Akari

We had the seaweed salad which we thought was very nice, followed by chirashi which was presented nicely, but we felt the portion was extremely small compared to other Japanese restaurants we have visited in the past. In addition, we ordered a tuna special from the menu. Unfortunately, it was a little overcooked and some parts of the dish was very salty. We wouldn't recommend it. We finished off our meal with the pudding and cheesecake. Neither was really worth mentioning or worth reordering in the future.

Overall, the salad and chirashi was nice, although a little small, the other dishes were not worth the money.

Food aside, I felt the service we received was below par. We asked the waitress for recommendations and she could not give us a straight answer. All she said was, everything is nice. I asked her for a description of the desserts and she she the pudding was traditional. I asked her for more details, she said wobbly… I had to ignore everything she said and made up my own mind.

We noticed the staff were very clumsy and did not seem to know what they were doing. The waitress spilt the soya sauce, she poured tea outside the cup over the table, she nearly dropped the dessert, she gave us two plates of soya sauce each and did not give us any wasabi to go with the chirashi and to top things off, she bought the base plate for the dessert after she put our desert down…total chaos.

When we went to pay the bill, we asked for the bill to be split in half. After we paid, I noticed that she had overcharged us by rounding the bill up – this isn't what we asked her to do.

We called her over and explained that we were not happy that this act had taken place as it was dishonest, esp as they had already taken 10% service charge. She said she did not understand why we were unhappy. She said the bill was hard to split in half (it wasn't, she only had to halve it), she also said that they always did that to all their customers, but we were the first people to complain…she then proceeded to rant at us and said it wasn't a lot of money (it was 98p), we said that wasn't the point and we weren't after a refund, we just wanted to point out that it was a bad way to do business esp when they had already charged service charge. She then very rudely said to us we could have our pound back. But we didn't take it as just wanted to get out of there as she was starting to get hostile.

It's fair to say that we will not be returning and if you have any common sense, I wouldn't bother going there either. There are much better Japanese restaurants around London and this is def one to add on to my black list. Unprofessional staff and average to low quality food. Absolute disappointment.

I have been to Akari several times now and I cannot escape the conclusion that it is overrated however hard I try to give it the benefit of the doubt. On paper, it should be very interesting given it is housed in a listed old pub, has an extensive menu and has both a more casual sushi bar area and tables for traditional dining. Howveer, the service is always sub-standard when I go there with orders regularly mis-delivered or arriving late and having to beg for basic stuff (latest, a jug of tap water seemed inconceivable to the waitress until the manager stepped in). The food is good, especially the sashimi in my view. But the menu lacks the creativity and unusual plates of more upmarket places and the fun of more casual restaurants. And the prices are rather extreme for the area and ambience. If you must have sushi in N1, then I guess Akari is easily the best on offer in N1, but more due to lack of local competition. For my part, although I love sushi and live 5 mins away from it, I would frankly go somehere else for a local meal.

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.