Alex's Reviews

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.

There is nothing to recommend about this place. Could hardly call it a restaurant given the loud dancing music playing while you dine – certainly can't have a conversation while you're there. Which is just as well because you are most likely to be talking about the very bad food: nothing from the sashimi/sushi menu felt fresh or tasted nice, followed by black cod and chilli sea bass which were uninspiring to say the least and served with an embarrassingly bad portion of steamed rice (yes, the “chef” even failed to get that right). I could explain in more detail that the main courses took over an hour to show up, that the waiter had the nerve to ask to move our table to accommodate a larger party next to us (who were clearly more important than us it would seem), but actually prefer not to talk any longer about the worse restaurant I've been to in London. If it were cheap, I might be able to say go if you're desperate, but all I can really say is stay well clear.