I’d first gone to Akira several years ago and he was already developing a bit of a solid reputation but at the time I hadn’t seen anything to really be hooked on / find particularly interesting. Maeiwa was sort of just another reasonably talented dude who’d just gone independent making solid sushi, someone to check in on every few years while I stuck to my usual haunts. Unfortunately it took me a bit longer to get back to Japan once I left the restaurant industry and went to college but I finally made it back to a Sushi Akira that has become one of the hottest sushi restaurants in Tokyo – and especially popular with foreigners given how easy it is to reserve.
So what’s changed? The most notable changes are that direct sourcing and special sourcing channels have become a huge part of the menu – fish from Fujimoto, Hasegawa and several other notable regional fish brokers and fisherman feature with star billing, and that seatings having gone from 6 to 8 people. There are some other notable changes like a larger amount of staff and the price jump but those are more standard during the course of these restaurants growing and I felt like these had less of an effect on my meal than the first two changes I mentioned.
I make a great effort to avoid using the word omakase in most of these write ups – but I do think it’s kinda worth lightly ruminating on for the purpose of this review. In effect the word means you’ll leave it up to the chef – that you trust them to put together a tasting menu that you will enjoy.
I don’t think I trust Maeiwa. On its face a meal at Sushi Akira is many things I would personally enjoy: a restaurant with a strong commitment to sourcing and a larger team that’s able to beat out some of the inconsistencies that can trouble restaurants that are run a bit more lean. Yet I left the meal questioning not only the taste and value of the meal I had received but Maeiwa’s ability to run a service as large as these have gotten.
Courses were:
1. Noresore in dashi, alright – not the greatest noresore 2. Akashi tai, solid – great umami w each chew 3. Meiji maguro from sado, kawa tasted really nice and the meat was clean n tasty 4. Awabi from Sado dashimushi with a sauce that was half kimo and half shiro miso, ehhhh – sauce blew but the awabi wasn’t great either 5. Ankimo from Hokkaido topped with yuzu zest, kinda fishy tasting – poorly prepared imo 6. Grilled botan ebi, solid – I liked this even if I prefer this raw 7. Hamaguri dashi, eh 8. Nigiri begins with Tai from Ehime from Fujimoto. This is maybe the worst version of Fujimoto’s Tai I had on the trip and maybe ever 9. Umazurahagi from Namikiya-san in Odosawara, solid but not great kimo but the actual neta was kinda mediocre relative 10. Aori ika, heavy tasting but still get some creaminess. Alright 11. Chutoro w the akashari, solid with the warmer shari + slightly warm neta 12. Otoro, ayo why is this so thick when the shari is cold as shit lmao. Shit feels HEAVY 13. Akami zuke, meh 14. Kohada direct from Kumamoto, solid – I’ve had worse but I don’t get the star billing for this 15. Hirame from ehime, ehhhhhhh it’s kinda shit 16. Kinmedai from Kanagawa with karashi, Hasegawa-sans stuff. Very good, texture was nice n clean fat. I prefer the popular stuff from Choshi but this was very solid 17. Sawara aburi, subpar – apprentice cooked this like most of the aburi sushi – he was actually doing a solid job but Maeiwa’s been fucking up while cutting into these. He ruined the skin on a bunch of the prior ones 18. Like half an akaza ebi from hasegawa, solid! I enjoyed this 19. Aji, solid – a thin refreshing tasting that I would’ve preferred to have been a touch stronger and lingered a bit more 20. Uni hosomaki, meh. The nori here is kinda shit today too? 21. Anago sushi wrapped in tamagoyaki, ehhhhhhhh
Extras:
1. Sumi ika from hasegawa, dull tasting with a decent texture 2. Daisen nigiri, I got hoed this was awful 3. Kumamoto direct delivery uni, see previous uni above for my opinion lmao. I had this at like 4 other places and they were all better 4. Saba, I was pretty miffed by this point and this didn’t help. The skin was grilled nicely before Maeiwa mangled it (and then made it soggy by leaving it in the dripping fat if the fish) – apprentice kinda cookin on the grill, good work w the Meiji maguro too 5. Fujimoto’s akagai, hey man what the fuck. This was shit 6. Himokyu, alright
Neta are generally cut big and thick with shari that is refreshed frequently.
My main issue was the main selling point of the restaurant – the sourcing. During this trip I had several of the same fish/uni served here at 4 other restaurants (3 I had the literal prior or next day) and the versions I had here were by far the worst of the 5. Now I’m actually friends with several of the restaurant’s suppliers and I’m generally aware of where it sits on the priority list for them so I know its not like the absolute best they have to offer but it got to the point where I wondered where I was just getting fucked being at a gaijin seating. I was having the literal same fish, from the same people and often in very similar preps as the other restaurants – Fujimoto’s famous tai and his akagai, Hasegawa’s kinmedai/kuromutsu/etc etc, Namikiya’s umazurahagi, etc etc – and with each one, Akira’s version of these great fish was just getting metaphorically stuffed into a locker like some high school anime club dork. You cannot hang your hat on sourcing and then treat your product like this, at least in my opinion.
