Max's Restaurant Bloomfield, Cuisine of the Philippines — Restaurant in Bloomfield

Max's is a chain of international Filipino-cuisine restaurants with multiple locations in the US, Canada, the Middle East and, of course, the Philippines. We are blessed that there is one nearby in Jersey! The authentic food and authentic service (i.e. extraordinarily friendly) make this place worth a visit.

Food was brought out to my birthday party of ten promptly and served family-style: Deep plates of entrees are set before you and everybody serves themselves from it. We ordered the following and each is certainly recommendable:

Max's fried chicken, their signature dish served with fries Sinigang na Baboy - pork and veggies in a tamarind broth Tofu Sisig - a vegetarian riff on the Filipino sizzling pork dish Lechon Kawali - deep fried pork belly Pancit palabok - rice noodles in a shrimp and pork sauce Kare-kare - Beef and veggies in a peanut sauce Pancit Bihon - fried noodles with chicken, shrimp and pork Turon - Bananas fried in a crispy wrapper, served with caramel sauce Halo-halo - "A blend of refreshing tropical fruit preserves, beans, and milk in shaved ice. Topped with a delicious scoop of Ube (purple yam) ice cream, flan, and rice flakes."

The servers are extremely friendly and polite - they seem like the type to bend over backwards to help you. We asked for a bottle of water before our food came out for one of our kids who was extremely thirsty. When it was brought to us, the server was sincerely concerned for her welfare.

When it was notified that it was the birthday for one of us, they all came out, sang and the celebrant was given a complementary slice of flan with a candle.

For dessert we ordered turon and the large-size halo-halo. This was was a crazy spectacle with all the usual ingredients but also studded with piroulines and paper parasols, all in a huge glass goblet (see my picture). They brought out cups so we could all share in it.

The space isn't huge, but that doesn't matter. It's a nice place: the modern faux-brick paneling is pleasant, wooden tables and chairs are clean and sturdy - this is not a hole-in-the wall nor a greasy burger chain.

A visit to Max's is a great option for your Filipino-food fix. It's got more of a variety than Jollibee (and probably healthier) and it's got a home-y flavor. The only gripe I have is the parking situation as it's located in a popular strip mall with a dearth of spots. It's always full with people people camping or jockeying for an opportunity. Otherwise, don't hesitate to drop by!

Edit: we ordered food to take out at another date and I've added pics of...

This place is terrible. If you are craving Max, go to the one in Jersey City. That place is a little bit better.

Why 1 star? Because I can't give it a ZERO. Let me count the ways...

The place STINKS. As in SMELLY unsanitary dead animals rotting smell. We walked in yesterday with our child, and at the front counter the smell was terrible. It smells just like the dead meat and fish section of EAST WEST grocery right next door. And I'm not exaggerating at all. If you work there and you are already nose blind, you might not smell it but the customers do!

Super tight. We have been here a few times when it wasn't smelly, and we did stay to eat so I'm not making the other stuff on the list either! So yes, tight. They jammed as many as possible chairs and tables in here that there's not much room for the customers to breathe and for the wait staff to do their thing comfortably.

3.Wrong and missing orders, Long service wait. We had a party of 6, and one entree served was not on the order, and 2 things on the order were missing and we had to notify them. ALSO, from the time they took our order, to the time we got our food served, I could have gone to the Vietnamese resto 2 doors down, order food, eat, leave, walk to the DD across the street for coffee and donuts, buy grocery at EAST WEST, get Lotto at Krauzer's then go back to Max's. It took them that long to serve our food. When this happened, the place was not packed yet because they just opened, so what the?

Nowhere near the tastes and flavors of Max's in the Philippines! Consistency, quality, flavors and branding was shot to hell. Max's pride and joy is their Fried Chicken. The Chicken here is Bland. As in the dark meat has no flavor BLAND. Jollibee did a great job replicating their flavors when they opened in the US, Max's did not. Specially not this location!

We usually cycle through our Filipino food places, and in six months we are probably going to stop by and give it another chance because the wife had amnesia and would want us to. Hoping for better results then, but...

I've be told by friends and family that this Max's isn't like the one in the Philippines. That their service was lacking and their food took a long time to be served. I honestly didn't care. I wanted to see for myself and gave them the benefit of the doubt. From the time our order was taken, to the time they brought out our food, about an hour had already passed. We asked multiple times where our food was and they always gave us the same response, "It's still being cooked, sir." We didn't even order anything big. All we got was 3 orders of fried half chicken with rice, sinigang na baboy, lechon kawali and leche flan. Besides us, there was a family of 4 and another couple. With me was my wife and our friend. So there was no reason it took that long for our food to arrive. On top of that service was terrible. They didn't bring us any utensils or water like we asked BUT they did bring us our drinks. Which were finished by the time our food finally arrived. Some of the food we ordered was missing. And when asked about said food they told us that they "didn't forget" and that it was still "being cooked". I really wanted to be proved wrong and be able to enjoy my time at this establishment. But I was told to by multiple sources that this place was bad. And they were right. 10/10 would never come back here. What ever you do stay far, FAR away from this...