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Akaihi Japanese Restaurant

MY REVIEW: Update from ManLovesFood: This is the same guy that wrote the review just below. I wanted to update my review since I have new informatino and this has become an important restaurant for our neighborhood, and maybe even for the whole north side.

Akaihi has continued to sustain a very high quality of food, and their service has improved as well. They're clearly past the initial growing pains and this is a very good restaurant in all respects. The fish for sushi or sashimi continues to be sparkling fresh, and their sushi rice is always perfect - clean, bright, fresh.

Recently my wife and I have been trying their hibachi, which we had not done as of my last review. This is also very good, although not great. You can order it in the main dining room, you don't have to sit at the hibachi table. We like this since when we arrive sometimes we haven't decided yet if we want sushi or hibachi.

So far we've tried the sirloin and the shrimp - both were very fresh and nicely flavored, although both were slightly overcooked. My medium-rare requested sirloin was closer to medium, and her shrimp were just a little dry. The vegetables they put on the side are delicious, although they never seem quite hot enough - but still very warm.

Strong suggestion: if you order any of the lunch or dinner specials they'll bring you a complimentary bowl of soup. Be sure and request the hot and sour - it's about as good as you can find in Houston, just excellent. Their other soups are fine but pretty average for a good restaurant.

Amazingly, the lunch hibachi specials start at $9 for the sirloin, which comes with soup (remember: hot and sour!), salad, plenty of beef, vegetables and fried or white rice. it's all between very good and excellent, and I don't know where else I can get that much high quality food for that price.

Akaihi has quickly become a neighborhood favorite, and is good enough for people miles away to make the trip. You can't find better sushi within five miles in any direction, and you'd go even further for hibachi this good.

NAME: ManLovesFood
SUBMITTED: 9/30/2012   LAST VISIT WAS: 09/12
FREQUENCY: Everybody here knows my name...

MY REVIEW: This is close to a great restaurant. First, as a sushi place, the fish is always fresh, or else I wouldn't have gone back a second time or bothered to write this review. Now I go 2-3 times a week for lunch. Kevin, the senior sushi chef, finds great and incredibly fresh things for me every time I'm there.

The service is pretty bad, but it's kinda cute - they typically hire high school kids who clearly have never worked in a restaurant before. This one kid was standing right next to my table and watchng me eat, ready to grab each plate as it was finished. I asked him if he'd ever worked in a restaurant before - nope. I asked him how much training they'd given him and he said "No training - just told me to go take orders". I sat hiim down and gave him three of four basic tips and he's been better since then. I hope I don't have to train all of them!

The prices are very good, with the daily Akaihi Special sushi combo going for just $10 and a great happy hour discount. If you sit at the bar you get two or three free "crab crisps" - a big dollop of imitation crab and spicy mayo on a small fried chip, delicious and a great way to start the meal. My only other complaint is that they recently converted cable packages and no longer have CNBC. I'm used to watching the stock market during lunch, so this is a big loss to me. Seems kind of cheesy, too.

But the food is very, very good and the prices are fair. I'll be a regular for a long time.

NAME: ManLovesFood
SUBMITTED: 6/12/2012   LAST VISIT WAS: 06/12
FREQUENCY: Everybody here knows my name...

MY REVIEW: We had a wonderful evening at this new restaurant. The ambiance is relaxed, yet classy and the staff is super friendly and helpful. We sat at a hibachi table and were treated to a humorous show along with excellent food. The crab puff appetizers were excellent as well as the "shaggy dog" sushi. Each member of our group selected a different hibachi dish: filet, scallops and shrimp, chicken, and salmon with ginger sauce, scallions and red wine reduction. All were very good. For dessert (even though we were pretty stuffed already) we tasted red bean ice cream, green tea ice cream, and banana fritters - the latter were light and flavorful and served with vanilla ice cream drizzled with chocolate sauce. Happy hour runs from 3 to 7 with reduced price drinks and sushi. There's a good selection of signature cocktails. We'll definitely be back!

NAME: txcrusr
SUBMITTED: 3/15/2012   LAST VISIT WAS: March 2012
FREQUENCY: Visited once

MY REVIEW: Better can be found elsewhere. Sat at a hibachi table with two other families; I don't think any of us will return.

The soup is described as "beef onion soup," yet is filled with tofu chunks and the base is a cloudy, chicken broth-like liquid. The salad is very good; fresh with good dressing. However, portion is small in comparison to other hibachi restaurants. The fried rice had no chicken in it and had no flavor whatsoever. Found myself dumping soy sauce in it - didn't help. My husband and I both ordered hibachi steak. The beef was very tender, and the horseradish sauce that accompanied it was very tasty. The red ginger sauce was extremely overpowering and inedible. The vegetables that accompanied the meat were sparse and were more like a stir-fry mixture out of a bag than that of the usual hibachi veggies. No sprouts, just carrot, broccoli, and onion pieces.

One of the other families at the table asked for a recommendation. The waitress spoke very little English and directed the gentleman to the sushi part of the menu, even though he wanted hibachi. Communication with the chec and the waitstaff was very limited, and service was very slow.

For the price, portions were small and much better can be found elsewhere. Will not return.

NAME: bvog99
SUBMITTED: 2/13/2012   LAST VISIT WAS: 2/12
FREQUENCY: Visited once

MY REVIEW: What a wonderful new addition to our area's dining choices. The menu is lovely, everyone at my table thoroughly enjoyed their choices. Two at my table ordered the filet/shrimp hibachi special and they thought it delicious. The other two of us ordered shrimp and scallops hibachi and sesame beef. All items were cooked to perfection. Mandy our server was excellant. The restaurant was bustling for a Wednesday night. We will be going back!

NAME: threem12
SUBMITTED: 2/9/2012   LAST VISIT WAS: 2/2012
FREQUENCY: Visited once

MY REVIEW: We have a group of 17 that eat out once a week. We chose this new and wonderful restaurant a few weeks ago. It's always challenging to accommodate so many individual personalities. This place was fabulous. We all sat at the grill and I believe the most popular item was the Filet Mignon everyone that ordered this dish couldn't stop talking about it. Really really good! I personally loved their sushi & sashimi.........so very fresh. We plan on returning for a 3rd visit real soon. A big thumbs up!!

NAME: dh
SUBMITTED: 2/5/2012   LAST VISIT WAS: 1/28/2012
FREQUENCY: Visited 2-3 times

MY REVIEW: We go out for sushi at least twice a month. We have tried every place around and our favorite is M*atsu down on 1960. . . . until we tried Akaihi. We didn't have the best of waiters, I think he was training, but another person came to help him out. The nice thing about M*atsu is the wait staff, they let us know what is fresh and always recommend new things. We are very adventurous and try all sorts of sushi. Akaihi had plenty of different rolls to try that were not all fried and smothered with mayo. We also thought the rolls and sashimi was very fresh, and the prices were outstanding during the happy hour. We saved at least 25% over other sushi restaurants and it was just as good or better. We will be going back for more and hopefully we get a more experienced waiter!

NAME: ds
SUBMITTED: 2/3/2012   LAST VISIT WAS: 1/27/2012
FREQUENCY: Visited once

MY REVIEW: This place just opened so we decided to try it out. Best sushi in the area...they have a large creative selection. 1st time in a while ive had spicy tuna rolls that were actually spicy. They also have hibachi which smelled great but we were too into the awesome sushi at happy hour prices. Nice atmosphere and nice employees. Will definitely be frequenting this place alot.

NAME: Sushi Lover
SUBMITTED: 1/27/2012   LAST VISIT WAS: 1/20/12
FREQUENCY: Visited 2-3 times

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