Several other issues arose with things like the shari: on several courses it was served ice cold despite the shari generally being refreshed frequently and without Maeiwa’s need to ask, denoting the high competence of the staff – implying that this cold shari for certain pieces was a stylistic choice (one I vehemently disagreed with). Thick cut otoro couldn’t help but feel flabby with this cold shari – despite the chutoro being served with slightly warm shari literally right before.
Service was exhaustive but I wouldn’t say it was necessarily say it was good. You can see a few elements of the Sho training here (granted apprentices were way less involved in the service component of the night than they would be at one of those) in Maeiwa’s improved english and the staffs usage of an iPad with wikipedia (?) entries on the fish being served – reminiscent of the similar books at nearly all Sho-style restaurants. However, general service during the night was oddly kinda stiff and it felt like the staff had a pretty reasonable SOP but didn’t have the experience or ability to deviate from it.
Overall, I came into this meal with reasonable expectations I felt and I’ll fully admit I kinda expected this to be an easy recommend for English/Chinese/SEA tourists who can’t get into the more difficult to book restaurants. As it stands though, I can’t seem myself coming back in at least 3-5 years – I actually spoke with a few friends as well who shared he still actually does those 6 person seatings, just infrequently, and that they’re closer to what the hype suggests. Truth be told, I also can’t be assed to get into his good graces enough to do one of those seatings. If you’re considering this place – there’s a lot of good reviews, it could be I was just at an off seating or that the gaijin seatings are significantly worse than even the 8 person Japanese folks seatings. I’ll say that of the hyped young up and comers I went to on this trip – this was by far the worst and it may have been the worst meal of my trip (I actually think it was, I’m unsure what would be worse).
With this, the most difficult review I’ve written is done – I really tried to be fair/balanced while writing this so you could read it n disagree but understand where I was coming from. Most of my other meals were good so I should be able to get back into my regular writing cadence for the rest of the meals.
godiloveswords
Only been once and didn’t have as bad an experience as you did but wasn’t anything to write home about either. I went in the same season last year, so lots of overlap between our menus, and I shared a lot of similar comments. Ankimo was probably the weakest rendition I’ve had at the high-end, and was also similarly underwhelmed by the uni. There were also issues with his assistant’s aji prep that led to sequencing being shifted and him borderline screaming at his staff.
Also, just a heads up, but I think the grilled ebi otsumami is botan and not amaebi.
I’m not super well versed in ingredient provenance/sourcing aside from the surface-level stuff, but would you attribute the underwhelming product to the inconsistency of the supplier or is it just because Akira is lower on the pecking order for the famous Ehime shiromi for example?
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I’d first gone to Akira several years ago and he was already developing a bit of a solid reputation but at the time I hadn’t seen anything to really be hooked on / find particularly interesting. Maeiwa was sort of just another reasonably talented dude who’d just gone independent making solid sushi, someone to check in on every few years while I stuck to my usual haunts. Unfortunately it took me a bit longer to get back to Japan once I left the restaurant industry and went to college but I finally made it back to a Sushi Akira that has become one of the hottest sushi restaurants in Tokyo – and especially popular with foreigners given how easy it is to reserve.
So what’s changed? The most notable changes are that direct sourcing and special sourcing channels have become a huge part of the menu – fish from Fujimoto, Hasegawa and several other notable regional fish brokers and fisherman feature with star billing, and that seatings having gone from 6 to 8 people. There are some other notable changes like a larger amount of staff and the price jump but those are more standard during the course of these restaurants growing and I felt like these had less of an effect on my meal than the first two changes I mentioned.
I make a great effort to avoid using the word omakase in most of these write ups – but I do think it’s kinda worth lightly ruminating on for the purpose of this review. In effect the word means you’ll leave it up to the chef – that you trust them to put together a tasting menu that you will enjoy.
I don’t think I trust Maeiwa. On its face a meal at Sushi Akira is many things I would personally enjoy: a restaurant with a strong commitment to sourcing and a larger team that’s able to beat out some of the inconsistencies that can trouble restaurants that are run a bit more lean. Yet I left the meal questioning not only the taste and value of the meal I had received but Maeiwa’s ability to run a service as large as these have gotten.
Courses were:
1. Noresore in dashi, alright – not the greatest noresore
2. Akashi tai, solid – great umami w each chew
3. Meiji maguro from sado, kawa tasted really nice and the meat was clean n tasty
4. Awabi from Sado dashimushi with a sauce that was half kimo and half shiro miso, ehhhh – sauce blew but the awabi wasn’t great either
5. Ankimo from Hokkaido topped with yuzu zest, kinda fishy tasting – poorly prepared imo
6. Grilled botan ebi, solid – I liked this even if I prefer this raw
7. Hamaguri dashi, eh
8. Nigiri begins with Tai from Ehime from Fujimoto. This is maybe the worst version of Fujimoto’s Tai I had on the trip and maybe ever
9. Umazurahagi from Namikiya-san in Odosawara, solid but not great kimo but the actual neta was kinda mediocre relative
10. Aori ika, heavy tasting but still get some creaminess. Alright
11. Chutoro w the akashari, solid with the warmer shari + slightly warm neta
12. Otoro, ayo why is this so thick when the shari is cold as shit lmao. Shit feels HEAVY
13. Akami zuke, meh
14. Kohada direct from Kumamoto, solid – I’ve had worse but I don’t get the star billing for this
15. Hirame from ehime, ehhhhhhh it’s kinda shit
16. Kinmedai from Kanagawa with karashi, Hasegawa-sans stuff. Very good, texture was nice n clean fat. I prefer the popular stuff from Choshi but this was very solid
17. Sawara aburi, subpar – apprentice cooked this like most of the aburi sushi – he was actually doing a solid job but Maeiwa’s been fucking up while cutting into these. He ruined the skin on a bunch of the prior ones
18. Like half an akaza ebi from hasegawa, solid! I enjoyed this
19. Aji, solid – a thin refreshing tasting that I would’ve preferred to have been a touch stronger and lingered a bit more
