Makino opens in southeast; offers all-you-can-eat sushi and Japanese fare
I both love and hate all-you-can-eat joints and Las Vegas is a city full of buffets. I love having the chance to throw some real damage on a line of food, but lament with great intensity that unpleasant discomfort, and let’s just say it, the shame of eating myself to the brink of capacity.
I’ve become intimately familiar with a few of the buffets around town. I know there are the higher end places like the Bellagio, but let’s not kid ourselves, buffet food doesn’t exactly represent the hallmark of culinary achievement. I’m not saying it’s bad, I’m just saying it’s not the same quality you’d be getting if you ordered a dedicated, plated version of the same food.
It’s like I told a friend this weekend, I am happier to take an unlimited amount of a lesser quality food than vice versa.
So it is with sushi as well.
This weekend, I had the pleasure, and it was a pleasure, of checking out Makino Gourmet Sushi & Seafood Buffet. It’s been around for awhile now, but I decided to check out the location on Eastern, near the 215 freeway.
It’s a brand new location and certainly my favorite so far. Huge floor-to-ceiling windows make up two of the walls, so the place is almost entirely lit with natural light, which is something I have been appreciating more and more lately.
Like I was saying earlier, I don’t think it’s unfair to expect the buffet version of any food to not match the quality of the same dish elsewhere and that trend held true at Makino. But that isn’t to say it wasn’t good, because it was downright delicious.
The variety of sushi was smaller than you would expect at a typical sushi joint, but it was by no means a meager selection. Traditional favorites like salmon, unagi (eel), and tuna were all there, but I definitely missed some of the more inventive dishes you’d find at other sushi restaurants.
What’s great about this place is that it’s an excellent place to go with friends who may not necessarily like sushi. In addition to the raw stuff, they’ve got sukiyaki beef, shrimp and vegetable tempura, beef and chicken teriyaki, miso soup, udon and a ton of other things.
Of course, if you’re as enterprising as I am, you’d load your plate with as much of everything as you could.
I know most sushi places offer all-you-can-eat options and come with the added benefit of higher quality food, but they usually come with a time limit and you’re at the mercy of the chef’s speed. I didn’t feel so rushed at Makino and was able to get more food just as fast as my legs could carry me and I could partake in the hot entrees along with the sushi.
Even if there are several sushi joints on that side of town, Makino is a welcome addition and more than worth checking out. The place is definitely better for sushi lovers, but it’s a great place for groups of people with mixed feelings about sushi.
