Makino Chaya

We visited Makino Chaya for lunch on Saturday for my moms surprise birthday gathering. Our reservations was at 11:30. We got their at around 11:10 and asked if we could set up simple centerpiece sand favors. We were told that only 4 people could come in. There were some of our party guests already there and the receptionist wouldn’t allow them to be seated.
We set up and was quickly finished around 11:20. I had asked the waiter Matthew if our guest could start to be seated since the birthday girl would be arriving at 11:30…he graciously allowed them too.
Buffet item selections are not as much as dinner of course and price is $ 19.99 for adults! Everyone seemed to enjoy the food. Our waiter Matthew was really nice and helpful! I’d give them a four star rating if the receptionist let our guest be seated when they arrived rather than having to wait until 11:20. And they also forgot to give me my $ 100 deposit so now I have to make a trip from Waianae to go get it! Had it not been for this if give them a 4.

Food quality is very poor. Handling of hot and cold foods is very questionable. Ambiance is very dark, but not because it is a high-​end restaurant.
it is continuing a death spiral to oblivion. So sad, because it was once really good and worth the money.

What happened to this place? Yes prices did drop and $ 15 dollars for lunch is really reasonable. Maybe a little to reasonable. Because the quality of the food and the service has dropped with the prices. We went there for lunch and most of their fish products were either dried out or just bones. The rice was under cooked and the shrimp tempura kept running out and while we waited the worker refilling them gave us this look like we were bothering him. Except for the greeter and the desert girl the rest of the staff were very unfriendly. The waitress asked us if we wanted refills on our drinks and after replying yes we never saw her again. Normally the strategy for buffets like this is to keep you drinking so you fill up.
Owners if you are reading this, my suggestion is to raise prices but with the premise to raise standards in your food and hire better workers. Because this will be our last time going there until we hear different.

Don’t take anything they say at face value.
We called a week in advance — so on Monday, and we asked if there would be king crab legs on Sunday. They said yes. I called again on Wednesday to reschedule, and asked /​again/​if there would be king crab legs, they said yes. My friend also called, because seriously the only reason we decides to go makino chaya was because of the king crab legs. They said yes once more. We get there and they had lobsters. The direct quote was, ’ it’s one or the other, we don’t sell both on one day,’ but that was only annoying. Then we order the lobster and it’s burnt, the entrails were still there — so the poop and stuff, not to mention it was rubbery. But again, that’s only an annoyance.
Instead of King crab, there was snow crab. I like snow crab but you work so hard for nothing. The gross thing was, that there was a hair in my crab. A very curly hair.
For eight people, the bill came out to $ 328. Gratuity is added, which is annoying considering the waiters and waitresses aren’t very attentive to their customers. There seemed like a lot of help, but there were barely anyone around the tables. I would think, 15 percent would have a lot more customer service than that. But, eh, that’s my opinion. Plus, the drinks were $ 3.25 each. So three drinks came out to $ 10.50.
Then, we decided to split the bill in sevens. But when we go up, this lady barely looks at me and straight up tells me, «we can’t split it that much. Only in half,» now that wouldn’t normally bother me cause I get it, company policy. But the way she was acting, like I wasn’t worth looking up at — she didn’t look at me at all — and wasn’t worthy of her time. This is to the white lady with the blonde hair who worked today at dinner time. Try to smile a little. Or a lot. And add a genuine sorry I can’t help you with that. Or something. It doesn’t help that a few minutes later, a different lady helped us and split our receipt into seven individual slips. So she could do it — thank you to the brunettes working the register — but the blonde lady couldn’t.
This review is choppy and skips a lot, but I’m just so frustrated and this is the last time I’m eating there.

