I was quite excited to hear about the reopening of China Max. Until I started reading about it. I knew that the owners of Taste of Hong Kong had purchased the business from the original owner who decided to retire. I can imagine the stress and hardship of rebuilding after the fire in 2020. Taking almost 5 years! But I had also read that the menu had drifted from the Cantonese fare of the original China Max since the owners did not want to compete with their restaurant a few blocks away. Sigh….. The new focus would be dumplings and noodles, which were to be made fresh inhouse.
Still, instead of waiting and a few other reservations, I decided that I just wanted to see what was going on. After all, our first post back in May of 2005 was on China Max! And over the years, it had become a place to have a special meal, or just get my favorite version (in San Diego) of pan fried noodles with seafood. So, I decided to head on over. I did take the advice of a good "FOY" who told me "please don't take the Missus there, it's not up to Her standards". Words that would come to haunt me!
Anyway, the place was quite empty when I arrived right after 10am.
The folks manning the host counter were wonderful….as was everyone else I had contact with during my visit. Just really nice folks! I requested a table for one and was told that because it was soft opening and the was staff in training it would be a short wait. I totally got it and told them it was not an issue.
I was handed a menu.
Which for some reason; reminded me of a Din Tai Fung wanna be, more about quick turnover then upscale Chinese dining. The gentleman working the front of house asked me if I had any questions and was told that the braised beef noodle wasn't niu rou mian, but braised beef on house made noodle. I asked for what folks were ordering and was told that the Xiao Long Bao was the most popular item. I had thoughts of actually ordering the Har Gow; but at $8.95 for three….that like three bucks a piece…..well, that wasn't going to happen.
Soon enough I was escorted to my table. My server was so nice, mellow, and friendly. I made my mind up and placed my order.
I wanted to check on simple wok skills so I ordered the String Beans with Garlic ($12.95). These were cooked nicely.
Crisp, with a nice mild crunch! Simple seasoning, a tad on the salty side, but quite good. I took the leftovers home and the Missus liked it! This was a surprisingly good start to things.
And then the XLB ($8.95) arrived.
There were some things I quickly noticed. The liner was very wet, so I started turning over the XLB and guess what? Four of the six had wrappers on the bottom that were cracked and all the "soup" had leaked out. This will also tell you what I thought of the wrappers; too thick, brittle, lacking the slight delicate texture I enjoy. I'm truly not expected anything like I had at DTF's original location on Xinyi Road, or even Kao Chi Xinsheng Restaurant, but this wasn't even close to what Shanghai Alley makes.
As for the filling. Well, it was adequately tender, but lacking in porkiness and flavor. As was the soup for the two dumplings that were "intact".
I also ordered the Scallion Noodles with Porkchop ($17.95). I had been told that it was a "Chinese style" fried pork chop. But take a look and tell me what it looks like.
Looks like lunchwagon tonkatsu, eh? It had been over fried, the breading hard, as was the dried out pork. It could have used some flavor; you know, five spice, soy sauce, a good pre-breading marinade. If it was brined or marinated, I couldn't tell.
As for the noodles; well, they were slightly overcooked, but fine. It did a nice job of picking up the watery-bland sauce. I expected scallion oil noodles, you know, with the classic Chinese "brown sauce"; but this was so watery, it seemed to have sesame paste and soy sauce, but not enough of it. When I brought the leftovers home, the Missus had a bite and quit. So, my "FOY" was totally correct in their assessment.
Perhaps I should have waited and my curiosity and excitement got the better of me. I did crack up when I saw an "Influencer" thing on Instagram touting the reopening. Of course, once you see videos from inside the kitchen, you know what's going on right?
It was interesting to see three parties of older folks come in and when they found out this version of CM does not do dim sum, they left. I'm hoping that this version of CM finds its footing and an identity that is not being a second rate version of DTF. Like I said, the folks working were so nice and gracious, I'm hoping for the best. So, I'll probably revisit in a few months…fingers crossed.
China Max
4698 Convoy Street #C101
San Diego, CA 92111
And while the rice was on the dry side and the sauce for the chicken was a bit heavy in the oil department, this was pretty good overall. The skin while a bit on the chewy side had nice flavor and as a while the chicken had been nicely poached as the flesh was quite tender and there were hints of winey-gingery-“fowlness”. One positive for having a rather oil heavy sauce was that it clung nicely to the chicken.
These seemed a bit over-stuffed, but heck, that shrimp was so good, I ain't complaining about proportion this time around.
Well, this was decent sized portion. The chicken was haphazardly chopped with pieces not completely sliced thru. Unlike the rather 
Sadly, this was just as bad as the version I'd had here 
Well, in terms of the chicken and sauce this was a pleasant surprise! The chicken had been nicely sliced, only two pieces with bones were on the plate; one wing and one part of a leg. The chicken was so moist and tender. But the highlight was definitely the sauce. It's usually too watered down; but this one had a good amount of ginger, but was both aromatic and not over-powering. It had a good amount of seasoning, but the star was the ginger. The chili sauce was way too sweet for me.
As for the other parts. Well, just by looking at that boiled egg you can see the greyish tone to the yolks which means it had been boiled too long. So yes, there was a bitter-sulfuric tinge to the dry and crumbly yolk. If you look closely, you'll see a piece of white-grey matter in the yolk. I took that out and didn't eat it.
This was actually not bad. The soup could have used more anise and beef flavor for my taste, but it had a mild peppery spice, a balanced sodium content, good soy sauce tones, and was not bad at all. In fact, I've definitely had 
But, any doubts were soon dispelled when I started mixing things and eating. The shrimp was decently plump with no off flavors. There was more ground pork than on my previous visit. Of course the sliced pork is chewy and quite rustic, but it flavor. There was still only a single lonely fishball in the bowl.
The pork hock has gotten smaller over the years, but the meat on this one was more tender than on my previous visit and the soup, while still heavy on the msg, had a bit more flavor and a dose of white pepper.
But a quick bite of the "fatty" intestine assuaged my doubts. It was tender and full of "bungy" goodness. Don't stare at the intestines too long; you might start seeing things…. Nice mild funky-savory tones.
The weakest item were the Xiao Long Bao. The wrapper was decent if a bit too doughy; but there was barely any "soup" in the dumpling which was quite bland.
