Roll With 巻きさん! DIY Sushi With Maki-san

4th March 2013.

Located off the beaten tracks of Dhoby Ghaut is a gem in the making. The colourful, vibrant, exciting Maki-san (巻きさん?) could very well be the pioneer of DIY Sushi standing out from the DIY-food market such as salads, wraps, tacos, yogurt, sandwiches just to name a few.

Maki-san may offer a myriad of ingredients to make your dream sushi, but the process is simple: pick up one of the many ordering forms available, select your choice ingredients which includes feta, salmon, smoked duck, pine nuts, enoki tempura etc…how about putting feta, cheddar and wasabi all into your sushi? The combination is limited by your creativity.

Or if too many choices becomes intimidating for you, then go for one of their signatures such as the American style Roast N’Roll or the Keep On Shrimpin’, a maki roll wrapped in soy paper which has asparagus, mixed greens, tempura prawn, white rice, wasabi mayonnaise.

Once you done with your choices just proceed to the counter and wait for your maki roll. Your patience would be awarded with your own maki-roll packed in a beautifully designed box. (The owner mentioned that apparently several diners tried to collect all the meal box designs!)

We tried a two maki-rolls, Keep On’ Shrimpin’ (9.90 SGD) was nothing like the usual, true to its description as “unconventional”. The maki roll resembled a Vietnamese Rice Roll with pretty decent serving of prawn complemented by a nice dose of wasabi mayonnaise.

I would be a sin not to make your own maki-roll at Maki-san, so we made a Little San (6.90 SGD) with Tempura Enoki Mushrooms, Sliced Cheddar Cheese, Turkey Bacon Bits and Grilled Zucchini with Wasabi Mayonnaise. The result is an amazingly crunchy and fragrant maki-roll which both Yew Ann and I thoroughly enjoyed.

Little San and Mega San refers to the sizes of your maki roll (not literally). Mega-San has more ingredients.

Do not underestimate these maki-rolls, a full roll packed with ingredients is easily a meal on its own and both of us actually found two rolls bordering on over-eating for the both us. Thankfully if you are still hungry, there are salads available for order too. Like the sushi, Salads come with a whole array of ingredients as well to make your own salad.

Moreover, there are also the signatures. Of which, we ordered the What’s Your Beef (9.90 SGD) which is a salad of Thai Roast Beef dressed with Sweet Thai Chilli sauce, accompanied by fried onions, cucumbers, roasted tomatoes, apples and pine nuts. The ingredients for a start were really fresh, the tomatoes was very juice and lettuce still crisp. The addition of pine nuts and apples bestow a pleasant fruity and nutty flavor to the salad and the beef was just right. And that’s not it, the crispy fried onions and an insanely addictive Thai sweet chili dressing makes this a divine salad (and quite a filling one too).

If the salads and sushi aren’t enough you could order some sides or appetizers to share such as Enoki Tempura seasoned with paprika or their Soft Shell Crab with some wasabi mayonnaise for dipping.

Yew Ann and I thoroughly enjoyed the Enoki Tempura seasoned with paprika which was crunchy and it is easily a comfort food I would like to have while watching a movie. For wasabi lovers, the wasabi mayonnaise here is rather mild : not enough to send that sharp jolt of spiciness to your nostrils , which might be a disappointment. For me, it was just nice, not revolting to send you weeping but just right for that spicy kick.

I think the part that both Yew Ann and I enjoyed most about dining at Maki-san would be the fun element of making your own sushi or salad (quite decent actually!), the casual atmosphere (its not too crowded too!) and the meals can be quite filling here!

Furthermore, one of the charms of Maki-san is that despite the Japanese inspired concept, the food could be enjoyed even by those who don’t like Japanese food since the choice would be yours, even signature like What’s Your Beef Salad doesn’t taste like a “Japanese” dish. (photo from Maki-san)

In Yew Ann’s words, Maki-san empowers consumer to make choices in their own meals.” Let maki-san take away all the things you don’t like you choose what you like!

Thank You Joseph for hosting and letting us try out Maki-san!

Maki-san (website)
2 Handy Road,
The Cathay #B1-17/18,
Singapore 229233

Telephone No. : 6737 8772