Makotos Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi — Restaurant in Melbourne

When you go into Makoto's you get struck by the nice traditional feeling of a typical Japanese restaurant with nice quality booths and tables and the like. You can seat yourself anywhere you want which I think is very nice. The food was out fairly quickly considering it was a restaurant. The problem arose when I ate the food. One it was very expensive, which one can overlook if the quality was there. This however I felt was not the case. I got my fried rice with teriyaki chicken and the flavor was alright but nothing special. I put some yum yum sauce to drizzle over it to make it a bit more flavorful and it was better. But another problem arose when I took a couple more bites of the food. My sense of hunger I had before was gone. And I was left with a whole plate of food I couldn't eat. This I suspect was not cause I couldn't physically take anymore food in, but because they put a bunch of MSG in their food. A bit of salt and a bunch of sugar aswell. I would eat a bite of the rice which was fairly salty but not too much and then I'd try eating a carrot and it was sweeter than a cake. The service was nice and on point about getting our drinks refilled and such but the one thing they slipped up on was they gave us a fork and a set of chopsticks but not a knife or a spoon. And the Sushi and Nagiri I got in my combo was really nothing too special. I could've gotten the same if not better quality sushi anywhere else in Melbourne Florida. Not bad just average. That's what I...

I’m not a hibachi fan, so this review is about my experience in the lounge/sushi areas. I love the quality of the food here, and am especially a fan of the Philadelphia roll because the fish is super tender. I also loved the baked seafood avocado appetizer. What I’m not crazy about is the service, so I more often than not order the food from here to go. In the few times that I’ve dined in, the service has been extremely slow (even when the restaurant wasn’t busy). On one visit our server was condescending towards my sister, who requested a substitution for one of her sides. On my most recent visit, our server (different person) greeted us I unenthusiastically and did not refill our water until our glasses were totally empty. She also dropped off the check and took over ten minutes to pick it back up. We were under the impression that she was tired and potentially overworked. She checked on our table so infrequently that it probably added over 20 minutes to our visit. Since I love the food here so much, I will continue ordering it as takeout, but I’m hesitant to dine in again.

Updating this review to say that I did recently dine in again and found that the service was better, but that the restaurant is in need of some updates. There is a real dingy feeling in the sushi bar now and I think the old carpet may be to blame. The food is still good, but I will definitely not be dining in again...

What an absolute dumpster fire Makato's Steakhouse was from start to finish. We showed up ready for a nice steak dinner, but quickly realized this place was completely in over their heads. After being seated, we entered a bizarro world time warp where we had to wait AN ENTIRE HOUR for a chef to even show up. just slowly descending into madness watching the small team of servers run around like lunatics trying to stay afloat.

When the chef finally arrived at our table, we thought salvation was near. But oh no, the nightmare was only just beginning. The steaks arrived blazing hot...because they were carbonized straight through to the center. These poor slabs of meat had been abused, neglected, and crying for the sweet release of death. The veggie medley might as well have been nuked Lean Cuisine leftovers, and the fried rice was an amorphous, slimy blob I wouldn't feed to my worst enemy.

The only semi-positive thing I can say is the servers weren't actually rude, just overwhelmed and trapped in hospitable purgatory. But forced smiles don't make up for a complete inability to execute even the most basic restaurant competencies. For the premium prices, the entire experience was an overpriced insult to my taste buds. I'd sooner drink a mop bucket than ever return to Makato's. Save yourself and find an establishment that doesn't actively seem to hate its...