MAKI MAKI: Vietnamese and Japanese cuisine

My friends and I arrived a bit later than lunch hour. Maki maki is a restaurant near the university with Japanese and Vietnamese cuisine. The restaurant has a Japanese name with a Japanese interior, which fooled me that they serve Japanese food as their main dishes. But apparently, my friend told me that they are better at making Vietnamese food, AFTER I ordered.... ==" And sure enough, their Japanese cuisine aren't that good.  

 

Bento Box 1

This is a bento box 1 they have for their lunch special. As you can see they have very cheap quality sushi: cooked scrimp, tofu wrappings. It doesn't look appealing to me at all.

Price: $10.75

My friend's Rating: 2.5/5

Eel Bowl

This is the dish I ordered. And i regret ordering it before I even ate it. There is alot of rice... but VERY LITTLE EEL. The side vegetables aren't attractive either, it's just cucumber that is slightly dried up, and badly preserved ginger. Since I like to eel with the rice, I had to eat very little eel each time i put a mouthful of rice in my mouth. The texture of the eel is horrible, it is too soft and obviously not fresh. They put alot of sauce on the eel to try to make it "taste better" but the sauce doesn't taste that good compare to the average eel sauce. I would never order it again.

Price: $12.95

 Rating: 2/5

Bento Box 2

 Again I don't find this very attractive. My friend let me try one of the tempura. It is edible but below average. The tempura sauce is quite weird... different from ordinary sauce, and doesn't taste as good. I would not order this. 

 Price: $11.75

My Friend's Rating: 3/5

Dragon Roll

Out of the Japanese food we ordered, this is the only decent one. It has eel on top of a sushi roll with varies fillings. I would consider eating this again if I go to maki maki. But I still find it a bit on the pricey for the quality. But it's worth a try =)

Price: $ 16-17

Rating: 4/5

Bun bo hue (Spicy Lemongrass Beef Noodle)

Being a mainly Vietnamese restaurant, their noodles are way more appealing than their Japanese food. This bowl of noodles is HUGE. I think most girls would find it hard to finish it up. There are noodles AND BEEF in that bowl so if you're hungry, this would be perfect =) 

My Friend's Rating: 4/5

Pho tai nam, sach (Rare steak, well done flank and soft tendon with rice noodle soup)

Again, the bowl of noodles has great quantity. This soup is non-spicy. If you're not use to Asian food and wants to try something new and Asian, I would recommend this noodle. 

Flanks have an attractive texture. How should I describe it... um... it's almost crispy? but not crispy in a sense like potato chips... haha. In Cantonese, there's a particular word "song" for it, but I'm not sure if there is in English. Flanks are almost tasteless but with sauce or in soup, they taste awesome =)

Soft Tendons, they may sound not that appealing if you're not use to it, but if you are the type of people that like to try new things, they are actually not that bad =) (it is a great way to enhance your experience from your ordinary routines, if it is not your routine already haha). They are tasty as it absorbs the flavor in the soup. Did you know that whenever we move our limbs, our bones rub at our joints? Did you know that this will damage and joints and without enough collagen to protect them, your joints can be severely damaged? Tendons are filled with collagen and helps restore your joints =) Of course, it is good for your skin too ^^

Rare Steak: By "rare" they are not serving you raw steak XD The chef will cut the steak in extremely thin pieces and put it last on top of the noodles before pouring boiling water in the bowl. This way, the steak will be cooked by the boiling water.

Price: $9.95

 My Friend's Rating: 3.5/5

Overall, I wouldn't order Japanese food in this restaurant anymore. Don't be fooled by the name of the restaurant like me! ><