AKI - Japanese Restaurant & Cocktail Bar — Restaurant in Valletta

Oh boy, I think this was my toughest Michelin star experience (been to 8 previously). Honestly, not even sure how they got a Michelin star in the first place.

Entering and getting a table was fine the hostess was friendly and we had our pick of a table. The tables outside are in the alleyway that marks the entrance to the restaurant. Not foreign to Malta but they don’t have the same atmosphere of the restaurant.

We sat inside at a two person table that had a wobble strong enough to spill your drink. We ordered a plum wine, which was good but there wasn’t space for the bottle so they placed it a few feet away under the bar in the customer side. It was inconvenient to access for us but they were fairly on top of keeping the glasses full for the most part.

Our server was hard to get a hold of when we were ready to order, we were at the table for 15 minutes before we were able to place an order for drinks and then another 15 before food despite being one of seven tables occupied. When we asked about the fish of the day they had to check in with two different servers before asking the kitchen. Then we had to find out they didn’t have lobster available after trying to order it. I’ve had more at tentative staff that were more professional at 3 or 4 star restaurants.

For food we started with ordering the shrimp mini tacos, duck spring rolls, and sampler of skewers.

Of the three dishes the duck spring rolls were delicious and definitely worthy of the restaurant.

Warning: the shrimp mini tacos are ceviche style (which is fine, but not noted on the menu), but the wakame and crispy garlic (noted) were barely there and are majoring overwhelmed by the ceviche flavor if you can see them. It was an unexpected experience based on reading the menu.

Second warning for the skewers: the chicken satay has a fish sauce element added to the peanut sauce which is not an experience I’ve had eating at Thai or Japanese restaurants before and it was overpowering where they tasted more like eating a fish then eating chicken. The shrimp skewer was underwhelming and also tasted more like a heavier salty fish flavor, think sea urchin, hen what I’ve come to understand good shrimp taste like. I will say the pork belly skewer was tasty and the sauce on that helped saved the chicken skewer.

We had intended to order more dishes but the terrible service and inability to get our servers attention several times deterred from the experience and we decided to leave and go somewhere else to finish out our meal.

The general atmosphere was great. Cool bar & neat artwork.

We definitely will not return nor would we...

Food: some are a hit, some are a miss.

Here are some recommendations from what Ive had: tuna tartare, tuna sashimi, salmon sashimi, foie gras sashimi, creme brulee.

These were OK, but nothing more: wagyu sashimi, oysters, rock shrimp tempura.

The big miss: chicken tacos. How disappointing! So extremely bland!

Overall food rating: 7/10. Some things were nice, some were OK, some were bad. At an upscale Michelin recommended restaurant there should not be anything on the menu that is less than good! Especially for the prices of some of the dishes.

Service: Our waiter was very kind, refilled our glasses without being prompted, generally a smiley dude. After asking how the food was and telling him that the taco was very disappointing, he offered us a free creme brulee on the house. He singlehandedly made our dining experience so much better! Shout out to Amara.

However, not all positives in the "service" section. Service was generally a bit slow, but to be expected with a full house.

Overall service rating: 9/10. Amara is a cool guy who just wants to help where he can. It is not his fault some of the food was mediocre.

Atmosphere: considering the style and vibe of this restaurant (which is very nice), I would say this is an upscale dining place where you expect to see people in nothing less than a nice shirt - so why does it feel like a club? Music is blasting, having to shout at the table to hear each other. The tables are very close together to fit more guests, so neighbouring conversations can be heard, which contributes to the need for shouting across the table so your dining partner will hear you.

Atmosphere overall rating: 5/10. Looks like a nice restaurant, but it is way too crowded and the DJ blasting club music is just unnecessary and offputting.

Overall restaurant rating: I would love to give this place 4/5 as I tried so hard to love it, but too many items on the menu that I have tried are just not "amazing". And for these prices, it SHOULD be amazing. The service, especially our waiter Amara was the highlight of the night. I feel very harsh giving it 3/5, but there are many things that could be improved on. See below.

How to improve: chefs, please taste your food. If it is less than "good", do not serve it. turn down the music! Maybe play some softer songs that actually fit the style and vibe of the place. get rid of some tables to create space. Less tables = more exclusivity, more control over the food being served, as there will be less load in the kitchen, therefore more happy customers. You are a michelin guide recommended restaurant, so...

In spite of all the subsequent efforts of the staff to fix all the mistakes made over and over again, I can't give more than 3 stars. We have ordered 4 tasting menus, and our experience was as follows: The dishes were brought chaotically. Between some dishes we waited for half an hour, others were brought either together or immediately after each other without a break of at least a few minutes between them. For example, the main courses were brought all at once, we had on the table two portions of salmon, two portions of duck, two portions of potatoes, two portions of rice, two portions of broccoli, you didn't even know what and how to eat them. Not to mention I started with the duck and potatoes and by the time I got to the rice it got cold and dry and that doesn't resemble like a michelin star experience to me. chaotic service. Although we ordered 4 menus, there were always 2 portions that we had to share (I expect that in such a restaurant each person gets their own plate with their own portion, no matter how small it is), one portion of fries came with sauce, the other did not, one portion of duck came with sauce, another did not, initially we only got a portion of broccoli, and when we asked why it was only one they told us that they would bring the other one right away. Also from the series of chaotic service, it was never explained to us what we had on our plate, not even when we received something on the house. Between the two types of appetizers we received 2 gyoze, why 2 and not 4, as we were at the table, we didn't understand until now and only after we asked, we found out that they were pork gyoze on the house. The food overall pretty mediocre, and the salmon was even burnt and dry and when we noticed this the staff only replied "oh ok". (We later received an extra dessert and complimentary drinks for our inconvenience). Overworked staff, always waiting very long after any service. Toilet not very clean and welcoming, and at the end of the evening we found that it was also out of soap. Overall would not recommend, we had the pleasant surprise of eating much better and having a very pleasant experience at other restaurants in Valletta. The only thing I would recommend this restaurant for are the drinks (their specialty cocktails) really...