Akiko's Restaurant

With little distinguishing it from the next-door Irish Pub, the unmarked and low-key Akiko’s Restaurant is a spot you won’t want to miss. Akiko’s Restaurant, not to be confused with Akiko’s Sushi Bar is a high end sit-down sushi bar located on the corner of Bush and Mark.

I first came to Akiko’s three years earlier after hearing about it’s high quality salmon nigiri and was impressed with assortment. I returned this time to try out it’s omakase. Reservations are a must for Akiko’s as the restaurant books up usually a week in advance. It does have some rare occurrences of walk ins, usually do to cancellations.

The Omakase was split into two parts, the kitchen appetizers and the nigiri course. The kitchen appetizers was an 8 course foray into the creative mind of Akiko’s head chef Chris Massad. The course included such commonplace dishes with a twist such as the chawanmushi with uni, sashimi of ebi, chutoro and clam to much more experimental dishes as the Lobster and Truffle Tartine or Oyster shot. I never could pick a favorite out of them, but the most surprising would have to be the Rice Cracker with Ikura on top. It looked super simple, but turned out really good.

The second portion, the Nigiri set came with 8 samples of Japan’s finest imports from the acclaimed Tsukiji Market (Toyosu most likely now-a-days since Tsukiji’s closure). My favorites from this set were definitely the Chutoro nigiri and the scallop nigiri. The scallop and buri nigiri had an unexpected spice to them that was well received by me and my seatmates who had it themselves.

Akiko’s is probably my favorite sushi spot of 2019; the price, quality and enjoyment of the meal came no match. I highly recommend a visit to try the omakase or chef’s choice menu.