China Max

Great food. Efficient staff always tending to your table, though sometime they may be too quick to take away your plate. Always packed during weekend. Gotta head there early to get a spot quick. They’ve got pretty authentic Cantonese food and dim sum here. It is quite pricey for ordering dishes though, so beware. I was in total shock when I heard it was caught in a fire and closed down...hope this place opens back up again soon! Need authentic dim sum!b

Food was delicious and exceeded our expectations. I took my father here for his birthday after a wedding I was invited to and the reception took place here and we all loved it. The menu was quite extensive with so many dishes to choose from. We ordered the fresh live fish with special soy sauce, the spinach fried rice, Dim sum and their dessert. My father enjoyed the food so much he returned the following week again to order the same items. They were so good! Thank you China Max for your excellent customer service. We appreciate your chefs and all your servers! We definitely had a wonderful birthday celebration here. Thanks for singing happy birthday to my dad.

We were here for early lunch and they only served dim sum. That being said it was very good, quickly served dim sum. You order from a sheet, marking your selections and having them delivered to your table. The food matched the pics on the menu. After 12 am you can order entrees as well as dim sum. We'll return to try dinner.

Why do people think that Chinese food should be cheap? If that is what you want, then you should go to some American Chinese fast food joint at the mall. No wait when we came at 11:45am on a Saturday. Yummy dim sum and dishes without MSG! I don’t like the thirsty feeling after a meal in some restaurants. I actually like ordering from the menu so that I don’t have to chase down some lady pushing a dim sum cart but missed my table or aisle. I also don’t have fight with others to get some dim sum dishes. We bring out of town guests here when they want authentic Cantonese food.

I stopped in here almost at random...what a find! After salivating over the menu for 10 minutes or more, I finally settled on the lamb chops in black pepper sauce and an order of the Shanghai Dumplings. Both were completely excellent, but the lamb was the more memorable of the two. I was surprised at how even-handed the sauce was. It’s really easy for black pepper to dominate a dish, but in this one it worked really well. If China Max is typical of the Asian food on Convoy, I will have to come this way for dinner tomorrow night.

Came here for lunch and ordered and received my food in a timely manner. The food tasted really good and had a good texture. The only reason for not giving 5 stars is because after I was done I had my dishes removed from my table and it took a long time to get my bill. I was asked by 3 servers if I was done and none of them ever came back with the bill. I also noticed other people had also been waiting a while. Other than that everything was good.

During my sole visit to China Max, my party and I had the Peking Duck. The duck is brought to the table with its head still attached so that diners can admire it in its bronze-glazed glory. This is an essential step in the ritual, similar to presenting a bottle of wine for inspection before pouring it. Next, the duck is meticulously carved such that rectangles of its sweet and crispy roasted skin are still attached to a touch of duck fat and then placed on a center plate. Bao, scallions, and hoisin sauce are provided so that diners can roll it all -- crispy duck skin, hoisin, scallions -- into the bao and enjoy a unique textural and taste combination of salty, sweet, crispy, rich, and chewy. The second course featured a stir-fry of small chopped cubes of browned duck and vegetables presented in "lettuce cups." Our lettuce cups were tasty enough, though lacking the substance that you'd typically eat during this course, as previous Peking Duck stir fry courses I've eaten with rice or noodles. Overall, China Max is not a restaurant that provides a transcendent Peking Duck experience, but it is the best I've had to date in San Diego.