Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2002 | 8:21 a.m.
An ever-growing number of Nevadans are eating sushi, so it's inevitable such places as Makino, Todai and Blue Wave have become part of the landscape. All three serve extensive buffets that revolve around huge trays of all-you-can-eat sushi.
But all three are different, and each one has its charms.
Blue Wave
4300 E. Sunset Road
Blue Wave Seafood Restaurant is the new kid on the block, and fills a much-needed niche in Green Valley. As a result of the novelty and the fine quality of what is served, the restaurant is doing land-office business.
Try to get a window table by the relaxing display of falling water. New-age piano music will be tinkling softly on the sound system. This is a large, white space with granite topped tables stocked with elegant glass pitchers of soy sauce.
The setup is one long buffet line, starting with salads, working through hot dishes (mostly Japanese and Chinese dishes) and ending up at sushi. That's a strange configuration, only in the sense that most people eat sushi, which is normally served cold, before hot foods.
The quality and variety are most impressive. Salads are a strong suit, especially a shrimp and bean sprout salad that tastes like spring, and a fine calamari salad.
Hot dishes include crisp shrimp and vegetable tempura, shu mai, (steamed pork dumplings) and pan-fried Japanese noodles.
The huge sushi selection has many hand rolls, including a delicious spicy tuna roll with real bite, a crisp salmon skin roll and an avocado and masago (smelt roe) hand roll.
There are at least two dozen types of regular sushi as well.
Save room for made-to-order udon noodle soup and grilled seafood pancakes, which are ordered from a special station. Some evenings there's prime rib and even grilled Pacific lobster, a real bargain.
The dessert station is also well stocked, with crunchy cookies, little squares of strawberry mousse cake and macaroons. The lunch price for all this, $11.75, is an absolute steal.
Lunch: 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily, $11.75 weekdays, $13.75 Saturdays and Sundays. Dinner: 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. nightly, $20.75 weekdays, $22.75 Saturdays and Sundays.
Makino
3965 S. Decatur Blvd.
Makino is housed on a site formerly used by a French cafe and bakery. It's a cheerful place, decorated with paper dolphins and painted in nautically themed colors. Makino is also the name of the owner, who started this concept in California under the name Todai before moving to Vegas.
Ironically, Todai is a huge chain today, and the new Las Vegas Todai is one of 14 scattered around the country. If you come for lunch, you should know going in that the restaurant won't be serving sea urchin, snow crab legs or the huge prawns that star on the dinner buffet.
But at $12.95 most weekdays, this is one of the city's best lunch bargains. Almost everything you eat is prepared just before it lands on your plate.
Makino is cavernous, one huge room with tables situated on both sides of a huge buffet area. Seating is casual, at tables topped with op art blue-and-yellow laminated wood. A hostess leads you to your table, a waitress takes your drink order and then you're on your own.
The sushi section is where thousands of pieces are created and consumed on a daily basis. The sushi is quite good and plentiful, thanks to a cadre of sushi makers who constantly replenish the trays. Nigiri, the traditional type of sushi where mounds of rice are topped with fish, eggs or vegetables, are fine.
Unagi, or sea eel, is served on small mounds of rice wrapped up by nori seaweed. Save enough room for the hot section, stocked with dishes like teriyaki chicken, fried rice, fried noodles and a variety of baked and sauteed seafood.
Tempura, or batter-dipped fish and vegetables, don't hold their light, crisp texture under the glare of a buffet table's heat lamp. The results are unpleasantly heavy.
All in all, Makino offers a good deal, but the dessert section could use more work.
Lunch: 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fridays and Sundays, $12.95.
Dinner: 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays, 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m Sundays, $20.95 (Fridays through Sundays add $1 to all buffet prices).
Todai
Inside Desert Passage at Aladdin
This is the giant of the industry at the moment, with 14 branches and more to come, in such places as Hawaii and the East Coast.
The Desert Passage location is huge, bright and gaudy, with blue lacquered tables embossed with a Pac-Man-like caricature emerging out of a slot machine, plastic fish suspended from the ceiling, and the smell of soy sauce and fresh fish permeating the air.
The selection here is staggering: 40 kinds of sushi, a hand-roll corner, a udon and ramen soup station, dozens of salads, more than 20 desserts, freshly made crepes, lobster, snow crab legs, cocktail shrimp, and scallops on the half shell. And, the quality is quite good.
Hot dishes are kept in steam-table trays, but they are prevented from losing heat by ingenious looking plastic bubble tops, which have a space in them to make it easy for a guest to perform self-service.
Spicy fish are fried smelts rubbed with a bit of chili oil, an addictive snack. Lemon chicken has a nice crunch and a tasty breading. Steamed salmon is cut into manageable, bite-sized squares, tastes fresh and is nicely prepared.
Some of the best sushi include ikura (salmon egg), anago (sea eel) and uni (sea urchin.) Of the three sushi buffets, Todai, Japanese for "lighthouse," has the best desserts.
The cheesecake, in little squares, is rich and delicate, the cream puffs and fruit tarts bakery worthy, and the almond cookies perfect.
Lunch: 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily, $14.95 weekdays, $16.95 weekends.
Dinner: 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; $25.95 Sundays through Thursdays, $27.95 Fridays and Saturdays.
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