Aku Eats Oahu : a closer look : Makino Chaya, a closer look

Makino Chaya, a closer look

Hey everyone!

6/12/08 -. Let's face it - You can't please everyone! Us folks are a complicated bunch, with each one viewing the world through a different shade of Oakley's. Or Ray-ban's. Or Chanel. Like wifey, who has an absolute craving for the gooey-smelly mound of rotting beans called natto (a rather subjective and opinionated description, I must say!), and myself, who shivers in fear at its very mention, the same object can contain every opposing opinion under the Hawaiian sun.

Every-day buffet restaurants are another issue where different views can run amok (though Sunday brunch buffets are a bit different). Many sit with elated anticipation all day long, skipping lunch and possibly even breakfast to finally reward themselves at night with an even bigger spread than the one at Auntie Kaui's 50th birthday luau, while others nonchalantly dismiss or even completely disdain them at every turn.

To further complicate the situation, it seems everytime I come to Makino Chaya, the real subject of today's closer look page, it's always a whole different experience! One day I'll arrive and they're out of lobster; another day I'll come and they've added a mini-teppan grill at your table; another yet and the snow crab legs are huge, tender, and juicey while later, still, they are scrawny and dry.

In all fairness, the buffet is a completely different animal than a standard restaurant, with a new and extremely difficult set of challenges to overcome. Throw in a consistently high volume of customers, and it becomes even worse! Only a precious few can hope to do it right and win over some of those in the dismissal and disdain categories.

Entrance shot - crowds always begin forming before the 6pm opening.

After all things considered, I would actually say Makino Chaya does have a chance at winning people over. There are several aspects that give it an edge over other buffet restaurants on the island, with perhaps number one being innovation. Since its inception many years ago, it has continued to change and fine-tune itself in various ways. The former method combining the buffet with menu-ordered items has been done away with, the introduction of "stations" like at a fancy pupu party add an interesting and creative effect, and new products like Wagyu beef from Japan all signify an active management on every aspect of this operation.

A subtle sign of this type of innovation is one I find in several of the items here. It's an answer to the question of "how the heck do you provide such expensive things like Wagyu beef, uni (sea urchin), and ikura (salmon eggs) on a buffet line without going broke?" The answer is quite simple, actually, but it has to do with how they serve them. Throw such delicacies out there that have such a powerful flavor, and you'll get a whole lot of waste, but put them on individual serving platters, and it helps guide sometimes wastefully naive customers to not take quite as much. In actuality, these items are so rich that you can't eat too much, anyway, believe me. That's why they eat spoon-full's of caviar and not plate-full's of caviar - too much and you are sure to spoil the experience.

In the case of the uni and ikura, they also come atop a small bed of rice, as well. Again - subtle, but ingenious! Why so, you ask? Well... You know that both the local people and the many native Japanese customers here, in general, will feel bad if they only eat the top and not the bottom, and you also know that rice will take up more precious room in that limited storage facility we call a belly. Not that there's anything wrong with that, because both ikura and uni are both natural matches with rice, anyway!

Probably the most popular new addition to Makino Chaya's innovative ways is the teppan grilling station. As you can see from the following picture, there is almost always a line in front of the single chef that is hopefully getting time-and-a-half or more for working so hard. He sits back there and not only grills made to order Wagyu, but also bean sprouts, mushrooms, scallops, and shrimp - next week he'll probably add other things, too!

The most popular station in the restaurant.

Neptune, the tri-pointed spear-holding god of the sea according to Roman mythology, bears the name of this next station, which features half-lobsters, mussels, shrimp, shrimp shumai, udon (not really from the sea!), and all kinds of poke. Other stations also carry various types of seafoods, as well.

One of the few buffets anywhere that will offer whole lobster (in half-portions).

The lobster that they carry, unfortunately (and probably understandably), is not the best representative of this delicacy. It is covered with a mayo-dynamite sauce, which you would think helps to tenderize the meat because of the oily "sealant", but it was actually very dry and tough. Here you can get a better picture of the half-lobster portions, along with a hefty portion of snow crab legs. I hate to knock the stuff here again, but these legs were small, overly salty, and very much on the dry side, which was very dissapointing for me because the last time I came the legs were probably the biggest snow crab legs I've ever seen on a buffet, and they came moist, tender, and perfectly salted.

