A salmon roll from Makai Sushi in Hillcrest

Like a wave that's traveled thousands of miles before breaking on San Diego shores, Makai Sushi and its chef/owner Matt Oliver formed over a great time and distance prior to landing in Hillcrest.

After meeting Oliver in his one-man shop on 5th Avenue, I took a look back at his work over the years: since going to school to become a sushi chef, the Hawaii native built and operated the Yanagi Sushi truck on his home island of Kauai, then spent years operating Makai as a bamboo-clad sushi and poke counter within a Poipu grocery. Post-covid, he made the move to San Diego, hooking up with San Diego's three generation fishing outfit, Haworth Fish Co., to serve his Makai menu wherever they've operated fish market stands, including at their Point Loma dock at Driscoll's Wharf, and their weekly booth at Tuna Harbor Dockside Market.

Oliver, as adept at breaking down a whole fish as he is slicing sashimi, has kept up those Haworth connections as he's branched out into a brick and mortar, across the street from Landmark Cinemas. It's a relationship that ensures a flow of fresh seafood, which he prepares as sushi rolls, poke bowls, and sushi burritos.

A spicy ahi sushi burrito

I haven't seen many sushi burritos since the concept peaked around here in 2016, so I tried the spicy ahi burrito ($16.50). As usual, it pretty much resembled an uncut sushi roll. In fact, each of the burritos offer the same prices and ingredients as Makai's sushi rolls (vegetarian $13, blue crab $16.50, salmon $18, and the cheekily named "Hapa" roll featuring half tuna and half crab for $17). Aside from the slicing, the key differences are that the burritos are rolled with rice paper rather than seaweed, and dosed with wasabi to deliver a mild kick.

The sushi rolls certainly allow a more colorful presentation, their slices drizzled with sauces and sprinkled with a bit more of the red roe, tabiko, to lend both visual and literal pop. Especially with my salmon roll order, dressing up its distinctive orange with dazzlingly white rice plus avocado, cucumber, and nori greens.

Makai Sushi's "Godzilla Bowl," with ahi tuna, salmon, and blue crab

Given that Makai offers sushi by way of Hawaii, I was most excited for the saucy simplicity of the poke bowl. But — perhaps in concession to mainland poke tastes — it's less the barebones fish and onion poke you'll find at a Hawaii supermarket deli, and more the dressed up poke we've gotten used to seeing at poke bowl chains. In other words, stacked with the same alluring ingredients we see in burritos and rolls, including cucumber and avocado.

To be clear, Makai's bowls offer superior quality to any of the fast food counter chains scattered around town. In both sourcing and freshness, it's the sort of raw fish we can all be comfortable enjoying. And my "Godzilla Bowl" (ahi, salmon, and crab) also was drizzled with aioli and unagi sauces, more ruby-bright tobiko, and three colors of roasted sesame seed. It's all very similar, though the poke bowls, priced at $19-22, offer just a bit more food, nicely tucked between Hawaii, Japan, and San Diego.