Saigon Maxim Restaurant

We went there on a weekday after lunch hours. Service is attentive. Food portion is huge! However the taste was rather mediocre.

Being from Northern VA where I’ve been spoiled with delicious Vietnamese and Chinese food from Eden Center, coming to this place was just … sad.
I wanted to show my family «Little
Saigon» (this name for the shopping center I saw online) and it was not a good experience.
After seeing Unilocal reviews, I already wanted to avoid this place, but I didn’t know they have two entrances. We already walked past the main door and walked past another door that we thought was to a different restaurant because of the names of Vietnamese dishes on the window. We walked in and it was the same restaurant unfortunately. We could’ve left, but since we already walked in, decided to stay.
We ordered some dim sum and it was so salty! My family and I were the only ones in the restaurant and it was so warm inside. I understand not wanting a high electricity bill for such a large place with no business, but geez, my aunt was fanning herself so wouldn’t you think to turn some AC on when it’s 95 degrees outside?!
We ordered phở, a pork and rice dish, and some pork and shrimp noodle soup. Everything was super salty.
I will not be returning and the venue is large enough for weddings and parties but I don’t think they get much business otherwise.

This place has been the only asian venue that can host about 400 people comfortably with almost enough parking to accommodate the parties. With that being said, that is probably the only plus side of this place. Food sucks, service sucks, semi-​updated décor and cheap owners. Oh yea, I had my wedding here and been to countless weddings here as well.

I’d have to say this is the worst food I’ve ever had coupled with one of the worst dining experiences I’ve had. I couldn’t swallow a bite of the «black pepper beef» and I’m not entirely sure if it was beef at all. The waitress was rude and, despite my party of 4 being the only guests in the restaurant at the time, we did not receive drinks or water for 15 minutes. Like another receiver said, I don’t think a dog would eat the food served here. I have no idea how this place is still open.

The décor needs to be updated and the restrooms need to be overhauled. The food is a lot better compared to the last time i was there. They are one of the bigger Chinese restaurant venues in and around Philadelphia. They can hold 100 tables comfortably so this is a great venue for weddings and parties. I was here for a wedding with 70+ table. The service wasn’t too bad considering how busy the staff was

Went here for a banquet. The place is big and there is a stage so its a good place to have a large party. Now the food was not good. Their jelly fish entrée was good. The salted deep fries shrimp was horrible, but actually I think this dish in general is not good. The pecking duck was okay, too much oil. The bird’s nest entrée was nothing to be excited about. The fried rice okay. For dessert they served us oranges. Not much of a dessert or enough for everyone. I would not recommend this place at all.

Went here despite the negative Unilocal reviews. My mistake. The dimsum was cold, old and dry. Definitely from the previous day. They should close this place for food and just focus on their core business which seems to be weddings and such. Waste of everybody’s time and money.

We had dinner there last week and it was awesome. They have a NEW CHEF and he is unbelievable. The spring rolls were the best that I’ve tasted. We also had Beef with Lemongrass and house fried rice which was perfect not greasy. I was told that the NEW CHEF started a few weeks ago. You have to try his food. I thought I went to heaven after eating it.

I’m giving it the extra star for it being a good place for big events. It is a large space and the people who work events are fast, efficient and honestly pretty incredible!
But, then there is the food. The food is really very bland. The dim sum, in my experience, was really bad — no flavor, bad textures and some of it seemed a little old.
Go for the big events. .. weddings, etc. — but, eat elsewhere.

Was an average meal, but pretty fast and hot. Not disappointed but also not a place I would crave to go back to.

We went for dim sum lot of foods to chose from but the service is slow and don’t know how to talk to customers. I don’t like it
My family and I went one time that it.

I need to start my review out with something totally non food related, but just plain weird about Saigon Maxim: the location of the restrooms. The restrooms are in the back, at the end of a hall-​type area. While there is nothing unusual about that during normal hours, I visited a day there was a party of some sort in this hall. Basically, I had to walk through the party to get to the restroom. Weird, right?
Ok, now that I got that out of my system, on to the review. They start you with hot tea, a very nice touch in my opinion. I split the summer rolls with my friend and got a large deluxe phở. The rolls were good, not great. Likewise, the phở was solid, but nothing to brag about. More so, the large was disappointingly average (well small actually) in size. Service was smooth throughout and the meal ended with some free and tasty cookies! Overall, worth a trip and possibly a return trip if I find myself in the area.

Came here for a chinese wedding. Some of the dishes were:
Bird’s Nest Seafood Medley
Deep Fried Crab Claws
Lobster
Quail
Sea Bass
Walnut Shrimp
Everything was really good with the crab claws being the highlight of the night. I just wish they had some dipping sauce for the claws and quail instead of just hot sauce. The place was HUGE and they did a great job decorating. There was also a decent amount of parking. Asian weddings are the best!

was super hungry and this was the biggest restaurant in the center so went in for a bite. the atmosphere is like any typical phở restaurant. the front is partitioned off from the back which has a super huge banquet hall kind of thing. so i’m guessing they throw a lot of wedding or other banquets here.
the food was affordable and a little surprised to see dim sum. but that was quite good. i tried the phở of course, but it was very lacking. for a vietnamese restaurant, it was weird the dim sum was a lot better than the phở. the meat was dry and chewy, the broth was underwhelming.
this review is going to just end abruptly now.

for dim sum only:
better than wakano i think! salted shrimp was good, clams were yummo, fried dough was also good. i don’t eat meat so no reviews on those.
can’t expect the best service or décor. but this place will do. you just gotta get the cart ladies attention so they can show/​bring you food. they tend to be slow (i think that’s all dim sum places in philly)
we ordered additional clams and it took forever!
cheap too!