Okay, First off I’d just like to say that this isn’t the first time I’ve eaten here. This place would geniuly be a place to look forward to, to eat at. Especially if its chosen to hold a get together. The fact that the food was horrible, the customer service was horrible, and the bill was outrageous and so not worth what we received, makes me want to never want to return again. My friend made reservations in advance and asked if they were going to have king crab, they said yes, she called back a few days later to add people to our reservations, and asked again, they said yes. I called to SPECIFICALLY ask if they had king crab they said yes which was the ONLY reason we went to buy scissors. What did we get? Lobsters. Not bad right? No. Small pathetic lobsters that looked like they were chopped in half alive, thrown in the fryer, and served. Intestines and and all. Appetizing? I think not.
However, we decided oh wells let’s just eat the snow crab that was there. Two things: 1) these crab legs barely any meat within them or NONE at all. And 2) there was a hair on my friends crab legs that honestly made us wonder how much hairs we had eaten from any other dish that may have been served by the same cook/​server.
The bill. We asked one of the ladies to split the bill into 7 checks, she barely paid us any attention and said I can’t do that but I can split it in half. Hmm okay sounds fine, thinking she’d redo the bill and take the gratuity out because 15% was not deserved. What happened? She did some calculations, looked like she was thinking hard only to find out she literally took our total and divided it by 2. Ma’am, I was not born yesterday. You know what the ridiculous part was? The fact that we went back to the register 20 minutes later and a different lady DID split the bill into 7 different checks.
Attitude. Bad food. Bad place. Next time, were definitely going somewhere else.

Got to the parking lot a little before 5pm because I read parking might be a little tight. Reversed into a stall in front of Phở My Lien and started people watching. So what did I see? Well, 5 employees with their black company shirts on, getting out of their cars right in front of Makino Chaya. Well, so much for keeping spaces available to customers…

The food is ok, BUT you can never go wrong with $ 15 all-​you-​can-​eat lunch buffet. They don’t have the WOW type of food, but it totally does the job with its many choices of food and dessert

To all the haters, get out of the yakiniku and crab leg line and make more room for me! Is this place neat and clean? Naw. Is this a classy buffet to propose? Double naw. But if you are ready to eat your weight in crab legs, lobster tails, and steak, then step right up because everyone is a winner here. The workers are not the friendlist, but they are constantly running around, refilling drinks, putting in more orders of lobster tails for me, and making sure not too many kids stick their hands in the buffet trays. Respect. If you want a buffet where you can just grind, no judgment, this is the place.

Pretty cool concept for a buffet! My grandparents and uncle took us here for a Sunday evening dinner. There were several sections of food-​main buffet line with main dishes, sides, etc; steak cooking section which was cooked fresh when you order; the ramen station which no one went to because it’s been so damn hot, a sushi bar and lastly the desert station with delicious cakes, frozen yogurt and fresh crepes were made. This was nice as it helped with the circulation and flow of all the dining guests… it got pretty crowded but I didn’t have to wait too long in any one line. There was also a menu at the table that could order other desirable foods like oysters, lobster, mussels, etc.
My favs were the shrimp tempura, freshly cooked steak, crab legs, sashimi, fried oysters and raw oysters… the crepes were pretty yum-​licious. The «meh» foods were the lobster tails (sat out too long or just overlooked), sushi rolls (pretty dry), the salmon (weren’t deboned)… It was nice to check out and have a family dinner while on Oahu For place where you serve yourself the service was quite good. If I lived here, I could only come back to fill up on steak, tempura and crab legs.

This rating is strictly for service because I’m a stickler for service. Our server tonight was Branden and for the many times I come here, tonight stood out tremendously. Within a minute we were seated, Branden had already came and took our drink orders. When we came back with our food, he was there to take food orders from the menu. Needless to say, my drink never was empty because Branden was there with another to replace or refill. He constantly came to check on us even though he had many other tables he was taking care of. Thanks Branden for treating us like VIP’s!

