Maki Maki, Japanese with Sushi Bar on Wisconsin and Highland Avenue in North Bethesda

[DonRocks]

I tweeted this yesterday afternoon, having a terrible craving for raw seafood - raw bar or sashimi - yesterday at around 3:15 PM.

I really tried:

Makoto, closed

Kotobuki, closed

Murasaki, closed

Yosaku, closed

Blacksalt, closed

Black's Bar & Kitchen, closed

Clyde's, open but no raw bar (!) I was shocked to walk in and find this out

Sushi-Ko, closed

Hinata, closed

Satsuma, not answering their phone with weird recording on it

Freddy's, closed

Kanpai, closed

Tako Grill, closed

I mean, that is *really* trying - I tried *all* of these places, to no avail.

Giving up, I saw Maki Maki on my right, heading northbound on Wisconsin, and it was OPEN! :)

I walked into a completely empty restaurant, ordered a Pot of Green Tea ($1.99), and gratefully placed an order for sashimi. You simply have no idea how grateful I was to have found this restaurant open - can you imagine having gone through all that rigmarole?

I ordered 3 orders of sashimi, and a maki roll: Salmon, Yellowtail, Octopus ($4.50 for 3 incredibly generously cut pieces for each order) and an Alaska Roll ($4.50) which was salmon and avocado. The plate came with standard ginger, powdered wasabi, and the fish was sitting atop shredded daikon radish (a guilty pleasure of mine is dunking this in a little soy sauce and enjoying it, rather than treating it simply as a backdrop). As I was finishing my shocking good sushi (all three items were above-average in quality, and only $1.50 per thick slice), I ordered a fourth order of sashimi, Red Clam ($4.50) to have before I finished my maki roll.

The fish was no doubt frozen - in fact, one of the gentlemen brought out a plastic-wrapped cylinder of octopus that was as hard as a brick, in order to let it thaw for the upcoming dinner hour. So I bear no illusions in terms of freshness, but I don't care - the octopus, salmon, and yellowtail were all *very* good, and only the red clam was mediocre (and stingily portioned). The maki roll was okay, but not as good as the first three orders of sashimi.

With tax, I got out for $25.95, and considering how strong my craving was, I was happy to pay it. I've never before worked so hard to find raw seafood.

Maki Maki is worth knowing about, especially on Monday afternoons at 3:30 PM. Thank you, my friends, for being open. Note the delivery options, and with the takeout menu, they have $5 off of dinner delivery with a minimum order of $50. I'd load up on sashimi, although I suspect that with a mass order, you won't get near the same thick cuts that I was fortunate enough to receive. They also advertise that they serve brown rice, although I don't see that as a particular asset.

Cheers,

Rocks

[dpamlin]

The folks there are very nice, and they do indeed deliver (and relatively far), but I always found it odd their fixation on mangoes, at least 4 dishes/rolls/apps there have mango as an ingredient.

[KMango]

The folks there are very nice, and they do indeed deliver (and relatively far), but I always found it odd their fixation on mangoes, at least 4 dishes/rolls/apps there have mango as an ingredient.

Hrmph.

(all restaurants)

(should have)

(such wisdom)

[rockcreek]

Never been in, but we get delivery from them all the time. (We are outside the Beltway off of Grosvenor Lane.)

I would skip the miso soup - it's salt water. The kids like the gyoza, which are nothing special but are bite sized enough for them. Their menu has perpetual $5 off of $50 and $10 off of $90 coupons, which you can simply mention.

Definitely classifiable as the Best Sushi Joint that Delivers to Our Place! :-)