Maiko Sushi Lounge — Restaurant in Austin

Early 2025 update:

Maiko is a classy sushi joint in proper downtown. I'd say it's quite good food, but I'm not sure about the price to quality ratio. I would suggest that the prices are a little higher than the quality based on all these sushi available in town. Don't get me wrong, it's good and not a terrible value.

Personal note: I'm less fond of this place because they used to be my favorite sushi place, and then they moved from kind of West 6th area, into the middle of downtown. This transition meant the removal of the reverse happy hour menu. The prices went up dramatically.

It used to be that you could go in there for reverse happy hour as two people and get out for probably less than 50 bucks, around $40ish -- if you stuck to the reverse happy hour menu. It had drinks and sushi alike. This would mean an appetizer, a couple of rolls, and each person with a beer and shared sake. Buying the same meal there now is well over $80, More like over $100. Considering the price basically doubled, I kind of quit going there. I've only been there 2-3 times since it moved.

The move also made it more challenging to go there and park. Now parking is much more complicated and it's nearly impossible to park for free in this area.

Loss of one star for change in price to quality ratio. Bring back the reverse happy hour menu, and you'll get...

I was traveling with a group for work. There were 8 of us total. Another large group was sat after us - that group received their food before us and were able to get there check’s before us. We received our soups and salads approximately 50 minutes after placing our order. This was the first of many issues with our experience. The biggest issue to me, was that I ordered a bento box and asked to substitute the regular salad for a seaweed salad - the waitress happily made the substitution. However, when two of my work colleagues asked for substitutions, they were told you cannot make substitutions for the bento boxes (they shared this information with me after we had left the restaurant). The only difference I can tell between my friends and myself are that I am white and they were both African American. If you are wondering the race of the table that had prompt service (that I mentioned earlier in this review), you guessed it… a table of white only patrons. Very disappointed with this restaurant, their service, and their management. When the manager was told about certain issues we were having, he stated that “we were a big group.” I guess even though our party was no larger than other groups at this restaurant, we were somehow too big to receive respectful service. We will...

As the name implies, this sushi spot has a fairly fresh lounge feel to it. Part of it is dining but there’s also a bar and a sushi bar so regardless of what mood you’re in, you’ll find the right vibe for you and/or your party.

The service is amazing! We were seated promptly and our waiter was taking our order minutes after we sat down. The staff was friendly and accommodating.

It was hard to decide what to order as everything looked delicious but I did make sure to order a salmon nigiri as that’s one of my favorites. The food is reasonably priced for a sushi restaurant. I liked that they have a happy “hour” menu that lasts pretty much all day (from 3pm to close on weekdays). That’s the menu I ordered from but they have several other menus with even more options.

The sushi and nigiri itself was very well prepared, that salmon nigiri was very fresh and full of flavor. The sushi roll plus nigiri was a good amount to leave me satisfied but I was tempted to get something else.

Overall a great sushi dining experience that left me hungry for more so I’ll definitely be back here next time I’m...