For the price, you get a great deal. We got here 30 minutes early for our reservation and we got sat in 5 minutes. Large selection of items sashimi, sushi, noodles, miso butterfish, steamed fish, clams and what I came for… CRAB LEGS! Then they have a dessert bar where you can get crepes made to order with your choice of filling. Print out your coupon online and get 20%off. Come in on your birthday and you eat free. How awesome is that. Thanks to our super cool waiter. I’m coming back for more crab legs

I have mixed reviews about this place. To be honest I only eat the Kobe Steak, rice, crab legs and crepes. Everything else on the buffet line doesn’t taste that great.
Last year when we came for my bfs bday, his meal was free. However we went tonight and they didn’t give any discount or free meal for his bday. They said if we get the early bird special then there isnt a bday discount. If we got the full menu then he would get 50% off. Ummmm, when I made the reservation I told them it was for a bday and the girl on the phone said I would get a bday discount. They need to be clear with customers about their discounts and policies.
There is a awesome waiter name Brandon. He is super nice, polite, and just a awesome waiter. He attends to his tables always asking if everything is ok, refill drinks, and clears the tables. If I could afford to give him $ 100 tip I would beacuse he deserved it. I really hope he takes his customer service and waiter skills to a place where he could make more money. This place needs to give him a raise asap.

So my family came here for my grandmother’s birthday party this past weekend, and this experience changed my view and rating of this place. With my extensive experience here, I knew exactly how to hit the buffet line. I made sure that I skipped the big starches and chicken and headed straight for the seafood. I loaded up on clams, veggie and shrimp tempura, shrimp roll, spicy tuna bowls, and tons of ahi sashimi. I also got the steak and scallops with some assorted sushi on the side. I made sure that since we were paying full price, that we ordered off the menu and got some lobster, miso butterfish, and Oysters Rockefeller. Pretty much everything that I got I thought was good, except for the shrimp roll. I thought it tasted weird but everyone else liked it. The oysters weren’t as amazing as I had imagined them to be and everyone agreed that the lobster was tough and chewy. I loaded up and ate about 2 plates of crab, which never disappoints, with some butter and rice on the side of course! My husband and I agreed that nothing really was that great, that everything seemed to have lost it’s excitement as time had passed, and in the end majority of the food wasn’t that good… especially for the menu full price.
We had reservation for 19, but 2 didn’t show. I called beforehand to try and figure out the financial side of this visit as we were using a 20% coupon and had a birthday and kids and everything. When we got the bill, it only had 15% off the meals and a whopping 20% for gratuity. I was irritated with the fact that now we would have to change how much everyone owed with these new numbers so I tried to speak with the floor manager but she informed me that even though it was my grandmother’s birthday and she was well over 65, we couldn’t use her free birthday meal AND 20% kama’aina coupon. We could only get 15% off. I explained to her that I called and explicitly asked that same question 2 days ago and I was told that it would be okay, and that we could choose how much to tip our server.
I’m glad we could choose how much to give her, because let me tell you, she would have never gotten 20% from us. After taking our drink order, we had to track her down to get a refill on our drinks and had to track her down to order off the menu. She didn’t serve us our food, and it wasn’t her that was clearing off our tables… So where in there did she earn her 20%? Even after being able to tip whatever we wanted, the total was still coming up more than what I thought it should be but after being there for 2.5 hours and everyone trying to leave and my son screaming because he was tired I just paid the bill and left.
Once I got home and put my son to bed, I finally realized that I was overcharged. Our server charged us for the 2 people who did not show up and an extra drink. The next day, I tried to call before lunch and was not able to get in touch with anyone. After about 2.5 hours of on and off calling, I finally got the GM on the phone and explained I was overcharged. He understood and told me I had to go down to get a refund so they could run the card again. A hassle for sure, but you gotta do what you gotta do to get your money back. The return was relatively simple and quick.
I think moving forward, I think I would return BUT ONLY for the early bird special. The extra $ 8 – 11 (depending on which day you go) is not worth it. The extra money to order off the menu isn’t worth it in my opinion, especially since the oysters and lobster were chewy and tasteless. $ 19.50 early bird buffet price is where it’s at. Load up on the crab, sashimi, and other seafood items and you got yourself and awesome deal.

