Makino Japanese Restaurant

This restaurant can be found hiding in Zamalek. It is has a very quiet and fresh atmosphere with soft music playing in the background. The chef can be seen cooking at the front, and when you sit down, you can smell the freshness of the fish. If you check them out on Instagram (@makinojapaneserestaurant), you can see that every few days they receive enormous fresh fish. They also notify you on which fish are fresh at the moment via this account. It's true: the fish is extremely fresh, and this is evident in the taste. When we entered the restaurant, there was already a Japanese family with an adorable little daughter sitting down for lunch, which I felt was a good sign that this place is authentic. The menu does not include the Americanized rolls and fusion recipes that other restaurants may label 'innovative', but rather includes only true Japanese meals. The waiters were reserved, but clearly very knowledgeable about their menus.

For starters, we tried out the kaisen natto, a marinated salmon and seaweed salad, and an arugula and squid salad. This was my first time ever tasting natto, and I was really interested in trying it out. Unfortunately, it was a taste that I hadn't really acquired. On the other hand, the marinated salmon was a good new taste as I had never tasted salmon with this sort of marinade. The texture of the squid was addictive. It was chopped thickly so you can bit into it and feel the butteriness, and this was perfectly contrasted by the rough texture of the arugula.

As a main dish, I had the tako nigiri and the kaisen futomaki - I couldn't really decide on one ura maki to try, so I decided to get something with a mix. The portions here were huge, but the food wasn't overly filling. The nigiri was very well-balanced, although it was difficult to fit such a large portion into my mouth. The roll was also great, and I was really satisfied to taste all these different types of sashimi all together. The rice wasn't very sweet like in other restaurants, in fact it had not been flavored very much at all. The flavors throughout the meal were all quite muted, but considering the freshness of the meal, the perfect textures, the good use of wasabi, and the not-needing any sauces to enhance the flavor of the sushi, the muted flavor felt more classy and tasteful than bland. It was clear that these guys knew what they were doing.

This meal was extremely high quality - one of those meals that you feel sad about finishing. The overall price was around 900 LE, which I think is reasonable, once again, considering the sheer quality and perfection of the food and its textures. If I were to be picky, I would say that this restaurant could improve in terms of temperature; the restaurant was extremely cold and the food was also quite cold too. We didn't get to try most of the wide variety of foods on this menu, so we will likely be back sometime in the future. Makino may not have an overly fancy or over-the-top vibe, but it is definitely exclusive as it is a hidden gem in Cairo that very few people know about. With the right marketing, this place could be really big - although I'm not sure that's what they want. It seems that this place is satisfied in its simple and calm lifestyle, and that's what makes Makino truly unique.