENCES HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE. I actually liked the loud, boisterous atmosphere. What I did not like was the clear feeling from most of the staff that we were a burden to them because we «needed» things like water refills, to find our food, to correct our order, etc. We felt like although our money was certainly welcome there, we weren’t.
Although the dim-​sum tasted great, we won’t be back. Lots of other places to go that are much more organized and welcoming.

My new go to place for Chinese restaurant. Make sure to try their seafood and Roast DUcK! It’s a MUsT.
Servers are all attentive (if not too busy). It gets crowded at night but I don’t mind since their food is worth it

Went here for dim-​sum only. Service was spaced-​out… they forgot to give us a few dishes so we ended up canceling them instead of waiting.
Their dim-​sum (tripe, shrimp har-​gow, pork ribs, turnip cakes) was fairly bland… Emerald’s dim-​sum is better-​tasting though it’s much darker in Emerald.
I would not return here for dim-​sum.

I don’t get the high ratings. They are overpriced, poor service and bland food. They charge extra for Coke ‘refills’. On this particular meal they brought out the rice quick, and there it sat getting cold waiting for the rest of our meal.
The parking lot is impossible to navigate, with parking spots that are too small.

China Max, this review is for my DIM SUM experience with them over the years.
Dim Sum here is A-​OK. It’s not horrible, but it’s not the best you’ll have… neither is it amazing. Being that there are only a few places in San Diego to enjoy Dim Sum, you tend to get tired of the same ones you frequent (Jasmines, Emeralds), so China Max ends up being in the mix.
China Max’s Dim Sum experience is a little different… you don’t have women pushing carts around, where you get to pick and choose what you want from the cart. If you are looking to have Dim Sum for your first time and want the full «authentic» experience, this is NOT the place to go. China Max gives you menus whereby you mark on a sheet which a la carte items you want. The items are made fresh, and then brought to you. When I say, fresh. I mean fresh because some items such as the Beef/​Shrimp/​Plain Long noodles called «Cheong Fun» noodles take a long time to make and steam. We ordered some today and we never received it… we had to cancel the order (about 45 minutes) later, because they were still not finished cooking. They at least, let us cancel and we were already full.
Weekends are busy… expect a wait of about 10 – 20 minutes, especially for larger parties.
Dim Sum makes you feel full and groggy because of all the oil used in each item, but it’s a great way to experience a multitude of food items family style.
I enjoy the BBQ pork buns, Fried Pork Dumpling, and BBQ pork rice noodles.
I am not too fond of their «pan fried» turnip cake (not cooked crisp like it should be), or chicken feet (GROSS!).
Free Jasmine tea on the house. Service is attentive, but because they are so busy they get a lot of requests and forget stuff, so try and be patient.

We had one of the better Chinese lunches I’ve had here. You know you’re in for a great meal when you are the only one not speaking the language. :)
We ordered dumplings and a few other things. We had a pork dish that was incredible and melted right off the bone. I should caution you that if you are not an adventurous eater, this place might not be for you. It is every bit a traditional authentic place to eat.

So far we are waiting to be seated and the girl told us if we find parking right away then she can seat us right away since there is a table readily available.
We got parking in 30 seconds literally and now she says 15 – 20 minutes. Ummm. okay. Let’s see how the food is. Bad first impression for me but I’m hungry and getting grumpy right now because of the miscommunication so I guess I have no choice but to wait
So after ten minutes we got seated which wasn’t too shabby. The food came out pretty quick! You get the menu and a little check list to check off the food you want to order which was nice!

This is one of my favourite Chinese restaurants in San Diego. The dishes are flavourful and the chefs do a great time every time. I highly recommend this place! I’d definitely recommend getting the Peking duck — I have yet to find a place in SF that does it as well as they do.

Whenever I want to eat dim sum, I always go to China Max. It’s really good. I’ve been to other dim sum places, but I’ll say this is my favorite. What more can I say about awesome dim sum?
I ordered the Shanghai dumplings, rice in the leaf, and pork shu-​Mai. I went with my roommate who’s from Hong Kong, and she said the level is up to par with what she eats back at home.
If you’re in convoy, I would recommend this place. If you want to go on the weekends, go after 1pm or you will have difficulty finding parking.

No need to get your eyes checked; you betcha i gave this place 5 stars. The reality is that this place cannot compete with the best of LA, but I still think it could probably stay afloat. In San Diego, the dim sum is killing it! As a true patriot, I had dim sum on the 4^th of July and there were fireworks, aka the food was way better than Emerald, Jasmine, and Pearl. Don’t even get me started on Pearl! Just went a couple of weeks ago and everything tasted like amateur hour. China Max doesn’t have the carts, which are fun, but I think this is partly why the food tastes good. Cooked to order perhaps. And, I appreciate the covered patio dining option, this is rare for a Chinese restaurant though should be a must in so. Cal.
I can vouch for all of he following but I think the ham Sui gock was the best, and all shrimp dishes were generous in size and shrimp cooked well:
Shrimp dumpling aka shrimp shui Mai
Shrimp cheong fun
Har gow
Ham sui gock
Lo bak go
Shrimp and spinach dumpling
Chicken and cilantro dumpling in wonton skin
Left something to be desired;
Beef cheong fun (meat a bit dry and too much cilantro)
All this for 2 peeps and 38 bucks plus tip

Where have I been?! Dim Sum at China Max is bomb…
A group of us (10) made reservations for dim sum to celebrate friendly and the New Year. Basically, we ordered almost 1 – 2 of everything on the menu. There is no carts that are pushed around the tables and you point to what you want. No, there’s actually a menu and an order sheet (kinda like when you’re ordering sushi). Our party sat in the huge table upstairs with a big lazy susan.
My favorite was the shrimp har gow. I seriously can eat several in one seating. They’re actually pretty good sized as well! There isn’t many places in San Diego that you can order «good» dim sum, and this place is probably the best I’ve had in this neck of the woods (off Convoy).
We spent about $ 20 each and we were stuffed! Good prices and adequate food portions.
Note: Parking in this shopping center sucks if it’s busy. Small spaces and crazy drivers!!!

Best dim sum in San Diego –
Shrimp and spinach dumplings (dip in hot chili sauce)
Shark fin dumplings
Egg custard
Tripe
Turnip cake (order extra crispy)
Rice roll with shrimp (yummy)
Rice roll with cruellers (rich so need 4 people to share)
Bonus: Really like how it’s made to order. They do take
certificates.