I haven’t been here in a while, but it was good! The buffet was huge, assorted with all types of food from seafood to asian dishes. I kept going back for the crab which was so addicting! They also have other sides of this restaurant with sushi, teppanyaki, and desserts.
They have a variety of sushi to choose from. I was a bit disappointed because they were out of ikura, which was one of the highlights on the menu. The teppanyaki line gets really long, so be prepared to wait quite a while! For the desserts, you have a choice whether if you want a crêpe, frozen yogurt, or chocolate dipped fruits.
Not sure why this place has two and a half stars, but it was a good experience! I’d definitely come back.

I recall when Makino Chaya first opened and they flourished at the Aloha Tower location. I was still working for a major Japanese tour agency and this was such an easy sell to our guests. We were invited for a FAM tour and had VIP treatment. The food was incredible — — great selection, good quality and service was above-​par. I’d even recommend this place for family dinners, business functions and lunch with my peers. Many great meals at this Makino Chaya but those are now great memories of the past.
I don’t like to travel far but for food, I’ll make it an exception. My sister kept on «baiting» me to come here for dinner and declined several times before I finally accepted. What a mistake that was, I should have waited longer.
To be fair, I came here to this location twice before writing this review. And the consensus: rating between 1.5 to 2 stars.
Food Selection (⁵⁄₅)
Definitely a large selection to choose from. They have a teppanyaki grill where the chef cooks in front of you steak, scallops and veggies. There is also a noodle station where the chef makes ramen and udon noodles. Next to it there was a sashimi and sushi station all pre-​made. The most impressive is their buffet line — — several starches, veggies, chicken, fish, seafood, shrimp tempura, crab legs, poke and salad. Once you’ve had enough you can head over to the dessert station for «ice milk», miniature cakes and made-​to-​order crepes.
Quality (²⁄₅)
Don’t expect fine dining. Expect dorm cafeteria quality. The beef was not tender. Low grade cuts. Sushi and poke bowls were edible but not my cup of tea. The ramen was undercooked, it was still starchy and could taste raw flour. I walked it back to the cook who made my bowl and advised him he needs to cook the noodles longer. He just stared at me. Not sure if he understood what I said.
The shrimp tempura has a heavy batter coating. Waste of stomach space for AYCE. They also had butterfish but it was the tips and ends — — mostly bones. The snow crab legs were decent but some were waaaaaaay too salty.
Service (²⁄₅)
This is a very spacious restaurant and it was hard to flag down a waitstaff. To get more water, refills on drinks, napkins… or even to have our dirty plates cleared. The second time we went there the hostess took our name and advised a 15-​min wait. 30 mins passed and we noticed people who arrived after us were being seated before us. When a large party was escorted to a table and we still hadn’t been called, I walked up and asked about how much longer it would take. She looked at her list and had a lost look. Come to find out, the hostess forgot to write our name down!!! AUWE!!! I then walked to the tall Caucasian manager (he’s the same one who used to work at the Aloha Tower location) to voice my dissatisfaction of what happened and I sure didn’t expect him to YELL at his employee in front of us. Very unprofessional.
I feel like this is the diner’s last meal as you see people RUSHING to get food, especially when there is a new batch of crab. Both times we were seated near the hot station, just next to the crab legs and it was so embarrassing to see people RUN when new crab was brought out.
There is also an early-​bird special if you are seated before 630pm on Fridays. The second time we dined there the waiter charged us FULL PRICE in error. When confronted him of this error, it took FOREVER to have the bill adjusted. It was more than 15 mins and I started to get a little irritated but kept my mouth shut as I was invited as a guest. Had I been paying? It would have been a different story.
As a townie, not worth the drive here from town area. You can get much better food and service with many places to choose from.

It was my first time here & the food wasn’t very appetizing. I thought there would be more food choices but there weren’t. A few of the pans were empty… There were flies near our table & it got annoying trying to keep them away from our plates.
On the bright side though, our waitress was seriously so nice & the crêpe was really good. For $ 20, I probably won’t be coming here again but it was an ok experience.

