Maxim Seafood

In 1979 Denny Thai moved to San Diego as a refugee from Vietnam. He started out with a job washing dishes at a Chinese restaurant. This is where he learned to cook and in 1983, he got a job as a chef at Maxim’s Seafood Restaurant (4616 El Cajon Boulevard). After nine years of working there, his boss sold the business to Denny and his family. Family run businesses are common for refugee immigrants because the families can work together in order to succeed.

In the early 1980’s there were only a handful of Chinese restaurants in the neighborhood, and many of them had Americanized menus. Maxim’s was always known as an authentic Chinese restaurant that catered to the local Asian community. Once Denny’s family took over the restaurant, they expanded the menu and added more authentic dishes. As more refugee communities, such as the Vietnamese, continued to populate the neighborhood they would add more dishes to serve the expanding customer base. The restaurant now specializes in Mandarin, Szechwan, Vietnamese and Cantonese cuisine, and of course, authenticity has always remained key.

Denny learned to create dishes from all over Asia by asking his customers how they like their dishes cooked. Fortunately, Maxim’s Seafood Restaurant is open late and many chefs dine there after they leave work. Denny is always happy to serve dishes that aren’t on the menu based on whatever they request. By embracing these insightful ideas from local chefs Denny adjusted his own dishes, and turned them into special items on the menu. According to Denny, customers’ favorites include Mongolian beef, spicy pork chops, deep fried shrimp sprinkled with pepper and the rice noodles with beef and Chinese broccoli.

After six years of running a family business, Denny wanted to open his own restaurant. He stuck with the name Maxim, which is a famous entity in Vietnam similar to Las Vegas. The menu is very similar, but this location (2810 El Cajon Boulevard) doesn’t specialize in seafood. For Denny, owning his own business is no luxury, he works hard to earn a living, but at least he knows that he won’t be laid off.

Maxim’s Seafood- 4616 El Cajon Boulevard
Maxim’s Palace Chinese- 2810 El Cajon Boulevard