Runni Akihabara — Restaurant in Madrid

Definitely one of the unforgettable experiences due to how well the ambient is in this rotating sushi buffet. Naming itself the Akihabara sushi, the entrance takes on an appearance of the metro station of Akihabara and brings tons of the moe culture to life via stickers on the window and the pink-ish ambient light. As of the techy part of Akihabara, it’s not really well represented apart from maybe a huge Godzilla popping out from the wall. (May Queen nyan^2)

We timed our visit to exactly when they just open (at 1pm) to avoid too much traffic. If you don’t reserve a table and come late, the amount of queue is going to drive you crazy. The multilingual staff help you to find your table but despite them being professionals and working as hard as they can, you can notice how there is a clear lack of staff judging by the time you are unattended.

The moment you sit down you can start eating away, and the amount of choices will amaze you. There is an upper belt for hot dishes and an lower one for cold dishes (basically what’s not heated). Sure, while the variety is impressive, most of them don’t even taste half as impressive as they seem. You also need to work with a time limit of one hour, which is definitely not enough if you are considering to chitchat quite a bit. However, if you go blitz then you’ll only need half as much time. (Do know that from what I hear there is a limit of 3 dessert dishes per person but that isn’t really enforced of anywhere on the information cards inside the restaurant. Just a heads up.)

While the decoration is great, the posters could use some renewing. They are still hanging a Breath of the Wild 2 poster which is definitely from years back, as we have the new Tears of the Kingdom now. They have a dedicated corner for gachapon which is great but as result they have too much spare space not able to be used. The rotating belt could certainly get longer and fit more tables in there.

While things like security in the rotating belts being tight help ensure some the hygiene of the food, things like the whole restaurant not labeling vegan-friendly or allergies may make it a not-so-pleasant trip for some.

Located in the vicinity of 2 metro stations and a paid-access parking lot, it’s really easy to access being in downtown Madrid. What’s funny about this place is that there is another buffet right besides it and gets absolutely no customers while this one has tons lining up for queue. Definitely the choice of the...

After visiting running sushi in osaka (from here on i'll refer to them as "osaka" and "Akihabara" instead of the full names), Akihabara was... Exceptionally underwhelming.

For starters, we're greeted with news that we needed to have a reservation to use a table, otherwise we'd need to use the bar. So we went to the bar. Bit worse chairs, if the bar filled up two people would get completely blocked in... But fine, we could do with that.

We are also told there are three types of dishes: warm, cold, and dessert, these last ones signaled by white dishes. We were only allowed to eat three of them. In osaka we could eat as many as we wanted of any kind of dish. Fine. We can work around that...

We arrive at the table, and the individual tablecloths... Are ads for the franchise, unlike the informative menu in osaka where we could see the available dishes (and ask for one if we haven't seen it in a while. This technically also happened in Akihabara, but knowing the available dishes is something of a requirement for that). Okay, we didn't really plan on asking for specific dishes, but we doubt it'd be much trouble to blindly try the different foods...

And then we start eating... And it's the first time eating out i think some food would be benefited with some salt. One of the noodle dishes was tasteless. As in it filled the mouth and left nothing on the taste buds. Okay, we don't get that dish again and should be fine...

We start getting dessert. We have three main options: fruit, 2 small chocolates in one almost comically large dish... Or chocolate cakes. That's it. Fruit or chocolate.

Of course, i skipped over some other "minor" problems that are more opinion-based in this review, but It's fair to say i won't be returning to akihabara in...

I visited on a Saturday at around 19 hours (7pm). Place wasn't crowded just yet. It was fully booked online after 20:00, hence I had to go a bit early.

After entering the establishment, the waiter assigns your seat and explains you how this place works. In short: You have one hour to eat, colored plates are included in the all-you-can eat menu, the white plates you get three free of charge and can buy extras if you want. Drinks cost extra.

In an hour you do get to eat your belly full for sure. The food was of very varying quality during my visit. Many of the sushi pieces were okay but nothing mind-blowing. Some of the tuna sushi looked dry.

At my time slot some of the warm food felt like it had been running for long. After my time was nearing its end a lot of fresh food starting to appear. Both the sushi and warm food tasted certainly better. I think I was unlucky coming at a slow moment.

My favorites were the dumplings, the beef and shrimps which tasted great. I'm not for desserts so can't say much about that. Desserts included some sort of chocolate cake or assorted fruits (watermelon, pineapple).

I think you will have the best experience at busy hours when the food gets replenished more often.

Some other reflections: Some of the waiters spoke good English but not everyone. Soap dispensers were empty in...