Ma'kai, Santa Monica

We went on Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Our first adventure.

The four of us, two married couples, have decided that living in beautiful smoggy SoCal is to be taken advantage of, culinary speaking. We have thusly dedicated ourselves to the hard chore of eating at a nice restaurant, and reviewing it, once a month.

Last night we went to Ma'kai in Santa Monica. It is self proclaimed "Hawaiian style" food. It wasn't very Hawaiian, but here's what we thought of the place.

Atmosphere: The atmosphere was good and had flares of modern design. Lit candles and soft music (although not Hawaiian) was very pleasant. The bathrooms were extremely cute in an old-tile village-ish design.

Service: We didn't like our waitress. The busboy kept reaching over us to refill our drinks and then looked at our check in front of us instead of just taking it away with the credit card. But our drinks were never left dry for too long, so it wasn't horrible.

Food: Our overall rating (1 being bad, 10 being good) is as follows:

L: 6.5
I had the Asian Chicken Soup (surprisingly rich and reminiscent of Thai soup), the Black Cod (cooked to perfection, moist to a tea but with a sauce that was too sweet), and the Molten Chocolate Cake (which was lovely). I drank water and tea. I asked for green tea. They brought me hot water and tea bags, none of which were green. Ah well. I tried some of J's spicy tuna and really liked it.

D: 7
She had the Avocado-Mango salad, which was heaven on greens. She followed this with lamb, which J and I liked, but she gagged on. She doesn't like lamb that tastes gamey. For dessert she also had the good Molten Chocolate Cake. Her drink was the Ma'kai Kiss, which was girly, but yummy and sexy with an orchid floating in it all the same. She tried the spicy tuna as well and liked it, which is rare because she doesn't like sushi.

R: 6.5
He had the House Salad (about what you'd expect), the Kobe Beef Skirt Steak with sweet potato fries. He loved it. He finished off with the Mango Ice Cream Sandwich, which nobody else wanted to try but he enjoyed. He also tried and liked the spicy tuna. Mmmm + crunch. His meal was enhanced by the Sparkling Sake.

J: 7
Started out with the Avocado-Mango salad, which was a beautiful start. He was the one who ordered the Spicy Tuna sushi, which he loved, even though it was too spicy for his bearing. His main dish was the Chilean Sea Bass, which was good but surprisingly came as a soup! He shared my Molten Chocolate Cake and liked it.

You will notice that the hirer ratings came from the people who started out with the Avocado-Mango Salad. We recommend it.

Total Cost: around $270

Overall we enjoyed the experience, but felt like it wasn't really worth the money. We probably won't be going back.