Looks - good. Taste - questionable.

Another very popular area is the sushi station, which offers all different kinds of sushi as well as a few sashimi selections, including what looked almost like a toro - not sure if it was, though. When a cut of bluefin tuna is deemed fatty enough, the chef can declare it a toro. Me, I'm not qualified, so I won't say for sure. One thing I can say is that it was sure a lot whiter and fattier than the ahi that was also offered.

sushi station

And here is the result of my next foray, which was mostly contained in the sushi station above. There were a host of different ura-maki (inside-out roll) types, all with colorful toppings of sesame seeds, tobiko, seaweed flakes, and more, as well as inari sushi and many types of nigiri like salmon-skin, unagi, tamago, ika, ebi, kazunoko, tako, and more. In the middle was a single piece each of shrimp tempura and a kind of battered chili shrimp, neither of which was worth considering a second bite. On the right was a kind of salmon ceviche, which was refreshing and delicious, coming with fresh onions, cucumber, and ogo (seaweed).

Just one of my many plates...

As I sat there scoping out how busy the restaurant was, I noticed this fish just above my table. They were actually really nice pieces of work. I wonder how much one of these things cost?

Flying fish?

Just then I noticed there were a whole school of them!

They're everywhere!

As I was placed in the very unusual circumstance of not wanting any more crab legs, nor lobster, I decided to try the hooplah surrounding the Wagyu beef. The person who looked like the manager there explained to us that the Wagyu cooked by the Teppan chef was not as good as the Wagyu that was plated raw in a separate chill station. These portions were meant to be cooked right at the table, which, again, is another innovation that Makino Chaya just began implementing. Every table has a mini propane burner that can be used to cook this delicacy, as well as any other item you want, such as a slice of salmon or ahi sashimi.

The Wagyu did indeed come very fatty, with the white marbling indicative of a quality cut highly apparent. Unlike yakiniku restaurants, it did not come with dipping sauces. There was no need to, however, as the slices also came with just the right amount of salt already added to the meat. And not any iodized table salt, either. The crystals were very fine and the taste was very much as good as any natural salt I've tasted. Here you can see just how fatty these pieces were.

Some decent marbling.

Here is a shot of the mini-grills found at every table. The thin slices cook in only a matter of seconds on each side and turn out juicey and full of flavor. The one note of concern, however, was how tough some of these pieces were. Of the three plates I had, one was really tender, another was decent, and the last was almost like gristle! I guess it can be Wagyu, but you still don't know what part of the cow it came from... The slices were thick compared to premium cuts at other Yakiniku houses, but that's not necessarily a good thing. This kind of fat melts quickly, and so the faster you can get them off the grill, the better you can take advantage of all that luscious marbling. I prefer them much thinner. But that's just me.

Just remember not to overcook!

Wifey had only a couple pieces of Wagyu, but a whole lotta sushi, uni, ikura, and other Japanese specialties like clam miso soup and oden, all pictured here (except for the sushi).

Japanese specialties.

As I said earlier, there are a lot of differing opinions about buffet restaurants, and Makino Chaya is no exception. I would say the positives are being able to find uni, ikura, lobster, Wagyu beef, and all the other favorites, while the negatives, as with mostly all buffet restaurants, come primarily with quality issues. With prices under $30 and such a vast list of items, and some not found anywhere else, they deserve a lot of credit.

The high degree of variation that seems to exist every different time I come can be either a good thing or a bad thing. After a few earlier trips years ago I was not impressed, but when I came back to find those excellent snow crab legs and other surprises, it was a fabulous thing! Then, upon returning again and finding skimpy crab legs and tough lobster tails, it was really dissapointing. I know that high expectations can sometimes kill a perfectly good experience, while low expectations can sometimes serve to heighten a mediocre one, as attitude plays an important role in how we appreciate what comes our way.

Hopefully we'll take solace in the fact that, despite our love of food, we never want to become food snobs, which is why we can appreciate both a simple $6 plate lunch as well as an elaborate $60 Pacific Rim meal, and everything in-between.

As my friend Michael Mazzella, the Hawaii Real Estate guru says all the time, "go out and make it a great day!" (check him out to learn everything you need to know about Real Estate investing at his site, www.honolulumentor.com.

Aloha!

Aku

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