crayon1973
500+ Posts
so I had heard about Maiko and I thought I'd try it out. Here is how it went:
We went on a Wednesday night. There is nothing extraordinary looking about the place, and that's ok. If I am in LA, some carved dragons or waterfalls are cool. In a sushi place in the warehouse district, I'll settle for it being clean and accessible. The hostess is hot. Really hot. Tall blonde chick. This raises their ambiance rating one point. When I sat down, I noticed something odd: On the wine list and menu, there is no sake. I don't eat sushi without drinking sake unless it is lunch. I thought it was odd so I asked the waiter and he told me that they are developing their sake list, but the do have sake. I ordered an unfiltered pearl sake pitcher. I know the brand so it was good as could be expected. I then checked out the menu. It was the least extensive menu I had ever seen. They had the traditional entrees - steak, chicken, duck, etc(you know, the things for your stupid friends who don't eat sushi. Anyway, I then got to the sushi/roll page. Yes, one page. And on this one page, they had a listing of all of their fish. I did not see Toro. Maybe I missed it, but I don't think so. Needless to say, I was a little dismayed by this as that is my favorite sashimi item. In terms of rolls, there are 8 or 9 of them. Seriously. And not only that, their signature roll, the Maiko roll is basically a roll with tuna, salmon and flounder, I think with a little piece of mango wrapped in rice paper. Not exactly original either. Also, their spicy mayo is much more Mayo than spicy. The sashimi was ok, but nothing great. The red snapper was above average, the tuna was below average and tasted like it had been there for a couple of days. I am pretty sure their Salmon was new as it was very good. Overall ratings:
Atmosphere - 8 - It would have been 7, but the hostess was hot. The layout is ok, but nothing stood out
Service - 8.5 - The wait staff was attentive and knew the tiny menu very well. The owner also came by to say hello.
Presentation - 9 - Everything was very pretty and arranged well. It didn't look like someone just threw it on the plate and put wasabi on one and ginger on the other.
Food - 6 - I'd say this place is behind Musachino, Uchi, Mikado, Umi, and... well, pretty much any decent place in Austin. Including kenichi. I was disappointed.
Value - 3 - Dinner for both of us was $170. With tip, this is $210. That is, for Austin, Texas, about the highest dollar amount one is going to pay for a meal unless one is ordering a fairly expensive bottle of wine. I don't mind spending this much on dinner, but I would like it to at least be tasty. I think this was the most disappointing part of my meal - knowing that we could have gone to Uchi, Jeffery's, or any other place with better food instead of getting mediocre
We went on a Wednesday night. There is nothing extraordinary looking about the place, and that's ok. If I am in LA, some carved dragons or waterfalls are cool. In a sushi place in the warehouse district, I'll settle for it being clean and accessible. The hostess is hot. Really hot. Tall blonde chick. This raises their ambiance rating one point. When I sat down, I noticed something odd: On the wine list and menu, there is no sake. I don't eat sushi without drinking sake unless it is lunch. I thought it was odd so I asked the waiter and he told me that they are developing their sake list, but the do have sake. I ordered an unfiltered pearl sake pitcher. I know the brand so it was good as could be expected. I then checked out the menu. It was the least extensive menu I had ever seen. They had the traditional entrees - steak, chicken, duck, etc(you know, the things for your stupid friends who don't eat sushi. Anyway, I then got to the sushi/roll page. Yes, one page. And on this one page, they had a listing of all of their fish. I did not see Toro. Maybe I missed it, but I don't think so. Needless to say, I was a little dismayed by this as that is my favorite sashimi item. In terms of rolls, there are 8 or 9 of them. Seriously. And not only that, their signature roll, the Maiko roll is basically a roll with tuna, salmon and flounder, I think with a little piece of mango wrapped in rice paper. Not exactly original either. Also, their spicy mayo is much more Mayo than spicy. The sashimi was ok, but nothing great. The red snapper was above average, the tuna was below average and tasted like it had been there for a couple of days. I am pretty sure their Salmon was new as it was very good. Overall ratings:
Atmosphere - 8 - It would have been 7, but the hostess was hot. The layout is ok, but nothing stood out
Service - 8.5 - The wait staff was attentive and knew the tiny menu very well. The owner also came by to say hello.
Presentation - 9 - Everything was very pretty and arranged well. It didn't look like someone just threw it on the plate and put wasabi on one and ginger on the other.
Food - 6 - I'd say this place is behind Musachino, Uchi, Mikado, Umi, and... well, pretty much any decent place in Austin. Including kenichi. I was disappointed.
Value - 3 - Dinner for both of us was $170. With tip, this is $210. That is, for Austin, Texas, about the highest dollar amount one is going to pay for a meal unless one is ordering a fairly expensive bottle of wine. I don't mind spending this much on dinner, but I would like it to at least be tasty. I think this was the most disappointing part of my meal - knowing that we could have gone to Uchi, Jeffery's, or any other place with better food instead of getting mediocre
