Veg Out! Austin: North Archives

Maki

By Skye on August 28, 2009 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Arbor Walk Shopping Center, 10515 N. Mopac Expy, Suite A165, Austin, 78759
Open Daily, 11AM-9PM
Maki's Website
Maki's Page on Yelp

Photo by sashimikid on flickr under a Creative Commons license

Going on a tip from commenter Chrise, last weekend we headed up to the Arbor Walk shopping center recently to try out Maki. We were not disappointed.

As a vegetarian and a picky eater, I often end up asking wait staff to remove and add various elements to whatever I order, including rolling me something specific at sushi places. At Maki, that's the whole point. You pick exactly what you want in your roll off the menu step by step. So I was a happy camper. We ordered four rolls: two with cream cheese and double avocado, one with "tofu skin" (which is a fairly gross description) plus green onion and cucumber, and one with cucumber, strawberries, and mango. The green onions were not on the menu, and they had a couple of other things out that weren't listed either, so it pays to look at what they have before finalizing your plan.

True, it's a bit strange to see sushi mats shrink wrapped in clear plastic that come out of a machine with a layer of rice on them. Then again, if I was going to make a ton of sushi, I would want a nifty labor saving device like that myself! And the guy who fixed our sushi did know how to roll. If there was a sushi-making contest, my husband would definitely pick that guy over me for his team.

The ingredients all seemed extremely fresh and the rolls were delicious. I can't believe I'd never thought of green onions in sushi before, but now I'm sold on it. I definitely never would have thought of fruit in sushi by myself, especially after my husband tried to eat some kind of sushi that included bananas a couple of years ago. If something is too freaky for him to eat, the chance that I'm going to eat it are slim to none. But cream cheese and strawberry sushi is one of my new favorite desserts, and I can even make it at home with faux cream cheese for a vegan alternative.

My only disappointment was that the tofu was sweetened, which is not my preference, but if my alternative is to skip that next time and have more avocado then my life is not too bad.

We were there fairly early for dinner on a Saturday and the place was basically empty. I'm hoping they do some good business at other times, because it would be a shame if they don't stay in business. The staff was incredibly friendly (bored?) and they even gave us coupons for our next visit. And as Chrise had pointed out, they have a frequent roller card where every 9 rolls gets you the 10th one for free.

I don't recommend getting four rolls for two people, though, if one of them had a slice of cheesecake an hour earlier. It's a bit much.

Thank you Chrise for finding me another good sushi place!