Akaihana Sushi & Grill — Restaurant in Phoenix

We really wanted to like this place after seeing so many decent reviews of their food. We ordered a portion of vegetable tempura that had been deep fried to the point of it being too sickening to eat. Anyone who has tasted true tempura knows that the best tempura has a lighter-than-a-feather kind of taste and texture. What was put in front of us was the complete opposite of that: heavy, oily, lacking in freshness, and heavily battered.

As for the specific sushi rolls that we ordered (crab/avo and chicken teriyaki), these were mediocre at best. The rice did not taste fresh at all and the chicken didn’t have a hint of proper teriyaki flavour. The crab roll was not as good as it could have been to be totally honest. We also ordered unagi - the price we paid for it compared to the amount of eel that was served to us did not make any sense at all. At the risk of sounding like a complainer, I’d say that we received significantly more rice than actual unagi. The unagi itself tasted ok but nothing to write home about.

Overall, the food was totally tasteless and lacked real and fresh ingredients. The way the tempura was cooked was disgusting if I’m being honest - we had taken some home and upon heating the next day, the batter became soggy and there was a pool of oil mixed with water in the plate.

The problem with restaurants like Akaihana is that they use large menus to attract more customers. Larger menus are not easy to digest by the customer and much less easy to finesse by the chefs. The best balance is to keep it simple and offer an experience to your customers rather than trying to impress with more options to gain more profit.

The only reason this review is brutal is because we’ve had some of the best Japanese food in times past (and air fairer prices). Our expectations were therefore quite high when we considered that from the outside Akaihana has very good reviews left by thousands of customers.

The atmosphere of Akaihana didn’t reflect anything Japanese-related (this is just my own opinion). The two positive things that we did notice was their service and cleanliness. The waitresses were friendly and attentive - we didn’t experience bad service of any sort. It’s a shame we can’t say the same...

One star reviews are incredibly lame and it sorrows me to have to apply a one star rating to this place, but its the truth. We showed up with a party of five and were seated outside on the patio with just one other table and things started out pretty rough. We ordered 3 beers and a round of water which took, very literally, 35 minutes to show up. At this point, we probably should have used our intuition and left, but we figured we were past the worst. We were wrong. The appetizers eventually showed up maybe 15 minutes later and were all cold and inedible. Fried calamari and the fried chicken were mushy so they were sent back. The rolls showed up, of which the tempura roll was also quite cold, but the others were meh( at least they were temperature appropriate). At this point, we had received 4/5 rolls and decided it was time to get out... so we asked to dismiss then final roll and to just get our check. Not once did we get an apology or an explanation as to what was going on with the crazy wait times or the quality of the food and for that reason specifically, they get a 1 star. If you witnessed what we had, you would know that I can only tell you to avoid this place and go to Yen at 43rd and Bell. Would never return . Would never recommend. And if you do go, be cautious and make sure there is more than one waitress staffed to run tables. Akaihana was a huge disappointment and wins title of the worst place I have...

I really wish I could’ve given a higher rating as I was really excited to go to this restaurant based off of previous reviews. However most of the food proved to be pretty bland and lacking flavor. The woman serving us was very kind and polite however the young man that initially sat us looked like he would rather be anywhere other than at work. We ordered the jalapeño poppers which is a dish that traditionally would have a good amount of crunch however the poppers seemed soggy and also lacked flavor. The Las Vegas roll was the best of the order, however, it left much to be desired. The crab meat had a little to no flavor and tasted more like a dollop of canned meat. The teriyaki sauce on the chicken was excellent so definitely no complaints there. I probably wouldn’t visit again as there are so many valleys sushi options in this one, in my opinion, was just not up to par. Truly my favorite part of the meal was the ice cold water that I was served before eating. I am very picky with restaurant water, but I’d be curious as to where I could purchase it independently. Granted if the water is the best thing on the menu, you might be doing...