Makoto - Washington DC

Makoto can be surmised as my go to place in DC for a truly spectacular meal. Throughout my time in the East it was my first choice and am happy with the decision to have gone to Makoto foregoing visits to The Inn at Little Washington, Citronele, and even Cafe Atlantico among others.

Makoto remains amongst my favorite restaurants and I still contemplate booking a flight to DC just for dinner there.

Dinner at Makoto is strictly a tasting menu done in the kaiseki style of traditional Japanese (Kyoto style) cuisine. Aside from the Super salty steak, the first cooked shrimp dish (the saltiness was adjusted in subsequent visits) and the soft shell crab overload (three straight visits getting this course was too much) every dish enjoyed here was fantastic.

There are three chefs at Makoto: the stern but fair owner/chef who prepares all the cooked dishes and tries to intimidate you for appreciating the sushi chef too much, the sushi chef who always overdid it with his highlights but was extremely charismatic, enjoyed being playful with the wasabi, and sliced the fish perfectly with great finese albeit small at times (it would still taste phenomenal), and an apprentice who would assist with the cooked dishes. If it wasn't for the stern owner who may have been jealous of the attention given to the sushi chef perhaps he could have snuck pieces of sushi more often than he did (the toro from the cheek of the tuna was a taste explosion) or allowed us to inquire to his name and chit chat more often. On one occasion there was another, older sushi chef that was quite generous with the slicing of fish especially those unforgettable monster sized pieces of toro.

The restaurant has been accurately described as a precious little jewel box in the Zagat guide. After entering and making your way down the stairs you take your shoes off, are greeted and instructed to put on slippers by the waitress and sit either at the bar or one of the four tables. The bar is the place to be. The all female waitstaff, dressed in traditional kimonos are practically invisible and handle service perfectly. On rare occasions you will witness a scolding in Japanese by the head waitress, possibly the owners wife, to a less experience waitress who did something improperly, interestingly adding to that feeling of being taken away to a special place great meals always manage to do.

In terms of the food, the fish is sublime all ingredients are top notch and would change with the seasons. Most memorable was the sushi of course (sweet shrimp, fatty tuna, yellowtail, halibut fin, scallop, flying fish roe, sea eel, sea urchin...), the persimmon with the sesame miso paste (it is so good you don't want the persimmon used as a bowl to be taken away), matsutake mushroom baked in paper (I finally realized what all the fuss was about after trying it in this preparation), cooked orange roughy, perfect noodle course at every visit and the granita for dessert is always something to look forward to. Meals here are very traditional in preparation and taste making Makoto an exemplary example of knowing what works and doing it right on every visit.

As an aside, the soft shell crab comment goes to the idea that you can have too much of a good thing because although it was always tasty, the law of diminishing returns made it so that having the crab multiple times soon after the initial visit took away from that original awe and enjoyment experienced when it was first experienced making it slightly less desirable each time thereafter.

Meals here occurred when I was living in Pennsylvania a state where Japanese/ethnic cuisine was scarce and disgusting when it was available - this included Morimoto who opened his first restaurant in the sixth borough of Philadelphia. And although meals at Morimoto weren't bad, aside from his UNI, it consistently tasted of chemicals, he really should do something about how he marinates it, the food always seemed like a carbon copy of Matsuhisa/Nobu dishes. I was also attending law school at the time and was far from my home state of California where fresh and delicious Japanese food has always been abundant making Makoto something like my home away from home and escape from the bizarro world known as South Central PA.

Sorry about the lack of pictures, I've never been a big fan of taking pictures of food, although it seems to be necessity these days. At the times I ate here picture taking was not considered as kosher as today, but even had I had a camera at the time would have feared the head chef or head waitress taking it away...

Post 1: Purpose of Kiss my Chop Blog

A work in progress listing my views and preferences related to food based on my experiences.