Bistro Akira — Restaurant in Osaka

I excitedly made reservations here because the Google reviews were very positive and it had a 4.8 rating. I’m honestly not sure how. My partner and I are cooks and huge foodies, visiting japan from New York. We ordered a ton of food from the menu, and had seats where we had a view into the kitchen. We ordered the raw oysters, all 5 types for each of us. The oysters are clearly not shucked there, and have a tasteless tap water flavor as if they were pre shucked and sitting in tap water. It was offensive to serve. I’ve never been to an oyster restaurant where the oysters were pre shucked, let alone not sitting in their own juices. Oysters should taste like the sea- these were disgusting. I’ve never had oysters this bad. Each of the 5 oysters had an identical tap water flavor. We had the pickles which were fine, but a very meager amount. We also got the salmon and shrimp salad. The shrimp salad was taken out of the fridge and tasted like stale refrigerator food, the cured salmon on the salad was tasteless and the worst I’ve ever had, and the fried shrimp on top was purely decoration. Everything tasted like tap water. At that point we told them we would like to pay and leave, without getting all the other dishes we ordered. The lobster was fresh, but at that point the food had been so bad I didnt care to stay to see if any of it was worthwhile. I’m glad I had a view into the kitchen so I could see for myself how poorly things were prepared. It seems like this place plates things well for Instagram but the taste is terrible. My partner and I paid 9,000 yen just to leave without having to argue that we didn’t want to pay for such horrible food. I wonder if I should have argued, but it seemed like work and we don’t speak Japanese. We left and went to McDonald’s instead. I recommend anyone with reservations here leave and go eat anywhere else. This is not only the worst place we’ve eaten in Japan, but maybe the worst restaurant I’ve eaten at period. I do not know how the...

A unique and delicious find in Osaka. We had never eaten Japanese oysters before and were pleasantly delighted at how tasty they are. The set was nice because you go from light to rich/creamy, similar to how a sushi chef might go from white to fatty during an omakase meal. The Nagasaki oysters were by far the best. Hokkaido is yummy too.

The lemon cream pasta is incredible. It manages to be both so so creamy and rich yet stays light in terms of the weight of the sauce. Sometimes, when a sauce is this rich, it can be too heavy and/or oily, but that wasn’t the case. You have to get the lemon cream pasta if you eat here.

The risotto was nice and subtle, which complemented the lemon cream pasta well. You may want something else if you don’t have a very strong dish paired with it. The chicken sashimi was interesting to eat but we probably wouldn’t order it again.

We walked in at around 4 PM and were able to get seated immediately since it was off hours. You will want to make reservations if you want prime...

We had an extra ordinary night at Bistro Akira. Highly recommended for delicious food and very good service!

Our waiter Sako was extremely friendly, in English, and he gave several times good advise during our order of the menu. We had an outstanding starter of cold oyster with sea urchin and beef. After that we shared a fantastic dish with oysters in garlic butter (with by Sako advised bread to dip in that mind blowing butter). Our main courses were spot on. We had fish with risotto in champaign and a ramen with oysvers. Simply sensational. We also enjoyed the desserts. All was accompanied by Australian sparkling wine.

We think the chef has a great talent for balance and creativity, with a Japnese view on European cuisine (while we are used to a Europa view on Japanese food - the difference is super interesting).

Bistro Akira seems to be a hidden gem, since we were the only non-Japanese guests throughout...