Maki Express

Food is not fresh at all… Couldn’t even finish my meal because of the quality. Restaurant is small with 2 guys in the back walking around doing nothing.

Sad. Used to be a great little spot but each time I go in it gets worse. Today, two jokers behind the counter, loud and yelling back and forth. Spicy crunchy roll was neither, seaweed salad was not right at all. It was sour instead of having a sesame soy dressing.
Probably my last trip. Bento across the street is much better.

My wife and I love Maki. The rolls are consistently high quality and the tempura is perfect. They also have the best Ramen I have found locally. I highly recommend it. The place has like one of two tables so plan for take out. It is well worth it.

This is really great Sushi place. I was surprised with their selection on Sushi Rolls. Negiri and maki also some appetizer offers salad, edamame, shumai and more. Yeah… everything for everyone. I a bit concerned with my diet so I had two kind of salad on my meal; ginger salad which flesh veggie with well balance ginger dressing with almonds and wakame seaweed salad. Then my entrees I chose fried tofu Negiri and tobiko. Great taste. Maki, I had roll with cucumber wrap tuna with avocado and miso sauce. The miso sauce a little too sweet for me but texture and produce are so melt up delicious. Another Maki I ordered was salmon tempura roll. They deep fried the whole roll crispy with tangy sweet tempura sauce. It was really well treat. Recommend to try!!!

Best quality sushi in Clifton! The owners are extremely friendly and always providing great service. Highly recommend this restaurant over any other sushi restaurants in Clifton!

Wow — don’t let this humble place fool you. The sushi is artfully crafted and simply delicious. Very welcoming staff with obvious pride in their dishes. Haven’t tried the delivery service but now plan to try it soon. Sounds ridiculous to say that this is the Best sushi I’ve had in Cincinnati but — as others reviewers have said — it really is. Enjoy.

It is Not fresh ！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！Bad！！！！！！Bad！！！！Bad！！！！Bad！！！！Bad！！！！Bad！！！！Bad！！！！Bad！！！！

They deliver sushi! This is awesome!
I wish their maki wasn’t as expensive though. Drunken Bento across the street has half price rolls, but Maki Express has some unique rolls and way better selection. The seating area is not comfortable at all and tiny, but other than that, really good sushi and great delivery! And they will make the sushi vegan for you using tofu and almond based sauces! Wonderful experience! They also have an option for rice paper and soy paper instead of seaweed. They have lunch hour specials too!

I love this place very much! Katsu-​don is quite yummy. Also their raw salmon is awesome.

The best sushi you’ll find near Clifton. It’s a little pricier than the rest, but the quality is so much better. It’s completely worth every penny. The owner and the rest of the employees are friendly, great people.

How do you say ridiculously AWESOME in Japanese?

I’ve grown up eating sushi my entire life, and sometimes I get this hankering to eat copious amounts of it, despite the fact that I have no money and should probably be spending what I do have on things like school supplies. But I digress. One time, I was struck by one of these cravings, and decided to try Maki Express. To put it briefly, it was terrible. The fish wasn’t fresh at all, (it almost tasted dry???) the prices weren’t worth it, and the rolls looked sad, small, and unappetizing.
To be fair, I probably have higher standards than most as far as sushi goes. After living in Japan for 10-​ish years, I guess I’ve been spoiled by good sushi. That being said, I have had good sushi on this side of the Pacific, and even by America standards, this was pretty bad. I probably won’t return to Maki Express, especially when Drunken Bento is right across the street and open late.

Decent sushi.

We went on a Friday night with our boys and ordered edamame, gyoza, age tofu, crab tempura, and sushi. Sushi — California roll, sweet heart roll (tempura sweet potato roll with crab), Heartbeat roll (shrimp tempura, crabstick, avocado, asparagus, and hot sauce with tuna and crunchy flakes), and Generator roll (shrimp tempura, crab tempura, asparagus tempura, avocado and masago topped with white fish and seracha sauce). Overall, the taste was good with some creative rolls.
As a plus, you can take the rolls next door to Mac’s so you can drink beer with your sushi!

I love this place. I normally get the Miso soup, but being July, it is too hot for it. So I decided to try this «Squid salad». OMG. It is amazing. It is a new favorite.
I also get the Rainbow roll (I substitute cream cheese for the cucumber) and it’s always great.
The only reason I am not giving this place 5 stars is because the lack of adequate heating/​AC. There are four tables and if you eat there in the winter, it is freezing. And if you eat there in the summer, it’s too hot. I just get it to go and eat it at home for dinner.