Reasonably priced dimsum spot with a very friendly staff. Unlike overcrowded NYC places where you kinda feel like the dimsum being whizzed and unceremoniously dumped around, you actually get to savor the meal at your own pace.
We make it a point to stop here every trip up north, adds adventure to an otherwise boring drive…

I’m surprised by the low reviews. I love this place.
It’s the rather unusual (although not for this neighborhood) combination of Dim Sum with Vietnamese food.
Very user-​unfriendly, typical for Dim Sum, but people familiar with it will see many of the classic items and a few less familiar ones. This place also has a full menu of the usual (and many less-​usual) Vietnamese offerings, which can be great because Dim Sum tends to be heavy on the starch and meat, and the Vietnamese items offer more fresh vegetables and can make the meal more balanced.
Price? Astonishingly low. I’ve had items of similar quality elsewhere for as much as $ 1 more per item, which when you are ordering a lot of small items, adds up very quickly. My friend and I stuffed ourselves, got some pricier items like clams, and it was under $ 20 for the two of us… I imagine big groups could make out even better. And BTW? The clams were outstanding.
Really really good. Best value for Dim Sum I’ve had in Philly yet, contends with the better places I’ve had in other cities. I definitely want to come back, but I’m still trying out other places too.
The only downside? The chaos of the parking lot in this plaza, with the tiny spaces and ubiquitous double parking (prepare to get parked in!) makes you feel like you’re actually in China, although that would be a tad more chaotic.

came in here recently with a couple friends after grocery shopping in the area. it had just snowed the night before and there were flurries on and off during the day, so we felt like getting some hot steaming phở.
when we walked in, the place was empty. (saturday afternoon, about 2pm) that should’ve been a dead giveaway. next, when we sat down, they tried to offer us unappealing looking dimsum for lunch. that should’ve been dead giveaway #2.
but we were starving and decided to order off their regular menu. i decided to be adventurous and order the spicy beef noodle soup. i was craving spicy (thinking it would add to the warmth on this cold snowy day) and it was the only spicy noodle soup dish on the menu. what i should’ve done is NOT order a chinese dish at a vietnamese restaurant, and instead gotten phở and added in a LOT of sriracha.
the noodles finally came out. (last — i guess not many people ask for it so they don’t have the broth pre-​prepared like they do for phở) it was probably one of the oily-​est noodle soups i’ve ever seen. i thought it was mainly due to the chili oil, but upon tasting, the dish wasn’t spicy AT ALL. sheer disappointment. there was a good amount of beef, however, a lot of it was bone or random cuts of meat.
lesson learned: when going to a vietnamese restaurant located on a vietnamese strip, DON’T order chinese food. or if you do, at least go with something more cantonese, which they might be able to get right.
2.5 stars for its massive interior space for holding receptions, but the regular dining room itself is small. good service, but when the place is empty, that’s to be expected right?

I was craving for Ben Bo Hue over the weekend. Saw that they have it here so stopped by to try it. This place is huge. It looks like they do banques and dim sum. But also have phở on the menu. The place has that main land chinese deco feel to it. Also gives that weir Tween Peak vibe.
Anyway, we sat down and immediately they try to push the dim sum on us. They actually looks pretty good. But we had our heart set on Ben Bo Hue, so order it from the menu. It came in a big steaming bowl. Lots of meat and vigie, big chunk of pig’s feet Very spicy. Brought tears to my eyes. The broth is on the fatty side, but it hits the spot in the winter time. Only thing I have to complain about is that they don’t have the shimp paste that goes with the dish. Other than that all is good.

Saigon Maxim is open for lunch and dinner. (I think there’s a buffet, but I’ve never gotten to try it.) I’ve been here for dinner several times and their Chinese and Vietnamese dishes are pretty good. Service is fine too. Many, many moons ago, this place used to be the New Century restaurant. Parking is pretty easy, and free: take advantage of their lot, or spill out into the street if it is too crowded.
This is a HUGE venue, with a stage, dance floor and numerous tables. (I don’t want to imagine the cost for rent.) Due to its size, many hold wedding receptions or fundraisers here, many I’ve attended. Their set banquet menus are just plain blah. To give them the benefit of the doubt, perhaps I’ve only tried their lower-​tier banquet menu offerings? After all, the fundraisers have to make SOME money.
Would not recommend Saigon Maxim for a large event (the quality of the food for the price isn’t worth it), but stop in for dinner with friends.