Max's of Manila...Jersey City has another Filipino Restaurant Franchise!

Max's in the Philippines is one of the oldest Filipino restaurant franchises (their website says 1945).  Imagine my surprise when I just found out on a recent trip to Jersey City that they had a Max's open there...the first one on the East Coast that has been open since last year!

Along with their signature whole crispy fried chicken dish, Max serves all the Filipino staples and faves such as crispy pata , sisig, or kare kare...which were all reasonably priced at the Jersey City location from around 8 to as much as 12 an entree.

We had to stop by for lunch, and I had to order their fried chicken.  Their chicken doesn't seem to be battered and is simply seasoned and fried.  The skin was still crispy and the chicken moist.  Although there are a ton of fried chicken options these days to choose from, Max's chicken is still pretty tasty no-frills way of serving fried chicken.

Here's their whole fried bangus (milkfish), which is a very popular Filipino dish.  It's served with

some pickled green papaya and vinegar dipping sauce.

For veggies we had the Pinakbet, a mix of pumpkin, string beans, bitter melon, and tiny

 pieces of pork, sauteed with salty shrimp paste.

Finally, we ordered the Palabok, which is a very unique noodle dish unlike many other Asian noodle dishes.  It uses rice noodles topped with a thick and almost sweet shrimp sauce, fish flakes, ground pork rinds, eggs,

and scallions.

All in all, the food at Max's won't blow you away, but they do serve pretty good Filipino comfort food in a decent sit-down setting at reasonable prices.  Sometimes, that's all you need!

Max's of Manila

687 Newark Ave
Jersey City, NJ 07306

(201) 798-2700