20. Uni hosomaki, meh. The nori here is kinda shit today too?
21. Anago sushi wrapped in tamagoyaki, ehhhhhhhh
Extras:
1. Sumi ika from hasegawa, dull tasting with a decent texture
2. Daisen nigiri, I got hoed this was awful
3. Kumamoto direct delivery uni, see previous uni above for my opinion lmao. I had this at like 4 other places and they were all better
4. Saba, I was pretty miffed by this point and this didn’t help. The skin was grilled nicely before Maeiwa mangled it (and then made it soggy by leaving it in the dripping fat if the fish) – apprentice kinda cookin on the grill, good work w the Meiji maguro too
5. Fujimoto’s akagai, hey man what the fuck. This was shit
6. Himokyu, alright
Neta are generally cut big and thick with shari that is refreshed frequently.
My main issue was the main selling point of the restaurant – the sourcing. During this trip I had several of the same fish/uni served here at 4 other restaurants (3 I had the literal prior or next day) and the versions I had here were by far the worst of the 5. Now I’m actually friends with several of the restaurant’s suppliers and I’m generally aware of where it sits on the priority list for them so I know its not like the absolute best they have to offer but it got to the point where I wondered where I was just getting fucked being at a gaijin seating. I was having the literal same fish, from the same people and often in very similar preps as the other restaurants – Fujimoto’s famous tai and his akagai, Hasegawa’s kinmedai/kuromutsu/etc etc, Namikiya’s umazurahagi, etc etc – and with each one, Akira’s version of these great fish was just getting metaphorically stuffed into a locker like some high school anime club dork. You cannot hang your hat on sourcing and then treat your product like this, at least in my opinion.
Several other issues arose with things like the shari: on several courses it was served ice cold despite the shari generally being refreshed frequently and without Maeiwa’s need to ask, denoting the high competence of the staff – implying that this cold shari for certain pieces was a stylistic choice (one I vehemently disagreed with). Thick cut otoro couldn’t help but feel flabby with this cold shari – despite the chutoro being served with slightly warm shari literally right before.
Service was exhaustive but I wouldn’t say it was necessarily say it was good. You can see a few elements of the Sho training here (granted apprentices were way less involved in the service component of the night than they would be at one of those) in Maeiwa’s improved english and the staffs usage of an iPad with wikipedia (?) entries on the fish being served – reminiscent of the similar books at nearly all Sho-style restaurants. However, general service during the night was oddly kinda stiff and it felt like the staff had a pretty reasonable SOP but didn’t have the experience or ability to deviate from it.
Overall, I came into this meal with reasonable expectations I felt and I’ll fully admit I kinda expected this to be an easy recommend for English/Chinese/SEA tourists who can’t get into the more difficult to book restaurants. As it stands though, I can’t seem myself coming back in at least 3-5 years – I actually spoke with a few friends as well who shared he still actually does those 6 person seatings, just infrequently, and that they’re closer to what the hype suggests. Truth be told, I also can’t be assed to get into his good graces enough to do one of those seatings. If you’re considering this place – there’s a lot of good reviews, it could be I was just at an off seating or that the gaijin seatings are significantly worse than even the 8 person Japanese folks seatings. I’ll say that of the hyped young up and comers I went to on this trip – this was by far the worst and it may have been the worst meal of my trip (I actually think it was, I’m unsure what would be worse).
With this, the most difficult review I’ve written is done – I really tried to be fair/balanced while writing this so you could read it n disagree but understand where I was coming from. Most of my other meals were good so I should be able to get back into my regular writing cadence for the rest of the meals.
Only been once and didn’t have as bad an experience as you did but wasn’t anything to write home about either. I went in the same season last year, so lots of overlap between our menus, and I shared a lot of similar comments. Ankimo was probably the weakest rendition I’ve had at the high-end, and was also similarly underwhelmed by the uni. There were also issues with his assistant’s aji prep that led to sequencing being shifted and him borderline screaming at his staff.
Also, just a heads up, but I think the grilled ebi otsumami is botan and not amaebi.
I’m not super well versed in ingredient provenance/sourcing aside from the surface-level stuff, but would you attribute the underwhelming product to the inconsistency of the supplier or is it just because Akira is lower on the pecking order for the famous Ehime shiromi for example?
What would you recommend in Tokyo for sushi?