Makino Chaya. You hear this restaurant name being thrown around and everyone seems to say how horrible it is. Yet after all these years, it’s still in business. Something must be going right for them? A lunch buffet for $ 13.95? (If you’re a senior citizen with a newspaper coupon, it’s $ 9.95.) I’m pretty sure some plate lunches cost that much!
My aunty and uncle wanted to dine here for lunch on a Friday (observed holiday for July 4^th). I mentally prepared myself for some awful food. It’s been at least 5 years since the last time I came here (and at that time, I told myself I’d never come back). We arrived just before 11:00am when they opened and people were already waiting for seats. Parking wasn’t a hassle at the time, but I know how crowded it can get.
FOOD: My expectations weren’t high. You shouldn’t expect very much when you’re only paying $ 13.95 for an AYCE. Shrimp and vegetable tempura, beef gyoza, chicken teriyaki, miso butterfish (with bones), salmon (with bones), teppan steak, and a variety of sushi/​nigiri were the «highlights» of the buffet. The quality wasn’t quite there though. But, it didn’t taste like complete garbage at least! The shrimp tempura didn’t seem fresh and looked as if it were cooked in old oil. Majority of the butterfish pieces looked very dry and overcooked. However, if you did find a good piece, it didn’t taste all that bad! The steak (apparently it was ribeye but I don’t know my cuts very well) was pretty good and cooked to order (this would be where you get your monies worth). I only had the kamikani (imitation crab) nigiri which was pretty good. You can’t really screw up imitation crab and sushi rice. There’s also a ramen station, which I didn’t try. My Aunty ordered 2 bowls of ramen and immediately regretted it after the first bite.
There’s a crêpe station but it didn’t look that great when the person in front of me ordered it. The cakes looked generic and dry. They did have fresh pineapple, which I ate an entire bowl full! The frozen yogurt (chocolate and cheesecake) was very runny and melted. You can only get one serving of frozen yogurt per person per trip. The cakes are limited to 4 pieces per person per trip also.
Even at $ 13.95, I don’t think I ate my monies worth. I wish I liked steak in general, but I don’t so I only ate a few pieces from someone else’s plate. So for the protein-​lovers and meat-​eaters, go get the steak early! People line up waiting for it!
SERVICE/​ATMOSPHERE: You walk in and your nose is immediately tickled. I’m not sure what it really smells like but there’s this odor to the restaurant that made my nose twitch a little haha. After that, you check in with the host/​ess. Damn, the hostess is grouchy. Lighten up a bit will you? I guess my smiles and attempted small talk didn’t help. Eh, whatever. Our server was incredibly friendly though. She talked to us about plans for the weekend and came by several times to clear our dishes, refill drinks, and to chat.
Overall, if you’re just looking for somewhere cheap to get full with a variety of food but you don’t care so much about quality, you should come here. Now if you want some quality food with the applicable price tag, then go somewhere else like Hakone or Tsukiji or Hawaii Prince Court. Personally, I probably won’t be back unless it’s an obligatory event held here.

I should’ve read the reviews but instead, based it on our families’ visit a VERY long time ago at their other location which was good, but that was years ago.
Just about everything was mediocre to bad.
The only good things were the Miso Butterfish and Ikura Nigiri, which were on their AYCE menu which was $ 10 more on top of the buffet price of $ 18. The hot items were a mess and poorly maintained. Sushi station and desserts were a joke
and employees were working in ordinary street clothes???
Cooks don’t seem to know what they are serving either. How are you gonna serve AJI nigiri, cover it with eel sauce and call it UNAGI??? Lobster was the cheap frozen type, and our experience here was not worth what we paid for (about $ 28 per person)
Low quality food, very messy atmosphere, and lack of professionalism in the kitchen makes this place one of the worse places, if not THE WORST place to dine in Oahu. AVOID!!!
Shaka Meter: None!!! Not worth it…

Came here for a party and had my expectations set low (to avoid disappointment haha…) and I was very surprised to see how good it was!
Don’t get me wrong. It’s not amazing so don’t expect 5 star food and service but it’s perfectly average. Food is acceptable and the service provided was on point.
My favorite parts of the meal was the teppanyaki and crêpe stations. The teppanyaki guy works so hard for so long without a break. I wish I had cash to tip him. I was worried about my steak being overdone but it was almost perfect! Juicy and well seasoned.
The crêpe station was manned (or wo-​manned hahaha) by a very nice girl who smiled at everyone and made me feel welcome, not as if I was inconveniencing her. Sucks that ice cream isn’t served anymore and they have mediocre frozen yogurt (4 choices).
Overall, I left pretty content. It’s not amazing, but it’s not bad. However… I would not return if I were the one paying $ 30 a seat.

