Akaya Sushi, Izakaya & Ramen — Restaurant in Richardson

Visited on October 23, 2017

Edited visit: September 19, 2021

It's been almost four years since the last time I visited. Since they are still in business we gave them another chance at the request of some neighborhood friends. I am glad I did. The service has improved along with the food. The menu is huge, as are the rolls. I'm sure there is something here for everyone now. I do hope they continue on this path and do wish them continued success.

Old review:

Sushi Hinoki is no more. Ownership has changed from the last time I was here two weeks ago and it is now called Sushi Akaya or Sushi Aka Ya (as shown on my receipt).

The buffet that made the place so great is gone with the new owners, and it seems the wait time to get your food has increased significantly. With two other people in the restaurant on a Saturday night at 5:30 it took 20 minutes for our order. That’s close to double what it used to take.

Since ownership had changed we decided to keep our order simple. We had one shrimp tempura roll and a crawfish roll. Both were cold when they arrived at our table. We also ordered two very simple rolls: a spicy salmon roll which had an unusual taste, almost as if it were burnt or the spices were off, and we had a Spicy tuna/salmon roll. Neither of which were anything to write home about.

On the plus side three dipping sauces were brought to the table with our order: a spicy mayo, a chili, and an eel sauce. We did not order it, but we were also served miso soup prior to our order being delivered. It was a bit heavy on the onions, but it was serviceable.

I truly believe removing the buffet was a mistake and hopefully that will be remedied in the future. I say this as a fan of how it was before, but also as an observation. Prior to the sale of the restaurant the place was almost always packed with families and students from UTD and Pearce. I know most students, as well as couples with children knew they could get something they liked from the buffet without a big bill at the end of the meal. If the new owners see this, I would strongly recommend the buffet return even if it is in some limited form.

I believe the new owners are working on making their product better because or waiter did ask how the meal was and if we had any suggestions. We told him exactly what was written in this review but they have some work to do. I do wish them the best, but do not know if I will be returning...

The staff was friendly however our server was all over the place and helped her friend who came in long after we were ready to order and made a drink for her before coming back and taking our order. I ordered a tower and substituted the ahi(tuna) for salmon and requested it not spicy. My girlfriend ordered the tanktsu ramen.

Both of these dishes were not.... good.. my tower was kind of ok but it was SO spicy it hurt my stomache and I eat spicy things that make other people go "how do you eat something that spicy" Besides, I ordered it NOT spicy. The menu said it was made with sushi rice but that was NOT sushi rice and the sauces that give it flavor were very watery/runny. This should never be the case, it should never be runny/watery but it's clear they watered theirs down.

The ramen was worse, first of all they put bean sprouts ... in ramen.... they mixed the broth between pork and chicken which made it flavorless and ackward/ something between sweet and pork-ish. We left over 3/4ths of that untouched

Waiter only attended to us once the whole time or I would have had a chance to get her to fix some of these issues but by the time she came around again we had eaten too much to be "those people"/that couple.

Don't come here if you have expectations of how ramen or a sushi tower should taste.

Barely a step above cup noodles, altho my gf said the pork was good altho scarcely laid

Not trying to bring these folks down but whoever is leaving 5stars clearly hasn't had good ramen/sushi

Re: Today I was craving ramen really badly so I stopped by here to give it another shot. It was certainly less busy so I was served much quicker. Had a momentary thought about why it was taking so long to get to me so I could order ask I knew what I wanted right away. I came for ramen and ramen is what I got Tanktsu ramen. (Will post a picture) once again I forgot they put bean sprouts in their ramen so I wish I had asked for that to be left out as I didn't see it in the description on the menu, however I was pleasantly surprised at how tasty it was. Though the noodles could have been of slightly higher quality for the price it was an overall enjoyable experience. Much better than the first time around and everyone was friendly...

It had been almost 3 years since I visited this restaurant. It has gone downhill. There were maybe 5 other tables in the restaurant, we just sat down, including another couple. When I ordered my drink, the server had no idea what vodka soda was. She tells another gentleman, and he comes back with a tall glass with very little ice in it. It looked like a glass of water to be honest. No, this was my drink. Clearly, he had zero bartending experience. We get our food and no one checks on us for 25 minutes! There were only 5 tables still! 3-4 servers doing absolutely nothing, scrambling around with nothing in their hands, walking back and forth. The table next to us left. They looked mad. I think they waited too long for a server to get their order. I was still a little hungry, so I ordered some wings. Big mistake, they were tiny and dry. When it was time to pay, I asked for 2 boxes, "for the food?" She asks me... "No, Sherlock, for the trash on my table! Yes, for the food!!" ... I didn't actually say that , but I wanted to. Come on! Clearly, it was for our food.

Overall, it was a poor dining experience. The sashimi sampler came with 3 kinds of fish, the teriyaki steak bowl was 80% rice and the Hawaiian poke bowl was pretty small. Not worth the price. The servers are all inexperienced. They really need to hire better servers and adjust their prices...