Akari

Akari oozes comfort, instead of luxury, and this is what is attractive about it. The first time I came to Akari, I was impressed with the quality of the food, and the price.. I have been eating japanese food since a child and was exposed to many different style japanese food can immulate. Overall, Akari is a good restaurant. Don't expect to come in pampered and you are well on your way to good dining experience.

Akari is quickly becoming my favourite ‘local Japanese’. I've done lots of travelling in Japan, and definately hanker after the food. Akari serves it very authentically, it tastes just as it does in Japan, it's not diluted to English taste. The place is always full of Japanese people (that's a good sign), but it can be difficult getting a table at times, so do call ahead and book. There's a mini sushi bar you can sit at where the sushi master preps it all in front of you, or you can sit in the main restaurant bit. Try Kaki Fry (that's deep fried oysters), and the grilled aubergine dish with dark miso paste on top (sorry, forgot the Japanese name). The kitchen is behind the ‘pub bar’ so you can watch all the activity whilst you eat, it makes for a great atmosphere.

Worst experience of a Japanese restaurant ever in London. Waited over an hour for our food and watched other tables that came in after us eat and then leave. The staff were defensive and rude and could not care less about customer service. We decided to get our food to take away and even then they got the order wrong!

We love sushi but we would never recommend this restaurant to anyone. Even when we requested a discount the Manager said we could come back the following week and get one sushi roll for free- what a joke…

If you are not put off by this review and still want to go our advice would be to make sure you have not had a stressful day, you are prepared to wait and whatever you do, do not order the miso soup as its was truly the most disgusting miso!

The reastaurant is used to be a pub and the owners preserved most of the enterior. Food choice is quite good with focus on sushi and grilled dishes. I would also recommend Tempura Udon, which tastes very authentic (unlike in most high-street “Japanese” eateries). There is a small but nice choice of shochu (traditional Japanese spirit made of wheat, barley, buckweat or sweet potato, usually served on the rocks) and sake selection offers very decent quality wine. Japanese and European beer is on offer as well as wine, if you prefer those. All of that is very reasonably priced!
Overall, I would definitely recommend this restaurant if you want to try a trully authentic taste of traditional (without any upper-scale add-ons) Japanese food and drinks. It is also a very cosy place for a quiet evening meal for those, who leave near by.