Hadn’t eaten here in at least 3 or 4 years – b/​c we’ve been doing more high-​end buffets recently – but Mom really wanted to go here on 12÷21÷14, and I must say… I was VERY impressed by the quality of food & service! Might’ve been that they’re particularly on-​their-​game b/​c of the holidays & they’re totally booming… but all of our water glasses were refilled regularly, empty plates cleared promptly, & all of the staff was super professional & attentive. Our main waiter (young Asian kid with glasses, didn’t catch his name) was awesome, and this was one of those rare occasions when we gave a full 20% tip at a buffet.
When we first got there at 5:30 pm, the restaurant wasn’t even half-​full, and special-​order items were brought out VERY quickly… but later on, when the restaurant filled-​up, it took forever. For our last order, the waiter came by 3 times to apologize & tell us it was still coming, before we finally cancelled… so I’d say go early if you want any of the special-​order stuff. Even so, we appreciated that our waiter was on top of things, & we were actually pretty full by then, so it wasn’t a big deal.
More than anything, I loved that the buffet trays (ie crab legs) were constantly refilled; almost everything I tried (ie crab legs) was totally delicious; and the lines never got long – even when the restaurant was packed! ;D Admittedly, I only ate like 5 things (aside from crab legs) the entire time I was there. 0=) And really, for the most part, I just ate massive amounts of:
– SNOW CRAB (yay!); all large legs, perfectly-​cooked – NOT overcooked, salty, or dried out like some much-​pricier buffets! – & the melted butter was perfect, not separated or watered down like aforementioned-​pricier-​places. For New Year’s, we actually went to a seafood buffet that was more than double the price, and I found myself longing for the crab from Makino Chaya, go figure!
– MISO BUTTERFISH; perfectly seasoned, cooked just right, with lightly charred skin… totally competes with most of our Japanese restaurants here; I don’t understand how Makino Chaya can afford this!
– TEPPANYAKI STEAK & BEANSPROUTS; I’d say this was «steak plate» quality – meaning it was actually decent – & the medium-​rare preparation & seasoning were spot-​on!
Early-​on, I also tried these dishes, but didn’t get seconds (or third or fourths!) like the items above, b/​c it wasn’t worth the tummy-​space:
– Chinese steamed fish; pretty sure this was basa, but I actually like the taste & texture of basa, so it was good for me, though a tad spicy… it just couldn’t compete with the top 3 items above
– Teppanyaki scallops; not large enough to get a good sear, more like stir-​fried…& scallops themselves were plump but didn’t have much flavor; not bad but not great
– Lobster halves; random mayo & cheese sauce baked on top… would skip that unless you simply must have lobster; and if you do get it, I’d remove the topping & dip the 2 bites of tail meat in the melted butter from the crab
– Stuffed crab shells; eh, not horrible; at least it was mostly seafood rather than all breading, which is a plus
– Clams; super disappointing; their Chinese-​style sauce was very bland, & clams themselves were tiny & didn’t have any flavor at all
After gorging on my «top 3» items for about 2 hours, I had just enough room to finish up with some dessert. Others in my party tried the cakes (meh, it’s just cake) or choco-​covered fruit (looked good but I wasn’t in the mood)…while I went straight for the chocolate froyo & a choco-​banana-​whipped cream crêpe (which was expertly prepared!). That totally hit the spot! When all was said & done, I was shocked at what a great time /​meal we had at Makino Chaya, and I wouldn’t hesitate to go back again. I’m not sure why this places gets such low reviews – unless, like I said, it’s due to inconsistency – but so far I’m a fan… hope the next time is just as good!