Akasaka Restaurant — Restaurant in La Puente

I've been here twice. Both times, I had several special rolls, and they seemed about average in terms of taste and quality. They are maybe a little pricey, without much variation in price ($11-$14 for special rolls) but overall about average for the bay area for this sort of sushi restaurant. They do have a pretty extensive menu of special rolls, so if that's your thing you might like this place, although they don't have some of the more interesting (probably non-traditional) ingredients that I enjoy (no mango, kiwi, banana, almonds, jalapeno, etc.)

Today, however, I had a very bad experience here. I ordered three special rolls, all with no avocado. First, my food took a VERY long time to arrive. My first roll arrived WITH avocado even though I verified several times while ordering that I didn't want any avocado anywhere, but I was so hungry after waiting forever that I ate it anyway. When I asked the lady to make sure my next two rolls didn't have it, she didn't apologize for the mistake at all. My next roll came and it was missing an ingredient that I had specifically asked them to add and which I had agreed to pay extra for. The last thing I ordered, the Golden Towers, turned out to be MUCH smaller than it showed in the menu photo, and I feel that it was really overpriced because of this. The sauce was also cold and kind of congealed on top, as if they had been sitting for a while before they brought them out to me. So out of my three rolls, all three had something wrong with them, and it took an extremely long time for them to arrive. They arrived one at a time, and I think that the last one arrived 45 minutes or more after I first ordered, and I ended up having to wait 5-10 minutes between each roll. No apologies or explanations of why it took so long, so maybe they consider this normal, but I eat at a lot of sushi places and I have never waited that long anywhere else. Not recommended if you are in a rush. I won't be eating here again. I was very frustrated. They need to improve their...

I came here at 11:30am (opening time) on a Friday and there was already a line out the door. But, thank god it's only because the door hasn't opened yet ;). I want to thank them for allowing me to sit there for an hour, waiting for my friend to arrive. They were super courteous and kept refilling my water!

But to my disappointment, the chirashi bowl no longer has a special lunch price. Also, the price increased from when my friends went- to $45. Each person gets a complimentary salad and miso soup. Both were very good. I loved the dressing on the salad, which I assume is a traditional miso/ginger. But on the bowl...

I read so many reviews that the bowl can easily fill up two people. I had the intestinal flu that week, so my stomach capacity had shrunken. However, my friend and I felt very hungry after finishing the bowl. The fish selection was fresh, and sliced generously. I saw the sushi chef work SO quickly. There was only one, and the restaurant was packed at all times. She was able to cut the sashimi, make the rolls, AND talk to the people by the bar. I give her MAD PROPS!!

The bowl had uni, scallop, sweet shrimp, ikura, salmon, spicy tuna "paste," seared tuna, yellow tail, masago, and this marinated brined octopus. The octopus was my favorite and I would want to order that next time by itself!! It was pickled and came with pickled vegetables too.. mMmM!! The rice on the bottom was good and I believe it was topped off with some tempura flakes, not sure though. However, I didn't think this was worth $45, as I could've finish most of the bowl myself with this...

How have I never heard about this place until recently?!?!? OMG. What have I been missing out. I went on a date here - it's nice and intimate, so intimate you can be holding and joining conversations with your neighboring table.

Reason why it's 4s vs 5s - the price of the Chirashi bowl. Granted it's delicious and everything in there is Uber fresh and tasty, I just can't justify eating a $45 bowl of sashimi (with tuna, spicy tuna, ahi tuna, salmon, yellow tail, octopus, uni, 3 different types of roe, unagi) with sushi rice and tempura crunchies in there. It's frigging delicious, but $45. I'm torn between saying that it's a decent deal. Yes, the two of us struggled to finish it - but somehow we did. Just not all the rice. Also, the fish was cut just a weeeeeee too thick, it got a bit chewy on some pieces of fish. BUT you can really taste the sweet freshness of the sashimi fish.

Also - we ordered an order of Uni nigiri. OMG - oveeeeeeeeeeerflow of uni. Uniiiiiiiii madness. So good, and so fresh. So sweet and delicate. eep. yumyum!

Tips - Make sure you have a reservation. Ours was at 6:30pm and we pretty much got seated at the correct time and barely any waiting. Share rolls and the chirashi bowl Tiny Parking lot - but plenty of street parking. It's a bit dark and stuff. It gets hot in the restaurant, so bring layers - especially if it's...