Maki Cafe

I heard of Maki Cafe through word of mouth from college friends. The Maki Cafe is located at 842C Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. This cafe is on a busy strip off Rockville Pike with limited parking. Since they don't take reservations, I'm glad I called ahead to put my name down and reduce my wait time. When I arrived, my party of 3 had to wait 20 minutes. There were a few parties ahead of us and we were all scrunched up in the small waiting area. The interior of the restaurant reminded me of a cafe in Yurakucho district of Tokyo with the tree wallpaper on one side of the restaurant and red lanterns hanging from the ceiling along the entrance.

For drinks, you had choices among beer, sake, wine, and non alcoholic beverages. My parents shared a hot sake while I ordered a hot tea. For the hot tea, they gave me Genmaicha.

The menu offers a variety of dishes such as curry, ramen, soba, udon, sushi, buns, donburi, and rolls. At Maki Cafe, they offer endless possibilities of ramen - 6 types of broth base and 13 types of toppings. I liked how they had vegetarian friendly options and gluten free ramen. In addition to the menu, they had two specials: Bulgogi Steak Ramen Burger and Curry Bolgogi. The three of us shared the following items: Grilled Baby Octopus, Vegetable Gyoza, Bulgogi Steak Miso Ramen, Sashimi Deluxe, and Shrimp Tempura Roll, most of which were recommended by friends.

The Grilled Baby Octopus was marinated in a sweet soy sauce laid over lettuce and shredded radish. It reminded me of a tasty delicacy I had at Shabu & Mein in Boston except the portion at Maki Cafe was relatively smaller.

The Vegetable Gyoza was made with spinach wrapper with a mushy filling consisting of mushroom, carrot, celery, and cabbage, pan fried and served with Gyoza sauce garnished with scallions.

The Bulgogi Steak Miso Ramen consisted of a thin, yellow, wheat noodles ('ramen') in salty blend of miso paste and dashi broth served in a bowl with the Chinese character meaning longetivity and topped with boiled egg, a piece of cured fish surumi with pink or red spiral pattern that resembles the Naruto whirlpools ('narutomaki'), seasoned bamboo shoots ('seasoned menma'), dried seaweed ('nori'), and scallion.

The Shrimp Tempura Roll consisted of crispy shrimp tempura, avocado, and lettuce wrapped in rice and then dried seaweed, garnished with caviar, and drizzled with a sweet sushi sauce. It was one of the tastiest Shrimp Tempura Roll I've had to date.

The Sashimi Deluxe consisted of five kinds of sliced fish include red tuna, salmon, white tuna, scallops, and white fish. Even though I felt that the red tuna wasn't very fresh, I liked how it came with a leaf topped with salmon eggs and a bowl of sticky rice topped with rice seasoning. We were a bit too full for dessert but next time we will come back to try their Dango :)