Max's Restaurant Seattle, Cuisine of the Philippines — Restaurant in Tukwila

I've been here 2x and did not have good experience with food at all. Sunday 03/12/2023 at 1100 was my 3rd time trying this place. I went with open mind and expected that they improve the food quality and taste. My friends wanted to eat there to try the food. There were 7 of us. First one of the servers that sat us told us right off the bat that lumpia Shanghai, laing, and lumpia ubod were not available. I jokingly asked her if we have to go to seafood city and shop for the ingredients for the 3 menu items that were not available. I told her we came to order those and it turned out those food were not available. When we started to order, 2 of my friends ordered set B $230. We then proceeded to order other items but the waitress stopped us and asked if we are sure we want to order more and explained what is included in set B. I told her we want to order items other than what are on set B and I don't see the problem with that. I also told her just ask each one of us what we want. The waitress got upset and told us she just wants to explain how much was on set B. Then she said she will just everyone one by one. The waitress eventually became nice and accomodating to us as she continued to serve our table. We did tip her well for putting up with our group's neediness. She deserved that tip. We also found out it was her last day before she starts working at rent a car. Anyway we ordered 2 of each items. We ordered soup of the day which was egg drop soup, deep fried whole chicken, lechon kawali, crispy pata, kare kare, miki bihon, rice, pinakbet, bicol express, and lumpia veggie. The egg drop soup was mostly soup not much eggs in it. The veggie lumpia was under cooked the inside was wet, you can taste the flour of the wrapper, like it just got thawed while it cooked. It seemed like they cooked the veggie lumpia in air fryer because there were white patches on the lumpia wrapper that was uncooked that you only see when you cook lumpia in air fryer. The veggie lumpia looked like the ones sold in frozen section of grocery stores. The pinakbet was mostly eggplant. I only counted 4 string beans and 2 small old okra in the pinakbet. They should call it sautéed eggplant with shrimp instead of pinakbet. The kare kare only had 2 bokchoy leaves, 4 egg plant slices, and 3 meat. The sauce in kare kare was so thin it reminded me of tomato soup. Also the kare kare sauce lacked peanut butter in it. The miki bihon which was a type of pancit was wet. A little bit more the miki bihon can become a soup with noodles. The rice was not as fluffy. One of my favorite Filipino dish is bicol express. However, this place ruined it for me. There bicol express was made of lechon kawali (crispy deep fried pork belly) then they just added bicol express sauce on it and called it bicol express. It didn't taste good at all, I spat it out. It didn't taste like the authentic bicol express at all. I think this Max restaurant need to stop selling other dishes other than the lechon kawali (crispy deep fried pork belly), crispy pata (crispy deep fried pork leg which is from hock to foot), whole crispy deep fried chicken. Those were the only dishes that were good that day we had lunch. The rest of the dishes were disappointing. Then one of our friend order whole crispy deep fried chicken to go. When my friend came home and she opened the box it was not the whole crispy deep fried chicken in the box but it was the crispy pata (crispy deep fried pork leg which is from hock to foot). The receipt was definitely whole crispy deep fried chicken. I guess the cook made a mistake or got confused. Then the waitress didn't check the box and just gave it to us with the receipt. Then it was my friend's mistake as well for not opening the box to check if the order was correct. This Max restaurant needs lots of improvements and they need to find a better cook. We spent $465 for lunch and it was only worth $5. My other friend who celebrated her mom's birthday there couple weeks ago also had awful experience. All the dishes her mom wanted to order were all...

This iconic Filipino restaurant was a disappointment in its food and service.

We were second in line when it opened Saturday at 11:00 and it took more than forty minutes for our food to arrive, except for the kare-kare I had ordered. An hour later my lunch arrived. They had forgotten to place the order. The kare-kare was poor in vegetables, made without eggplant. Likewise the nilagang baka -- where's the beef? The server said it would serve four, but we would call that two servings, short on beef.

We like to take pictures of our great dining experiences. I was surprised later, that I could actually count the French fries, twelve, that came with the chicken. It was the smallest fryer that i"ve seen and we used to raise and butcher them when I was a kid. Sadly, it was so over-cooked that some outer meat just below the skin was hard like tree bark, unchewable.

There were just the two of us and we ordered some dishes to go, for a total cost of $120.00. A party of 15 persons in the Philippines had dinner for just a few pesos more than we paid, so said our niece over there.

Gosh, you want for people to do a good job and you want to praise them. But if I wanted more coffee, I had to ask for it every time. Our waitress was too busy to check back after the food was delivered. Basic services like these were lacking.

I can say that when the kare-kare finally arrived, the server offered to replace our rice with hot rice. Also, she left a table next to us with a halo-halo order in her hand. They had refused it. Then when we ordered halo-halo, the waitress gave us the one in her hand at no charge, considering the delayed kare-kare.

I'm imagine that we'll try Max's again. Hope we can come back here and write a complimentary review. But good service won't fix it being about two dollars higher price on every meal, than our other favorite Filipino restaurants. Good luck...

With spouse for early dinner on a FRI, day after a holiday. 10-minute wait before being seated, even though there were 5 tables open!?! Soon after being seated, waiter ready to take our order. He confirmed our order with us (nice). Not much time elapsed before our food started coming. Lumpia ubod, one order fresh and the other fried: two lumpias per plate, small in portion, LACKED flavor. Chicharon bulaklak (with dipping sauce) GREAT taste, but small in portion. Steamed rice good (garlic rice available, but did not order) and more than enough for two people. Buko Pandan ordered by spouse, disappointed - LACKED flavor. THE main dish - FRIED CHICKEN: BIG disappointment - small in size (understandably, young fryer for its tenderness factor), moist, tender, but LACKED flavor! "SMALL portions and LACKED flavor" seems to be the common theme. Once food served, last time you will see WAIT STAFF! SEVERAL wait staff "running about", but none over to our table. Last and final time WAIT STAFF came to our table was when we asked for our bill. Clean facility, but men's room resembled typical SE Asian restroom - FILTHY! With ALL the running around going on, wait staff should/must be attentive. Owner and/or manager should/must be attentive. TYPICAL: great promising start, but LACK of attention/"follow through" severely impacts restaurant. More than 40 minutes drive time; will return, maybe, in two years. Hopefully, SIGNIFICANT improvements by then. For now, recommend to save your time and $$, eat...