Aki

Heard a lot of good things about this place from friends but was very disappointed when actually dining here. Food was ok nothing special. Prices are a bit high. But that all would’ve been ok if our waitress was friendly. She was very condescending and kinda rude to us. My friend speaks Japanese but the waitress would only reply in English. I work in the industry and no really likes a huge party but just act and put a smile on your face you can frown and act irritated when we leave. Definitely not coming back.

My boy friend and I have been going there for almost a year now. He is a musician, so he finishes his gig around 9:00PM, then the Happy Hour at Aki starts at 9:30PM. Perfect for us. We go there about 2 — 3 a week. The price is very reasonable. Friendly staff, and we never have to «wait». Sometimes the parking lot is full but you can park at Walmart parking and walk there. Not fat at all. Some of our favorites are, Curry Rice, Agedashi To-​fu, Okonomiyaki, Ika no Maruyaki. A pitcher of beer is only $ 10 during the Happy Hour! You cannot beat this!

Great dinning experience. Very few people at 7pm in a Thursday night. This restaurant has many choices of food, and different ways to prepare them.
We ordered many BBQs meats on sticks, like pork belly, wings, hearts, gizzards, livers, and they are all good and tasty.

The BBQ stick action CHERRY!!! go get you summa dat shizzlez & drink choke beerz …

I should have gone with my gut and had the nabe which I heard good things about but instead because there was a large group of us we just ordered a bunch of sides.
We had a variety of dishes that included sushi, teppanyaki and yakitori. I thought everything we had was decent. Although the spicy tuna sushi, the sushi rice was a bit on the tart side and the rice was more like mochi. Some thing they should work on moving forward. The yakitori wasn’t too bad at all and it tasted pretty good. I would say for the Teppanyaki if you order it, expect a long wait. Normally when you go to a sit down teppan place like a Tanaka or Suntory, you have one chef cooking for your party. Here they had one chef cooking for the entire restaurant so it’ll take a bit of time. The garlic salmon, shrimp and fried rice was pretty good after we got it however. I’d order it again. I don’t know if I would order the Uni again, it had a bit of an irony taste to it which indicates it’s a little older. The mozuku was some of the best I’ve had so I’d order that one again as well.
Parking here is limited but there’s a lot of street parking on Makaloa. I would suggest coming here for the nabe and ordering some of the teppan stuff as it comes while you’re eating your nabe.

Recently dined at Aki and was pleasantly surprised! The restaurant was empty but we enjoyed the food and our waitress was extremely helpful and friendly. She did say the yakitori and nabe were the popular choices so we ordered some of her recommended dishes.
Faves:
Agedashi Tofu ($ 6) — Yum! Loved this dish and I actually crave it. It is almost like a soup, with a good portion of broth, tofu and button mushrooms. Very tasty!
Garlic Fried Rice ($ 6) — We love fried rice and this one was just delicious. Plain but good.
Garlic Shrimp ($ 8.50) — Went perfectly with the garlic fried rice.
Yakitori ($ 2-​$ 3.50) — We wished we ordered more. The chicken breast, asparagus, and mushrooms were so delicious. There are a lot of meat choices and we are more veggie lovers but we did enjoy what we ordered. Very healthy and cooked to perfection.
Aki’s Original Salad ($ 6.90) — Fresh greens topped with won ton strips and bacon. Loved the dressing.
We can’t wait to go back for the above dishes! I was happy we randomly found this place…

I came here around 8pm on a Wednesday.
Atmosphere: The place was on the empty side, but the people who were there were japanese. Usually a good sign for a sushi restaurant. The décor was very modern.
Food: Ordered a sashimi platter and I was pleasantly surprised at how fresh the fish was
Service: Great and attentive. Waiter didn’t speak english very well but completely understood what he was saying.
Nice place but probably wouldn’t be my first choice for Japanese food.

All i can say as i am feeding my face with one of the best grilled salmon I have tasted in a long time is Oh Em Geee!
A friend told us she had a new secret place and at first she didn’t want to tell us about it as she doesn’t want it to become crowded. I am actually hesitating on erasing thus and not even post it so no one comes in and that we can come here anytime we want to without waiting a long time to get a seat. I guess I owe it to the Unilocal community to post this.
Nomnomnom. Sorry I had to try some sashimi as it melts in my mouth. The sashimi special platter $ 20 came with 3 pieces of salmon, maguro, hamachi, hotate, ama ebi. All pretty good cuts for $ 20.
We all got the Early Bird Special (5 pm — 6 pm) two choice dinner plate which comes with daily salad, miso soup, rice, and you choose 2 entrees from grilled salmon, mackeral, chicken karaage, croquette, curry or daily special. All that for just $ 12. From this I chose the grilled salmon and chicken Karaage. As I wrote in the beginning, the salmon was grilled perfectly and the Karaage chicken was the same. It also came with two pieces of crème cheese and salmon summer roll which made me smile as my taste buds opened up and my endorphins were singing give me more, give me.
Got to taste a sliver of my dad’s miso butterfish and it just melted in my mouth. I went for another piece only to hear my dad say «eh get your own.» You would figure he would let me since I was paying for dinner but oh no!
After all this we were stuffed. The waitress came by and asked if wanted dessert and we all hesitated but I saw green tea crème brule $ 9 and I love green tea and crème Brule, so we had to order one. It was a pretty good size but under the scoop of ice cream, yes I said ice cream I noticed the top looked burnt and when I tasted it, I was right… it was a little too burnt for my taste. But the inside made it all go away. Still they shouldn’t have burnt it that much as it should be a nice glaze of caramelized sugar and not blackish.
I would of gave five stars but the parking lot is small and they burnt my crème Brule.
We will be coming back for late night happy hour within the next couple days as they have cheap bar food and cheap drinks.

