Akimi — Restaurant in Nassau Bay

I hate to write a review as this.... I have been going to this restaurant since it opened almost 20 years ago. Here goes.... The servers were very polite and attentive. I am a diabetic and I have always subbed brown rice instead of white rice. I do that with the sushi as well for many years. I was in there about six months ago and I ordered some sushi with brown rice for a take out. A new woman "Stephanie" took more order and then gave me a lecture about brown rice and that it is not the same as white rice. I was very nice and told her that I was well aware of my order and that I have been ordering items that way for almost two decades. Anyway, I go in last night to dine in and the restaurant is completely empty. My friend and I sit down and order our food... etc. Remember our waitress was extremely respectful. After ten minutes, server comes back and says there is now an upcharge on brown rice. This is where I have a few things to say...

If there are upcharges on items they should be stated on menu or posted upon ordering. I should not be informed ten minutes later. No, there was no signage, nor anything on menu of any upcharge.

I inquired with the server regarding the upcharge. She said "It was the person in charge." I asked to speak with the person in charge. No, I am not a "Karen." I merely wanted an explanation of a "New Policy." Stephanie comes over to the table and I ask this question... "What is with the upcharge for brown rice?" She replied "Everything is going up." I then asked her "Why did it take over ten minutes for me to be informed of this upcharge?" She did not give much of an answer than a defensive face stating "that's how it is..." I proceeded to ask, when/ where etc of such a policy in which this took effect. I asked "Are you the owner?" She replied "I manage this place." Keep in mind she is not using any sort of customer service skills, whatsoever.... She would not give me her name. I was only curious if Akimi was under a new leadership. She walked away.

To be fair, I am pissed at her attitude at this point. I was very nice. My partner and I have both worked in the restaurant industry for over ten years. Keep this in mind....

At this point, we had received no food items and I was ready to walk out of this restaurant. We both stayed to see what happened. Anyway, some of the food arrived. The Vietnamese egg rolls arrive and they were burnt and very greasy. I was thinking a manger should be on "Quality Control" or on "Expo" of what is coming out of the kitchen. I suggested to my partner that we just leave. We stayed....

The sushi with the brown rice was delivered to the table... I ordered the "Rock n' Roll" and Salmon Nigiri. I mentioned the restaurant was empty.... The shrimp tempura were absolutely rubbery and from the day before at best. The texture was absolutely repugnant. The brown rice was extremely dry and was very undercooked. We ended up not eating much...

The moral of this review, management is everything and if Stephanie is charge, then this place will definitely go down with flailing arms...

Bonus material: I was getting takeout a couple months ago, and I noticed Stephanie being loud and rude to a customer on the phone. From my many years of experience in customer service, never be defensive, nor rude. Management should take every situation with a grain of salt...

If the owner is reading this review, please beware of Stephanie as a manager. She is not customer oriented in any sense of the word. Stephanie, if you are reading this, please take this advice and learn something about customer relations. I used to LOVE this restaurant, however I have seen a few incidents with the new management. There is something new at Akimi and I am not sure it is good. After a couple decades of being loyal, I am going to pass on...

Tried to eat here for the first time yesterday evening First red flag was the place was empty. However we decided to give it a try, as the person asked if we need a table for two, and we said not sure its our first time here, and we were looking at the pictures of the food displayed above the counter. The guys behind the counter said I am sure you will find something you will like, and we should give it a try.

Ordered the egg rolls as an appetizer. Very bland, reminded us of frozen egg rolls from Wal Mart. Asked for hot mustard for them, (had to ask a different server as ours was no where to be found even though at that time we were one of three tables in the whole place. We never received the hot mustard, and just kept dipping them in soy sauce to make them edible.

Next we ordered the crunchy roll, and if you are familiar with sushi, this roll is very common, and they taste and look similar at almost every place. Guess what? not the case here. They were some sort of roll with a pile of crunchy something piled on top. Not sure what it was. The roll was again bland, and tasted very fishy. We ate most of it, and waited for our next one.

Next up the soft shell crab roll. Here is where things got real bad real fast literally. My wife took the first bite and literally spit it out on to the table. Needless to say I did not try it. She said it tasted like it was rotten. We again looked around for our server, and had to ask a different server to get our server. Once she arrived we told her about it, and she just took it and walked away.

At this point we were obviously just ready to go. However we also ordered a BEEF stir fry, and it was just dropped at our table. The meat did not resemble beef in anyway. Whatever it was, was battered and deep fried. Has anyone ever seen or heard of that when ordering a beef stir fry? Guess what happened next? My poor wife again took the first bite, and you guessed it, right on to the table. My curiosity got the best of me this time and I had to try it, maybe it was just her. Nope! tasted rank, and I did the same.

Now we are just done, looked for our server, found her and asked that that she please send the manager. The manager comes over, if you want to call her that. She immediately said she would not comp anything even before we asked. Of course we reminded her that we did not eat either dish that we sent back, and that we would gladly pay for the food we did eat. We argued for a few minutes, she walked off came back with the bill and threw it on the table and walked off. She only took off the stir fry, and we had to pay for the rank sushi roll we did not eat. I told her we would not be back, and look for my review.

FYI the Houston area just went through a winter storm, and most of the city lost power and water. In my opinion they were trying to serve the food that spoiled, to not take the loss. We both were sick afterward, and needles to say this place was absolutely horrible from the service to the food, as well as the dirty tables and environment.

If you still choose to try this place after reading this, good luck, and I hope you have health insurance. You are...

I used to enjoy going here and the old MGMT was very accommodating, however that has changed. First we had to wait 20min for table for 10. They are NOT good for groups. Most important, NOT for food sensitivities either. We'll stick with MASA SUSHI@ 646 instead where the owner & mgr have great customer service!! I have food allergies/sensitivities and know what I can and cannot eat. I was very specific about what I needed my shrimp cooked in (keep it simple: oil salt pepper) when they came there was some sort of crust on my shrimp. That would've been fine if they would've just tried to rectify the issue. Instead...They denied the crust that everyone else could clearly see. I requested the manager, she said the same thing. She said it's"seasoning, and we marinate". I wonder who on Earth marinates shrimp? Other than for ceviche?! I then asked her specifics on seasoning (even though I specifically asked for oil salt pepper). Often, Asian restaurant will use MSG/yeast extract/food coloring/nitrites/gluten in seasoning which I can't have or tempura batter which has eggs and will cause me to have anaphylaxis or migraines, etc. It's not hard to make to order with salt oil & pepper! !! I was mainly extremely disappointed with their lack of customer service. Needless to say, they didn't comp it, nor bring me fresh unadulterated shrimp cooked simply as requested... All they wanted to do was argue that there was nothing on them and I was NOT willing to risk it by tasting it. So I left all 12 of them on the plate and ate the stinking rice noodles and lettuce, leaving hangry and tired. We will...