Sushi Akazu — Restaurant in Osaka

Before booking this omakase restaurant, I read several reviews on Google and one of them was from Lindsey Chen, who gave it a 1-star review. However, since she only had 4 reviews in total, I foolishly decided to ignore her review. Boy, was I wrong! She was spot on about everything!

I cannot fathom the need for washing every bowl and dish immediately after we finished eating. It's almost as if they don't have extra bowls and dishes in the restaurant. The noise and smell of dish soap made it impossible for us to have a conversation. They should have the decency to wait for customers to leave before doing their dishes!

We ordered a bottle of cold sake and ended up paying a pretty penny for it. You would expect the restaurant to bring out an ice bucket to keep it chilled, but instead, they left it sitting on top of a box fridge. We had to ask for an ice bucket ourselves. If we're paying that much for a bottle of sake, I expect them to do it without us having to ask.

About a quarter of the way through our omakase experience, the chef decided to offer an "extra item" - a fish roe mochi wrapped in seaweed. We were not that interested, but the chef insisted it was free, so we ended up getting it. Matter of fact, everyone in the restaurant, including other guests, got it as well. When we got the bill from the server, SURPRISE!!! They charged us 2000 yen per piece for the "free" extra item. Later on during the meal, the chef offered another "extra item" - a rare uni from Hokkaido - and wanted to charge us 5000 yen per piece. We said no, it's a lot of money for one piece of uni sushi, you could buy a whole tray of uni for the same price.

The quality of the sushi was subpar. The rice was not kept at body/room temperature. When you bit into a piece of toro, it was somehow hot and cold at the same time, which did not taste good at all. There were 2-3 pieces of sushi that ended up falling apart and required the chef's attention again. The fish quality was good and fresh, but I admit I wasn't expecting a carbonara pasta dish during a sushi omakase meal. It's very odd that they would serve that. Everyone at the restaurant rejected the chef's offer to add more rice to the carbonara sauce in a poor attempt to make a risotto.

At this point, we were completely exhausted by the whole experience. But the nightmare did not stop there. When they brought out the bill, we found numerous "extra items" and, like Lindsey said before, the prices at this restaurant are not transparent. You're likely in for a shock when you receive your bill.

At 24000 yen per person, I assure you, you could find a better omakase...

Great experience and amazing sushi. The red vinegar rice added some cool flavor to the sushi. I enjoyed every single course prepared by amazing chef Murakami. 😌

Behind the bar there was also a wonderful lady who spoke English, Mandarin and Japanese from what I could tell. she was able to tell us a lot about every fish, their provenance and more.

Overall the staff was all very kind and funny. And very interactive with the guests.

As far as I could see there were 8 seats in the restaurant and they work in shifts. So if you have a reservation. Make sure you’re on time since otherwise you’ll be catching up with the courses.

All the courses were great and definitely enough to satisfy you for the night. My girlfriend could barely finish the last course and had to ask for extra small portions.

When I told the chef I didn’t like sea urchin that much he kindly offered to substitute that course with any fish of my liking of the previous courses.

Regarding the drinks, besides some drinks like green tea that come with the final courses I had some sake which were recommended to me by the waitress. All good!

Before going, I saw some other reviews talking about shady practices and annoyances they had about a dishwasher? I can say for us none of those things were an issue and we had no clue what they were talking about. The staff never tried to offer us anything besides the set menu. Also besides rinsing some cups we never had any issues with anything going on in front of us. So don’t be discouraged.

Overall I would highly recommend this Omakase...

Seared bonito: excellent and fresh. Great starter

Kinki shabu shabu in ponzu sauce: the fish was amazing even though it was cooked. Sauce complemented it very well

Kansai-style grilled unagi: this is my first time having kansai-style, which forgoes the sauce and only had salt. It was DELICIOUS and really allows the flavors of the unagi to shine through

3 tunas: we had 3 types of tuna. The chutoro was probably my favorite, as it melted in my mouth. The seared ootoro was a close second. I think I would have enjoyed it more completely raw

Hokkaido scallop and the hair tail fish chawanmushi were strong contenders as well.

The Hokkaido Purple Uni was SO creamy.

The abalone with truffle sauce had so much truffle on it! The sauce was incredibly delicious. It really elevated the abalone to the next level.

Finally, the last course is a minced tuna hand roll. If you ask for the large, it is the equivalent of about 8 nigiri pieces. Amazing LOL

Service was above and beyond. Our waitress spoke English and Chinese in addition to Japanese. She was very helpful with translations! The chef didn't speak much English or Chinese, but he did his best to converse with us. It was a really...