Max's Restaurant Waipahu, Cuisine of the Philippines — Restaurant in Hawaii

NEED ATTENTION PLS: Max's Restaurant Waipahu, Hawaii

To whom this may concern, I am writing to formally report a concerning incident that occurred at Max's Restaurant in waipahu, hawaii on September 1, 2025 at roughly around 12:05pm involving two employees. The incident took place in front of customers and involved unprofessional behavior that I believe is not in alignment with the values and standards upheld by Max's restaurant. During lunch time at roughly 12:05pm, The cook known as "Mao" a spanish woman - i asked what the name was but nobody can answer and the server had an altercation in the middle of the dining area, where "Mao" step out the kitchen & yelled at the server and use inappropriate language, including cursing. The incident escalated quickly by the loud voices from the woman "Mao" that could be heard by every customers nearby and only seen the server crying due to the humilitation that she received by "Mao". The Manager, approached customers and apologized for what had happened, but seeing the server just crying & didnt answered back, i felt the humiliation. It is very degrading to be yelled at in public.

It was an uncomfortable and disruptive scene, especially considering the presence of families and other patrons who were disturbed by the behavior. I asked and checked how the server was and said its ok. I also found out that this incident had already happend several times with other employees involving the same person "Mao", but no action was taken towards the cook. The reason for it was because she was one of the old one's that was hired...so does that makes it ok?!

This incident not only reflects poorly on the professionalism of your team but also jeopardizes the reputation of Max's Restaurant in the eyes of the guests. I believe such behavior undermines the high standard of service that you all strive to provide and could potentially result in lost business or customer complaints. As a valued customer who loves the quality of food & service you provide, I would like to formally request that this matter be investigated and addressed appropriately. I trust that Max's corporates will finally take the necessary steps to ensure that such behavior does not occur again in the future, as it is vital for the reputation of the brand and the well-being of both staff and customers. Thank you for your attention to this...

There were a lot of flies flying around the restaurant that day. Normally, that would just be annoying. But on this day, it became quite a bit more alarming.

My wife ordered a porridge dish (Arroz Caldo) while I tried a fried egg noodle dish (Pancit Canton). It seemed like a safe choice. But when our food was delivered, the condition of the food was somewhat unbelievable.

While my wife's porridge was hot, my fried noodles were lukewarm on the inside, and actually cold on the outside. I kid you not... It was not even room temperature on the outside. It was actually COLD, as if it had been sitting under an air conditioning vent.

When I complained about it, all the server offered were apologies, and perhaps another dish. Needless to say, I wasn't about to have their cooks have another crack at a complaining customer!

So imagine a cooked dish sitting on a counter long enough to get below room temperature, chilled by a possible AC draft. Now imagine a restaurant infested with flies. What are the chances that my dish was free from flies all that time?

All I can say is that I was not happy with that restaurant experience. And my digestive system was also not great for the next day and a half.

In hindsight, I should have requested that they take the dish back, and have it knocked off of my bill. That we weren't offered a discount nor a full refund of that chilled dish was not cool (but not totally surprising for an Asian restaurant).

Let's just chalk that up as one for the "NOT Recommended" department!

Temperature aside, the overall taste of the noodles was okay. The noodles could have been more firm. The two shrimp included were some of the driest and overcooked shrimp I've ever tasted in a fried noodle dish.

On the positive side, my wife thought that her Arroz Caldo...

We came here for a birthday party and ate off of their buffet line. So I can't really say anything about price but I can comment on taste!!!

The food here was pretty good. I'm Filipino, but like 2nd generation, so the names of a lot of the food I couldn't tell you. All I can say is that it was all very good. There was about 10 different dishes and we tried them all. My son and I liked the pancit and I really enjoyed the calamari and fried fish. I liked the lecheon kuwali, but it wasn't as good as Thelma's in my opinion.

The staff here sucked. I was given a soda, but no one ever came back to refill my drink. The staff serving our side of the restaurant was separate from the normal wait staff. I'm sure their tip was included in the price to rent the place out, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't try to earn your tip. I saw all our wait staff standing around and giggling up in the front and checking their cell phones.

I would consider coming back here again for just a meal, but from what I've been told it's just a fancy Filipino food restaurant. Combine that with the experience I had with the staff, I would much rather prefer Thelma's to satisfy my Filipino food cravings and...