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Makani

Makani: Cairo Restaurant Chain Introduces the ‘Sushi Burrito’

  • 47, Michel Bakhoum St.
  • Coffee Places,Fast Food,Sushi
  • 8am - 2am -
reviewed by
Ramy Soliman
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Makani: Cairo Restaurant Chain Introduces the ‘Sushi Burrito’

Cairo has gone a long way from assuming the days of sporting looks of bemusement at the concept of raw fish delicacy sushi – all the way to becoming a city of sushi addicts. And because Cairo’s sushi craze is as strong as it has ever been, many Cairo restaurants have come to adding sushi to their menus –see Casper & Gambini and the Edward’s, for example.

There has been little news from the world of sushi, however, that has had people talking quite as much as Makani's recently launched Sushi Burrito.

Existing as two-storey restaurant located in Michele Bakhoum Street, Makani's Dokki branch shares the same building with El Sit Hosneya. The ground floor boasts an oriental ambiance and interior befitting El Sit Hosneya’s Egyptian cuisine concept, while the upper floor rather has casual ahwa feel, with orange, green and brown colours in the flooring and ceiling and wooden chairs, as well as concealed sushi bar which involves a cosier Japanese mood with projected glass trays on the tables for an easy sharable sushi experience.      

This, however, is all a side-note to what we came for. As a concept, the sushi burrito was created by founder of San Francisco-based Sushirrito, Peter Yen, as a fusion of Asian and Latin Flavours. Sushirrito offers eight types of sushi burritos merging ginger guacamole, blue corn chips and shaved Jalapeño along with the Asian ingredients.

Makani’s sushi burrito, however, takes on a simpler approach that keeps the Asian flavours while cutting the sushi roll in half, without sealing the edges and wrapping it like a burrito.      

Wrapped in a sheet of Nori, the Crispy Shrimp Sushi Burrito (74LE) was filled with shrimp tempura, cream cheese, rice and teriyaki sauce; only we didn’t feel the presence of teriyaki at all and the little amount of shrimp tempura left us feeling like we were just eating a rice and cream cheese sandwich. Served in a simple wooden box, the burrito was poorly wrapped and, overall, poorly executed.

Spicy Salmon Sushi Burrito (70LE), on the other hand, was definitely more visually appealing and generally better executed. Even though the pickled ginger was too strong, the burrito was bursting with the flavours of the mango which worked really well with the spicy kick from the volcano and wasabi sauces, while the salmon was noticeably fresh.

We were as intrigued as anyone to try Makani’s sushi burrito, though the quality of flavours were inconsistent and it was a far cry from what the ‘original’ sushi burrito is, essentially coming as a big sushi roll cut in half. But with the promise shown in the spicy salmon burrito – who knows where this new concept could go.

360 Tip

You can enjoy your sushi while your sushi hater friend orders from El Sit Hosneya's menu.

Best Bit

The idea is pretty novel.

Worst Bit

The execution was off.

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