Max's of Manila

I love Filipino food and Kris recommended this place. I lucked out today when Wendell asked if I wanted to try it out (okay, so I've been nagging a little).

I was kinda surprised when we walked through the door at about 11:30 a.m. 'cause it was already packed. You can't tell from this picture but the place is pretty big. There's even a separate room where you can have parties. Although there was a line, we got seated really fast, and the people there are really nice and friendly.

The first thing I noticed was this couple digging into the ono-looking "Crispy Tentacles". I wanted to try soooo much stuff, but only had me and Wendell, so this "all" we had:

This is the Lumpiang Shanghai, ground pork and vegetable lumpia, very good ($6.75). Maybe next time, though, we should order the Max's Teaser which includes the lumpia plus the Crispy Tentacles and deep-fried Calamares. ($7.95).

This is the Nilagang Baka ($8.75), beef soup with greens and potato. Veeeeery flavorful. They didn't have my usual favorite soup Sari Sari, but this was a nice change.
This is the brown rice that I've been craving for since Kris brought some leftover to work. I thought it had beans in it, but I was wrong. It was still as good as I remember, slightly nutty in flavor. We also had garlic rice which Kris recommended. I was kinda reluctant to order it 'cause garlic gives me the gas, but it was only very lightly flavored and very, very pleasant to taste.

Because I love vegetables, mushrooms and tofu, I ordered this Asparagus and Tofu ($8.95). It was good, but I regretted ordering it 'cause it's more like something you'd get at a Chinese restaurant and not something you'd drive all the way to Waipahu for.

Wendell's friend recommended this, Kare-Kare ($9.95), stewed oxtail in peanut sauce. A bit bland, but according to the really nice hostess who walked by, it's made that way on purpose and you're supposed to eat it with the probably-been-aging-for-20-years bagoong house specialty shrimp paste that comes with it.

Here's the bagoong. It did add to the flavor; I kinda liked it, but I don't know if I would order it again.

Everytime I eat Filipino food I always want to try the Halo Halo ($5.50), but I'm always too full. I want some now, though. Let me know if anybody wants to go there . . . you drive.