Maxim Bakery & Restaurant — Restaurant in Richmond Hill

I have not come to this restaurant in years and remembered that they had a delicious meringue cake. My family and I decided to make reservations as it was Easter weekend. We called in advance saying we had 7 people. When asked about children I said 1 was a baby, so they responded with 6+1 guests. When we arrived, we had a table for 6, in a spot where there was no room to add an extra spot for the baby without it being in the middle of an aisle walkway. They told us they were fully seated otherwise and would have to wait. Mind you, I made a reservation at 6pm because my baby needed to be fed and put to bed around 8pm. We waited roughly 15-20 minutes extra, even though we made a reservation.

When we were finally seated, we all placed our order, and when we asked when to choose our cakes for our meal, the waitress told us we could choose later. My dad ordered the grilled meat meal, with a variety of meats and cuts, one of which was a beef steak. When the meal came, it was only a beef rib rather than the steak. When asked about it, the waitress said, it was changed. No one told us it was changed when we ordered or when the meal came. When we said it wasn’t communicated to us, they finally agreed to tell the kitchen to make an extra steak.

When dessert time came, we were told there was no more meringue cakes left and that they already saved 2 pieces for us and was extremely rude to us when we said that 5 out of 6 of us wanted that cake. During dinner times, customers were able to choose any cake they wanted due to increased price of their as. They said we should’ve reserved them earlier. When we arrived at 6pm there were multiple FULL cakes. If we were told to reserve earlier, we would’ve at that point, but we were specifically told to choose LATER. They then told us the cake chef left, so they weren’t able to make more. We had requested to get a gift certificate to come back for the cake another time. At first they agreed, but we never heard back after. One waitress finally came and said “we are going to make you a cake now” (even though they said their chef was gone). I nicely walked up to the waitress and said, “sorry for the mix up, but I wanted to remind you that we only needed 5 pieces of the meringue cake because my brother is allergic, so can he have the matcha mousse cake?”. She then yelled in front of other customers saying “I can only give it to you if it’s available on display.” I said it as, which is why I’m asking now before someone else orders it. She stormed across the restaurant to go to the display and gave it to us.

The restaurant is not a typical Hong Kong style restaurant with cheaper meals. Each meal costs $40-$60. The service should match the cost that we were paying. On top of that, it was an auto gratuity of 13%, which they definitely did not deserve.

All of these situations could’ve been avoided if the staff communicated HONESTLY to their customers. We had a terrible experience and we waited an extra hour later than when we had planned to get home to put our baby to bed due to...

Came here for a 3 course menu special. We were seated pretty quickly, but that was the fastest thing we got all night. We had 3 of us, and when they say it's down, they gave us 1 menu, which was the st 3 course dinner promo. Each day of the week had a different option for the 3 set course. Our day was the pork hock day. We did come for the promo, but we also wanted to see what else was on the regular menu. If the assumption was that we were just going to get the special, then just take 3 orders as soon as we sit down. If not, give us the other menu. It took forever for someone to come back to take our order and being us water or tea, I can't remember which. When we finally put our order in, we noticed tables that were seated after us were served their bread and soup before we did. We also stayed noticing that there were other tables in our area also displaying their frustration with the wait. It took us an hour after being seated to be served soup. The options were Russian borscht and cream of broccoli. We chose the cream of broccoli. It was more grainy than it was creamy. I feel like they should have given us more bread and butter knowing that they were behind on their orders. After having soup. It took another 30 or so minutes for the entree to come out. By then, a few tables had got up and left as they had last patience waiting for their soups and entrees. The pork hock was good, but a bit salty. There needed to be more vegetables, mashed potatoes, or maybe even a side of rice to help with the saltiness. For dessert, we were able to make a selection from the cakes on the cake display, but only from the ones that had already been sliced into. At the time of our selection process, only 1 cake was available. We expressed our disappointment with the lack of selection stating that there are many tables here still, and they would inevitably need to slice into more cakes. The server reluctantly allowed us to choose from the other selection, and I got a slice of mango mousse. Everything, honestly, was mediocre. For $25, it is actually good value, but considering that it took an hour and a half for the entree to be served, made it not worth it. To top it all off, when the bill came, the applied an automatic 13% service fee for a table of 3. Maybe to make up for the soup and bread they didn't get paid for because people walked out? Overall, pretty...

Had family dinner 2 days ago. Maxim used to be very good, esp. its cakes and borsch. But not now. First, the tea was bland, did not taste like tea or coffee, not even a mixture; it was just tasteless! Then the borsch: it’s like oxo cube dissolved in warm water with a little chili and lemon juice. No beet, no onion, not much of anything; totally unlike what it used to be in the past! Then the salad. For mine it was ok; but not for my wife’s: it was totally bland, tasteless. Then she discovered we had balsamic vinegar but she didn’t! She was grossly upset and complained! I ordered a surf and turf for my main course, a $49 dish. The seafood pasta came first; and again it was totally bland, good for salt free diet. It was supposed to contain lobster, scallop, shrimps, etc. What I found was small shrimps, small pieces of octopus, with white sauce. The meat came 15-20 min. later. The bacon that wrapped the meat was uncooked and I could see all the fat there. I decided not to eat it but take it home. My son ordered a prime rib, rare, for his main course. It took a very long time to come, and when it did arrive, he found it completely raw, with surfaces boiled in the sauce not grilled. They offered to cook it more, but because it took them half an hour to bring that out and both my wife and daughter in law felt if it was recooked, the meat wouldn’t be the same and would not taste good. So my son declined the offer and preferred to go without the main course! My wife had a mixed grill. It had pork chop, sausage, a spare rib, and something else. But she felt it was lacking in taste. My grandson ordered striploin steak. He said it was very tough. Then we ordered our dream cake. I had a piece of mango shortcake. The mango was fine, but the rest of the cake again was tasteless; it was unlike what we used to have in the past! On the whole the quality of food was totally different from the past and had much to be desired. The service was slow; there were probably not enough servers. The dinner was not cheap: it was over $300 for just 5 dinners, no alcohol drinks or soft drinks, just tea and water, which they charged $2 extra (not bottled water). After dinner, we found outside from their window an ad: hiring chef, waiters and waitress, etc. That explains what we experienced...