Aka Sushi House — Restaurant in Houston

This place is great if you enjoy sipping on happy hour drinks, shouting to converse with your fellow dining companions, and oh yeah.. having your waiter botch your order, call you a liar, and try to charge you for an item you never received.

To clarify - During my last visit I ordered a salmon avocado hand roll and California roll from the reverse happy hour menu. The waiter, Tony, brought out a spicy salmon roll and California roll, which 1. was not even what i ordered and 2. costs more than a hand roll. He placed it on the table and promptly walks off with no apology just a "They made this roll instead. You can share it with him," as he points to my friend seated next to me. At this point I'm thinking to myself this isn't remotely close to what I actually ordered, surely they'll bring out my actual order later. Fast forward to the end of the meal. The check comes out and includes a charge on it for the spicy salmon roll rather than the salmon avocado hand roll that never came. I mention this to Tony. He tells me "I know, they made that instead. I told you." Okay, yes, Tony you told me that but you also said to, and I quote, "share it with him," so as your paying customer I would expect the kitchen to provide me with what I actually ordered considering I was never asked if I wanted the spicy salmon roll in place of my hand roll. Tony then has the gall to snap back with "I never said to share it. Don't lie to me." Wait. What. Really?! Cue my complete disbelief and internal questioning as to how my waiter Tony 1. felt like he had to right to call me a liar and 2. outright lied to my face by claiming that he never told me to share it in the first place. I get that waitstaff has to oversee many tables and isn't expected to remember every single thing they tell every single customer, but please do not insult me by calling me a liar just because you don't remember that you did indeed say something that you are now refuting. I then ask to speak to the manager because Tony now tells me all he can do is change the charge from the spicy salmon roll to the salmon avocado roll. Okay... Thanks? Thanks for now wanting to charge me for something I never received? Tony walks over to the manager, speaks to him, the manager pushes a few buttons, Tony comes back and says they took the spicy salmon roll off. I appreciated the fact that they did this, but was disappointed that the manager did not make any human gesture alongside it.. like actually coming over to talk to the customer and apologize for the mix-up (our table was literally 2 feet away from where the manager was standing the entire time).

To be fair, I've been here a few times in the past and service was neither commendable nor god-awful, but this last visit will deter me from recommending this establishment to others.

tldr and service aside - Aka serves decent sushi at okay prices. It's most worth it during happy hour and is a decent place to grab a bite if you aren't looking for a cozy, intimate environment to talk and catch up with ppl (acoustics are terrible and make the interior unnecessarily loud.. but hey maybe that's the vibe they're going for). Expect a wait.

However, given the many sushi options Houston has to offer and keeping in mind the awful service from the last visit, my recommendation is this - The next time you're craving sushi, do yourself a favor and visit another establishment where you can enjoy both fresh sushi and...

Okay so my boyfriend and I have been semi regulars for a year but sadly we won’t be coming back… our night was ruined by a bartender with a very bad attitude. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so uncomfortable sitting in a restaurant in my life… i am a server/bartender as well at a local sushi restaurant and I have never even thought about doing the things that bartender did last night. So first we sit down and he’s just rushing all these drinks and ends up spilling an alcoholic beverage for a table and then he asks us what he can get us and he plops down two waters then violently puts my Coca Cola on the table not even all the way filled and it still proceeds to spill everywhere. No apology. He then walks over to a girl sitting at the end of the bar who we later realized was his girlfriend, and begins complaining about a low tip from a previous guest. He was using expletives and insulting this customer in such a loud voice it was obvious he wanted us to hear. He then blurts out that he actually EXPECTS a 20% tip “at the least” from every guest. When he takes our order, he rushes through the whole process and writes it down and a small ripped piece of paper and goes to the computer and is still asking me what I ordered because I guess he couldn’t read it??? very unprofessional. later the sushi rolls come out on the same plate even though it was two rolls, one for my bf and one for me. Mine had tempura all over that spilled onto my boyfriends that did not. The rest of our order didn’t come out for another 20 minutes or so and It just wasn’t good. Maybe it was the terrible service that left a terrible taste in my mouth. When a party of 5 came in 25 minutes before close, the bartender made a remark saying “flabbergasted” then treats them pretty weirdly and I could see the switch in his tone when he realized they were not gonna be there for long and only getting sake bombers. Anywho, he was a terrible bartender and just shouldn’t even be in the food industry. He was a tall white guy, brown longish hair. Thanks for ruining our favorite sushi spot and the only place we go for date nights! This bartender needs his attitude checked immediately because he single handedly ruined...

My car got broken into while dining here. It was on a Friday evening and happened at 8:30pm. My car was parked near the liquor store on the side nearest to Aka. After speaking with some shop owners, I learned that this is a common occurrence in this strip mall. I also learned that management, or the owner, of Aka does not care about you. The shop owners in this strip mall wanted to hire security to patrol this area but Aka was the only one that voted against this, even though the minor cost would've been split amongst the owners.

I'm sure Aka has enough customers that they do not even care about losing any business to customers like myself who have been affected by the crime in this area. I'm here to warn you to hide your belongings and be wary. I suppose Aka thinks they are doing enough by having signs that warn you to lock your cars and hide your valuables but these are only located in front of Aka. The fact is, this restaurant gets so busy that people always have to drive around finding parking so you may end up parking elsewhere, and where I parked a couple of shops down did not have any signs.

As for the food, it wasn't bad. Happy Hour appears to be cut off at the exact minute so get your order in promptly. Happy Hour prices are pretty good and offer a decent selection of sushi and other dishes. Service was fine. It's busy so there's a wait during peak hours.

Any good dining experience that I might've had was ruined, and to learn that Aka would cheapen out on security at the expense of their customers to be greedy is telling. They get enough business but they do not deserve my business, and I hope that you read this review and think twice before spending your money where the owner does not care about...