Update:
This place has the freshest fish I’ve found of the small-​shop-​sushi. I go out of my way now to come here: read– this is my favorite spot for sushi now!
A decent, affordable and cozy sushi shop. There are specials on certain days (call shop for details). I even had some eel here… and it was tasty. You’ll have to park on the street, but their prices can’t be beat.

This place is great! The food is delicious, quick and inexpensive.
I would recommend ordering carryout because the restaurant is small and the service is just so-​so. I also was freeeeezing to death in there. I was so cold I had to leave my coat on for most of the meal. I ordered hot tea and it took an awful long time to get to me.
They had so many unique kinds of rolls that it made it super difficult to choose. I ended up choosing a couple of the spicier rolls, which I enjoyed. I did end up having to scrape some of the spicy mayo concoction off the top because it overpowered the rest of the roll.
I absolutely would recommend giving this place a try. It’s definitely better than some of the competing «half-​price» places around town. The rolls don’t need to be half price here, because the most expensive thing on the menu is $ 11.95.
If you like sushi and you aren’t independently wealthy, this is probably your best choice!

Maki Express is an exceptional little restaurant that cares greatly about it’s quality of food as well as it’s customers. I well definitely go back again!
I suggest the spicy tuna roll and the california roll.

Let me start by saying that I LOOOVE SUSHI! I work with it, I eat a lot of it, and I know how to tell its quality. From that standpoint, I am stating here, in no uncertain way, that Maki Express is terrible. There are no exceptions or conditions by which it is not terrible. This isn’t up for discussion. Don’t come here.
I feel I might be too frustrated to write a proper review, so I’m just going to share my experience, and let the reader judge.
I don’t know why, but I was REALLY craving sushi after work today. So, I just looked up the closest place and ordered. That’s where the trouble started.
I went to their site to look up the menu for a carry-​out order, and a smooth jazz song started playing. I actually liked that song… until I realized there was no way to stop it from playing, and that it played on every single page. I would have turned it down, but my favorite song was playing on Pandora and I sorta wanted to hear my song AND order sushi, which I think is a very reasonable request.
I ended up ordering something I didn’t actually want because the song was getting to me. I got a a Spicy Tuna Roll, a Philly Roll, and a Sweet-​Potato Tempura Roll. Those are three you can’t really mess up. I walked in and found that there is a $ 15 minimum to pay with a card. My order came out to $ 14.75, and I had to go to an ATM. I didn’t mind the ATM fee because I was still excited to have that sushi, so no big loss there.
Things went south when I started eating though. I opened the bag and there was a little less than a half-​dollop of soy sauce for all three of my rolls. I opened the box, and there were 18 pieces of the saddest looking sushi staring back at me. They didn’t even use fresh tuna ground for the spicy tuna. The sweet potato looked old, and the Philly Roll was mediocre. All I could think was «I paid $ 15 for that?» when I was done.
In summary: overpriced, terrible quality. Save yourself the trouble and don’t waste your money here.

Sushi is a scary thing for many people. «Raw fish??? No thank you!» is a response I’ve gotten from friends and acquaintances before. For those that get over their fears, it’s a well documented fact that sushi is probably the best thing in the world. It’s also known among sushi lovers that the search for the best sushi in an area is long and rigorous and sometimes never-​ending.
Maki Express is one of the best places I’ve had sushi in Cincinnati at this point. Tucked away on W. McMillan, Maki Express has won several awards from local weekly magazines for offering the best sushi in town even though its humble set up of four tables wouldn’t lead one to believe so. A full menu of different sushi options can leave one a little bewildered at first glance, but the staff there is helpful if you have questions. Still, if you’re a first-​time sushi eater, here’s a sample menu to help you have a good experience.
Appetizer:
Edamame — Edamame are heated soy beans with salt sprinkled over them, a great start to any meal.
GInger salad — A fairly traditional salad with a delicious ginger dressing over it. Great if you want something a little more familiar.
Sushi:
Spicy Tuna Tempura — These rolls are a great place to start because they have a spicy mayonnaise and are deep-​fried so you don’t have to start off raw.
Tamago Nagiri — This is an egg sushi that is just egg laid over sushi rice, tied on with a piece of seaweed. Again, no raw fish to ease you in.
Tuna Roll — The tuna roll is probably the easiest place to start with raw fish. It’s not too fishy, yet you can discover that eating raw fish won’t, in fact, kill you.
Just a few suggestions to get started on a very large menu, but once you get started you’ll find yourself wondering how that eel roll tastes, and whether squid is as chewy as everyone says. You won’t find a better place to go for a first experience.