Mahkin Thai & Sushi — Restaurant in Huntington Beach

I don't leave 3 star reviews, it's either that I loved it, or I absolutely think a place should be shut down. I leave either 1 star or 5 star.

Customer service: If I could give this place a 10 star, I would. The staff is the most welcoming and engaging that I've ever experienced. The sushi chefs are phenomenal, they talk and laugh with you. Many other places are just there to make your dish, this place understands customer service. It's very easy to connect with people in this restaurant. At one point, it was last call, a customer asks how long until she can't order anymore. The chef goes, "I'll give you ten seconds.. 10.. 9.. 8.." we all started laughing lol, knowing that he was just joking.

One other time, a customer asked what is good there and what they should try, one chef says, "We have baby seal if you'd like to try." The whole bar started cracking up (again knowing it's a joke.......). It's places like this, that bring people together for the better.

It is a family owned restaurant and they do their absolute best. The restaurant is not too big, but it is warm and always smells amazing, doesn't get too loud, and I believe that the size it just perfect. Any bigger and it wouldn't be the same environment, any smaller and again, it wouldn't be the same.

If you're looking for a place to have a great, fun time and talk to people, this is the place. The sushi bar seats 6 people. The staff are always walking around, so it is not difficult to wave someone down and ask for something. They are always right on it and will get what you need with pleasure. Anyways.... I could go on and on about how I love their service.

Food: WARNING: THIS IS AUTHENTIC THAI FOOD, AS THE NAME OF THE RESTAURANT STATES.

Some people, man, they don't understand that thai style tends to be very spicy..

It's like getting mad at an authentic Mexican restaurant for putting jalapeños in your dish when you asked for it to be authentic and spicy. Or better yet, it's like getting mad at a bar for serving alcohol.

I have never been to Thailand, however.... I have eaten food made by Thai people that I know personally. So I have an idea of what it's supposed to taste like. I've gone to many Thai restaurants and this one is by far my favorite. Many other restaurants aim to please the Americans by making everything much sweeter. This is not the case here. If you want Thai style, this is your place, (of course you can always ask them to tone it down a notch, or make it not spicy at all. After all, you are the customer.)

I ate the roasted duck salad, and the papaya salad with raw wild blue crab. One employee gave me a bowl of rice, but dared me to not eat it, to see if I could handle. I pulled through, but it took a while lol.

The fish is all VERY fresh. It's like they just went fishing that day or something. When they make your sushi, they make it with love. Some sushi places ive gone to, just throw some things together and roll it up then serve it. Not this place. The sushi chefs know what they're doing and take the time to perfect it. The rolls don't fall apart and are not filled with rice in order to fill you up.

Again... I could go on and on, but this review is getting long and I think you'd get the point by now. Like I said, I only leave extreme reviews. If I feel the place deserves a review, I'll leave it. Im not a yelper, but when it's necessary, I'll yelp.

See you soon Mahkin. Keep up the amazing...

I found this place by looking for "best sushi near me" this Friday evening hoping for a great meal to end the week. It was the 1st restaurant that showed up organically in Yelp which was the #1 result Google deemed as a proper website result for this search.

Well...

I ordered 3 dishes. I was hoping maybe I could use one for tomorrow to save a trip going out and getting more food. I got their spicy crunchy roll, their pad thai with chicken and pineapple fried rice (with beef) -- I know, you're thinking "pineapple in fried rice!?" Well, you're probably in the same group who thinks pineapple doesn't belong on pizza. So, we'll save that debate for some reddit thread.

I was famished. It was early, but I was hoping for a very filling dinner. So, I was going to eat 2 of these tonight. I dove into the roll first hoping for something light, but hopefully tasty.

Well...

It was ok. I've had better. Honestly, it's just a tad better than supermarket sushi and it made me wonder why google is so bad (and yelp as well) at giving us results of places that possibly don't belong at the top. This place got 271 perfect 5 star reviews on yelp.

The place is nice -- the ambience appeared great. The location is pretty awesome -- close to the beach. The people were very friendly and the service was good. It was exactly on time as they said.

However, the most important thing is taste and the food. Unfortunately, it's not at the top of what I had.

I finished it off pretty quickly - the roll, that is -- and opened up the pad thai. I was surprised. The portion was quite small. I don't know if it's inflation even tho the prices were close to what I'm seeing these days for individual take out dishes, but I was sad that I might not be as full as I had hoped.

And then I took a bite...

It smelled and tasted a tad off. I think it tasted like the grounded peanuts in a bad way, but I couldn't tell. There was a bad smell to it like too much fish or oyster sauce. Regardless, it wasn't even like almost every pad thai dish I've ever ordered from the hundreds of thai restaurants I've eaten at over the years. I'll be able to finish it off, but I wish it could have been at least standard.

I'm hoping the fried rice impresses me tomorrow. If so, I'll come back and edit this.

OK, small update: I did like the fried rice. It was the best of the 3 dishes. However, again, the portion was so small. I literally gulped it down in a few bites. I hope for future customers' sakes that they increase the sizes. Then again, they've been o.k. on Yelp for quite a while so this might not happen.

I hate to write anything critical, but hopefully, this helps them maintain their glowing reviews and hopefully, it makes other future...

Hello Guys 🤠

I have many reviews to share. Just I was very busy this last 3 months, but I am back to my daily routine.

I was in Huntington Beach today. I was craving for Thai food. A good Thai food to warm my day and belly!!! 😋

I just step in this new restaurant call Mah Kin. They just open recently 4 month ago and I was very happy to find a cool restaurant on Downtown Huntington Beach.

🗣I spoke with the owner and I was telling him, how good his food was.

👥My friend and I enjoy a lot this restaurant. Nice service as well.

🤵🏻‍♀️The waitress was very knowledgeable and friendly. Her name is Melinda. I really enjoy engage with her. Almost the time, she was checking on us. Making sure we had what we ask. Etc…

🥗What I eat on my visit - Papaya Salad with blue crab and wild. For entree I ate coconut shrimp soup.

🍵This soup is fenomenal and very taste. They add those tiny mushrooms 🍄 white.?!

5⭐️- The soup was in my opinion the top 5 extra plus.

👴🏻My friend ate L- vegetable delight FH fancy name for CHICKEN WITH TERIYAKI SAUCE /VEGETABLE AND SALAD 😂👍🏻

🍶I drink Nigori sake unfiltered - very cloudy ☁️ Very delicious but if you don’t drive. ⚠️ The bottle was so cute I ask with after I drink if I can have the empty bottle.

🧻🚽The bathroom was very nice and clean. Just a little difficult to a extra toilet paper, but I found it inside the bathroom Cabinet. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I found myself very happy with my choices to eat.

⛔️ Let me tell you a little bit about the papaya Salad:

🥗 This salad is very unique. If you don’t like raw crab don’t ordered. The flavor is strong and spice in the same time. Very exotic salad!!!

❌Don’t risk eat this salad if you not absolutely sure you like raw blue crab.

💳How much I pay for two people: $67,88.

🚗 Parking lot - exactly on the back the restaurant has a nice one. You probably will pay between $6-$10 dollars depends how long you will stay, but the parking lot is safe and have public bathrooms 🚽 on the first floor.

🆘 NOT a Ritz Hotel but you can use if you really...