2124 Blowing Rock Rd.
Boone (828) 264-7976

Hours:
Lunch 11-2 (Sun 11-2:30)
Dinner 5-9:30 (Sat. 4:40-9:30)

We ate supper at Makoto’s one spring night. We were joined by a guest reviewer (and sushi aficionado), Bugsy. Bugsy can be harsh, so take his comments with a grain of salt (or Wasabi!), but he does have more experience with sushi than I do. Ray never sent me his comments so

Tom: I tried a couple of pieces of sushi and have to say I enjoyed it very much. I am not really a fan of sushi and cannot actually say when and where I ate it last, but what I sampled was delightful.

Bugsy: The truest test of any raw fish cuisine, is sashimi. This is mostly slabs of raw fish without the rice and seaweed wrap found in a piece of sushi, leaving little chance of disguising a poor piece of fish. I ordered the sashimi dinner for $17.95.
Tom: For my main course I chose the scallops. These were served with the usual rice and veggies, all prepared in front of us. They were excellent, cooked quickly and just enough to be done yet tender and juicy. And, they were real.

Ray: “Real”?

Tom: Right–you can tell. Real scallops usually have slight bit of grit that is sand that was ingested by the scallop. Some restaurants have been known to use die-cut shark meat, and that will not have any grit.

Ray: Maybe they just sandblasted it!

Tom: Not likely–I will trust Makoto.

Bugsy: Before I go too far I should give them credit for a nice presentation, an entertaining show from the the chef, and mention that the white rice was tasty enough. That’s as nice as I can be. The dinner was a bit bland and not as fresh as is should have been. The fish was somewhat limp and lacking in flavor. It reminded me over and over of “day-old sushi” (a rather unsettling thought actually).

Nor can that excuse the essential condiments that go with the meal. Sushi should be eaten dipped in a mixture of soy sauce and wasabi, a sort of Japanese horseradish. Wasabi should be HOT, HOT, HOT. I was able to eat the wasabi raw without reaching for a fire hose. (And since there was no fire hose around, what was I thinking?) Pickled ginger is
also an important part of the meal, as a sort of palate cleanser (and wasabi extinguisher) between fish samples. The ginger as well was a bit bland, not bad, but not what it should be.

Tom: I, too, enjoyed the show! The chef was talented not only in cooking but in putting on an entertaining show even though he said we were a “tough crowd” (we were….). I noticed that they cook at a nearby table was doing equally as well. However, a frequent patron warned me that sometimes the show is not so good–it depends on the individual cook.

Tom: I enjoyed the view of the courtyard as it got dark, with the tree festooned with red lights. The new building is indeed very nice, and it is noteworthy that the old cook surfaces, seasoned with years of use, were preserved and installed in the new building.

Bugsy: Before eating here you should consider that in many coastal areas supermarkets sell sushi in their fish departments. This was no better than Publix sushi, at three
times the price. Unless you are absolutely desperate to eat your fish raw I would suggest you stick to the cooked selections at this restaurant.

Tom: Maybe when global warming brings our NC coast up to the mountains we will be able to get fresher sushi!

I’ll probably eat here again, sushi or not–it was a nice experience.

MapQuest map On the Web: makotos-Boone.com
 Menu (prices may change)