A little hidden gem in the heart of Honolulu. Located right next to Walmart on Makaloa St. We’re always looking for new and exciting places to eat. When you first walk in you are greeted in traditional Japanese… Irrashaimase!!! The staff are friendly and very attentive. They crouch down when you’re ordering so that you are face to face with them. Very helpful and accommodating. There was no agedashi tofu on the menu, but they said they could make, and it was onolicious!!! Better than the one at Shokudo. The dashi was perfect and they sliced up shiitake mushrooms. It’s making my mouth water right this second. We also ordered cow tongue… soft and tender. Deep fried pasta… tasted just like pretzels. My daughter loved it. By the way she also loved the cow tongue, oh… and she’s only 3. We also had bacon wrapped asparagus, and they gave you a choice of either salt and pepper or teriyaki. We went for the teriyaki and it was perfect. We ordered chicken karaage, which was crisp and tender and juicy. Last but not least we ordered the carpaccio which was scallops. O M G!!! So tender, melt in your mouth goodness.
I would definitely recommend this to anyone. Any age, families, groups, dates. I don’t know why they haven’t gotten better reviews, but when we went we had a great time. The servers are great.

Very disappointing. We ordered the Spicy Nabe. There was more fat than meat — had to cut off the excessive fat. Left hungry. Very expensive for what we got.

Most of the existing reviews for Aki here, are accurate.
The service, the delay, food quality and flavor.
Have to ask more than once for something, never brought a dish we ordered.

If you wait another month this place may re incarnate! It was the Creative Bio Dynamic Hale. Then a Yaki Niku place. Now the Yaki niku owner is a partner, and happier, with a new concept.
Good clean place, fair prices, nice atmosphere. You should visit soon, before it changes again.

this place is over priced and the food quality is poor, hardly have any taste. i ate the okitori and it had no taste and the meat was burnt. they service was good over all except they were un organized. do not come here to eat. the manager is racist. they only help out the toursit and dont give attention to the locals. ATTENTION LOCALS do not come here. worst then its old place called yoshi’s «the resturant before akin»

My friends and I saw this place and decided to check it out and give it try. When I walked in, I was impressed at the décor. The décor was modern and very comfortable. The lighting was dim which give off a very calm ambiance. The white comfy chair brightens the restaurant.
We got there and made it for happy hour. We ordered a couple of dinner plates on the happy hour menu, grilled salmon and hamburger steak. Then we tried their okonomiyaki and yakitori as well. The yakitori was pretty pricey and it wasn’t all that tasty. The chicken meatball was a little dry. The okonomiyaki dish took forever, but it was well worth the wait. It was just perfectly cooked and full of taste. The dinner plate came miso soup, mac salad, green salad, rice, and chicken karaage. The grilled salmon was superb. It was lightly grilled and the salmon was buttery goodness. The salad dressing on the green salad was absolutely delicious. I’m not sure what was in the mixture, but I ate all my greens. I’m not big on mac salad but Aki’s mac salad was very light on the mayonnaise which was good for my taste buds for macky salad.
The food was not the greatest but the ambiance made up for it a little. The menu is pretty pricey but happy hour is decent. I do want to give it another try next time. It just opened a couple of weeks ago, so hopefully, the good will get a little better. Ganbatte Kudasai!

Pretty much the same décor as the last two restaurants that tried and failed at this location.
Was looking forward to the yakitori as the last one at this location was pretty good.
However, when the $ 2 sticks with a minimum of ordering two sticks arrives and the meat is diced (notice I say diced) into the size of marbles I was not impressed. Flavor was ok, we ordered shio or salt on most skewers and it was way too salty and everything had zero taste! Also ordered grilled Cesar salad which came with slices of cheddar cheese cut into Kraft singles like triangles! It was odd and gross. Dressing was salty too!
Staff was polite and fine.
I wonder what the next restaurant will be!!!

we came here for their early bird special (4.30 — 6 pm)
for 12 $ you get miso soup, mac salad, chicken karaage, daily special salad and rice
with your choice of steak, hamburger steak, curry or fish.
they serve your food on a really long shape plate and the portion size is quite decent. favor was kind of lacking though. still a little disorganize with the service, but friendly.

Went to the grand opening for Aki and the food was excellent! Formerly, this was called Yoshi Yakitori, which also had a very good menu. Now with some cosmetic adjustments and a new staff imported from Japan, the dinning experience is even better. The name Aki comes from the managing partner who is friendly, bilingual and a gracious host. They have parking in front of the restaurant and free validated parking one block away in the the First Hawaiian Bank-​also on Makaloa Street. I highly recommend this restaurant. Please let me know what you think!