Fort Myers restaurant makes Yelp’s top 100 list of places to eat

We know Southwest Florida has great food, and a fairly new restaurant in our region is now ranked among the best in the country.

MAKS Asian Kitchen & Sushi in south Fort Myers has made Yelp’s top 100 list of places to eat. The list came out on Thursday and officially places MAKS Asian Kitchen & Sushi at the 98th spot nationally.

And the family-owned establishment has only been operating in Lee County for the past six months. Owners and brothers Billy Mak and Kevin Mak opened the sushi joint last July, and they’re no strangers to the restaurant industry

“My grandfather owned a shop in Hong Kong,” Billy said. “Since I’m really little, we were always in the restaurant.”

Nestled in the corner of a giant south Fort Myers shopping plaza along Fiddlesticks Boulevard, Maks is already dishing up delight for its customers.

“I feel really blessed and thankful,” Billy said.

Billy knows he can’t do it alone.

“It’s not about my brother and I,” Billy said. “It’s all about team effort.”

“It took us quite a bit of time to put this project together,” Billy said.

From hiring interior designers to decorations, to making sure MAKS hires the best employees, the brothers hope to provide a full experience to guests.

“It’s not just the food; it’s the experience,” Billy said. “We always look at it as, when our guests walk into the door, it’s a full experience, the music, the decor, the design.”

Nationwide, only eight restaurants in Florida made the top 100 list.

To determine who lands on the list, Yelp said a number of factors go into the decision.

To determine Yelp’s Top Places to Eat in 2020, Yelp’s data science team pulled the top restaurants by ratings and number of reviews in 2019 across the U.S., with representation based on each place’s share of top-rated restaurants nationally, then curated the list with the expertise of our Community Managers around the country to finalize the rankings.

For a look at the full list of top 100 best places to eat, click on the link here.

MAKS recommends calling in for a reservation for anyone planning to visit them during the weekend.

“We want people coming in like, ‘Wow, this is in Fort Myers?” Billy said. “We want to continue to do what we do while we enjoy to do it.”