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The menu is filled with classic Filipino dishes; pork sisig, silog paired with everything from milkfish to longanisa, beef calderata, crispy fried pork leg and lumpia.

Mr. Afzelius adds Filipino ingredients to a Caesar salad; uses French-cut chicken breasts in his chicken adobo with turmeric soy sauce; includes salmon in sinigang, a typical tamarind soup; and serves traditional Filipino milkfish belly called bangus, fried with chayote and quinoa.

Max’s Restaurant, one of the world’s most popular Filipino chains, just launched in Washington state, bringing its signature fried chicken, as well as specialties such as the pork hock crispy pata, the veggie stew pinakbet and tamarind soup milkfish sinigang.

When he isn’t in the restaurant, stationed at the kitchen window guiding his staff, meals have been noticeably more erratic in execution or delivery: tepid lumpia, garlic crab noodles and grilled milkfish that were overcooked, sisig missing its final vital contrast in textures.

The dish is accented with the familiar soy-and-vinegar flavors of Filipino cuisine, simmered in an onion-garlic-tomato base and stir-fried with vermicelli noodles, then topped with pork rinds, key-lime juice and smoked milkfish, for a briny flavor that recalls low tide.