Maki

Of the three times I’ve been here I’ve never had anything but an impeccable experience. The atmosphere is always pleasant for dinner (it might be a bit dark for lunch but I can’t be sure) — and I’ve always been greatly satisfied by the food.
My partner and I have been to Japan a few times and it can sometimes be a struggle to find Japanese food of similar quality in the UK. Maki, however, is one of those that matches the high standard set. The food isn’t overcomplicated and the fish really hits the right spot.
I always sit at the bar, just because we like watching the sushi chef at work and drooling (not literally) over the slabs of fish. While mostly I just have sushi, the tempura is also good and the black cod dish is a luxury but a real delicate treat.
Maki provides fantastic authentic cuisine, with quick and efficient service. What more do you need?

Unreasonable price. Smallest portions. Use old oils in their tempura. Mandatory service charge. #NeverAgain

Dinner night/​Date night out to Maki was a treat. Started off with hot saki, perfect in-​between of dry and sweet. We had the Waygu beef roll for dinner. Worth the price as it was excellent quality and great presentation. Will be coming back

Absolutely love this restaurant. I’ve been twice for birthdays now and it is always amazing food. My favourite is the duck sushi rolls, I think we ordered about four plates of those. I recommend it to all.

Great selection of bento boxes. Had their chicken katsu for dinner — generous portions. Downed it with a green tea — cup is huge, it was more like a «bowl of tea». Not complaining. Shared the tempura platter with the wife — crispy fragrant batter. Stole some of wife’s teriyaki chicken when she went to wash her hands — really good chicken, quite enjoyed the crispy batter outside the chicken pieces.
Ordered takeaway a few weeks later. Don’t get the eel. Really small portion and overdone. I would stick with their chicken dishes.

Popped in for Sunday lunch. Great atmosphere, service, and food. Would go back again.

Update: Their hygiene rating has dropped to 2 after their inspection last month!!! Yikes!

I love bento. You get your yummy Japanese rice with grilled protein with yummy crack sauce and veggies on the side. So simple yet so good. Bento boxes? Even better. You get even more sides to pair with all the goodies mentioned. I guess you can say bento boxes are like comfort foods to me.
When I first moved here, I tried Tokyo Diner in Chinatown and was not impressed (aside from their feature of upgrading to a bigger size at no charge, that’s awesome). However, Maki’s chicken teriyaki bento is fantastic. Instead of traditional charboiled or grilled chicken breast (or thighs), they dip the chicken pieces in batter, fry it lightly and then put the crack sauce (teriyaki sauce… I do love my sauces) on top of the chicken. Delicious. Pair it with the bento rice and it turns into a dangerous combo — meaning I can’t stop eating it even when I get full. Can one die from eating too much teriyaki chicken and rice?
I also ordered their assorted veggie tempura, and it was just as good. Lightly battered veggies with great dipping sauce. Goes great with rice.
For 1.50 quid you get a HUGE steaming cup of green tea to wash everything down.
I will be back. However, please be aware of the «optional» 12.5% service charge that they automatically add to your total. If you do takeaway, it’s 10% off your order.

Walked here after a day at Kew Garden. (About a 15 minute walk from the gate.) Good food in a nice atmosphere.

Very good food at a very reasonable price! Tuna Teriyaki was amazing!

I had lunch here recently and would have to give them top marks for the quality of food and the service. I was a bit worried at first due to the lack of customers but was surprised will a superb lunch. Will be back here again when I am in Richmond and fancy Sushi.

Pretty good Japanese. I’d recommend it (along with Tosa on King’s Street Hammersmith) if you’re looking for good Japanese in the area.

I order take away from here every week for my sushi fix. The nigiri and rolls are great. I do wish the cuts were more generous, but I have been spoiled from living in California.

We came here for the lunch special, which is a pretty good deal — main course + miso soup for £7.90. I got the chicken katsu curry over rice. The chicken was very good quality. It didn’t feel overfried and the chicken itself was very tender. They have a very good selection of mains — it’s not just sushi. They have various noodle dishes and meat dishes.
Ambiance is nice but not spectacular. I am Korean, but it wasn’t obvious to me that the wait staff was all Korean, as a previous reviewer commented. (I usually notice other Korean people.)
I would say this is a very nice place for families in the area to get some good quality Japanese food, but not exactly a destination restaurant for singles going on dates or for foodies living outside of Richmond. I’d ideally like to give it 3.5 stars — it’s 4 stars for families who live in Richmond and 3 stars for single people looking for interesting date spots.

«Itadakimasu.» = Let’s eat. Oh Yeah!
I have been here a few times, and on the first occasion it was more of an interactive lesson for my Japanese class. We were all eager to try out our newly acquired food ordering phrases, but unfortunately all the staff were Korean! But that didn’t stop us talking amongst ourselves!
I was very impressed that on their drinks menu they had Calpis. («The beverage has a light, somewhat milky, and slightly acidic flavor, similar to plain or vanilla-​flavored yogurt or Yakult. Its ingredients include water, nonfat dry milk and lactic acid, and is produced by lactic acid fermentation»). Wikipedia doesn’t do it justice. It’s delicious. Trust me!
They had a great selection of bento boxes on offer as part of the lunch menu, so i got teriyaki chicken and it was darn tasty!
On my last visit, me and my friend ordered lots of little dishes and shared it all… including some vegetable tempura, deep fried aubergine, dumplings, miso soup, Korroke and chicken katsu. It was all so good!

I’m Japanese, and I was impressed by the delicious food I had there the other day. It was a Saturday afternoon, yet it was almost completely empty. I couldn’t believe it! True, it’s not extremely cheap, but the people are really polite and friendly, the atmosphere Japanesey, and the delicious food. What more need I say. If you do stroll nearby, I think this is the place you should go.

My favourite new restaurant in Kew/​Richmond!
Have always been a big fan of sushi, and was very impressed by the quality of the food at Maki. Some great variations to traditional japanese dishes (the Dragon Roll is a must), and even classics like the bento box offer generous portions with great flavour. The service is fantastic, and for some extra fun be sure to sit at one of the sunken tatami tables.
Took a couple of ‘sushi-​virgins’ there recently and they loved it too, so would definitely recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Absolutely Fantastic!
All four of us loved it. What a refreshing change.
A perfect combination of superb food, great ambience and friendly service.
Keep it up!

I don’t have a long review but I just wanted to say that this place is fantastic and a really wonderful addition to the restaurants around Richmond and Twickenham.
It has a really relaxed atmosphere with friendly and helpful staff.
The food was fantastic with really nice fresh fish and well made sushi.
I also really liked the seating which had sunken seating arrangment around to table.
Overall it was fantastic and I already intend to talk my workmates into going there for lunch later this week (There was lunch special Bento box for £6.95 which looks very good value)
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Only opened a couple of weeks ago in a spot across the road from some well established restaurants on Kew Road. We were lucky to get a seat as we hadn’t booked, but obviously the residents of Richmond were desperate to see what the new sushi place was like.
Overall it was very good. We had a lot of well prepared and cut sushi to start with and then all decided to go for bento boxes — between us we had chicken, tempura prawn, and salmon. The miso soup was as you’d expect — I can’t really rave about miso soup.
The salmon was cooked really well and the accompanying salads, seaweed and pickles were balanced.
The only downer was that it was so new they didn’t have the dessert menu ready when we were there as we were looking forward to trying some green tea sorbet or some other bean based Japanese dessert.
A highlight of the night was trying to get out of the sunken seating with some sense of elegance. It’s not possible specially after a cup or two of saki.