Akida Japanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Richmond

Akida is my neighborhood go-to for takeout Japanese food. Emphasis on takeout. For what they charge, the portions should be larger or the service better, something - but it is what it is: a neighborhood Asian restaurant for when Chinese food gets old. Is it great? No, but it's still pretty darn good. Is it good value for money? Not if you eat there without an expense account - if you have an expense account, there are better places to go in town. Drink prices are extoritonate! A bottle of Kirin or Asahi is $5. A Sapporo can is $8 - Order takeout and grab a 6-pack across the street or at one of the other convenience stores nearby. If you're a sake fan, it's not so bleak . prices are more reasonable and the selection isn't bad. The sushi's decent, but the tonkatsu-don (pork cutlet on rice) and unagi-don (eel on rice) are excellent. The pork isn't fried until it's like jerky, and the light touch with the frier extends to the rest of the menu. The eel is great, and the portions are good - but what's essentially a bowl of rice with a pork chop on top (or a few slices of eel) costs $10 or $15, depending on whether you get pork or eel. The "salad" is just iceberg lettuce with French dressing or peanut sauce on top, and the miso is instant. Service is rushed; more than once I've ordered some edamame as an appetizer only to have it come out at the same time as my entrée. By the time I finish the edamame the miso is lukewarm, and the pacing of the experience is just - off. It's rushed, at best. Drinks are expensive! Unless you're a sake freak, get takeout, and buy some Kirin ($5) or Asahi ($5) or Sapporo ($8 [!] - I thought it had to be a typo, even a clip joint of a karaoke bar in Annandale didn't charge that much for a beer) somewhere else. I usually try to find a bar seat; sometimes the sushi chefs will hand you a piece of sushi/sashimi gratis - a welcome exception to the prices they charge. Try ordering take-out and eating it somewhere nearby - the neighborhood around the new location is much more accommodating than the old Robinson Street hole-in-the-wall. Find a bench, have a picnic. Brown-bag it if you're not interested in meeting RPD for drinking in public. I'm inclined to give it three stars, it gets an extra star because they know how to cook pork. (For comparison, when I ordered tonkatsu from a place in Mesa, AZ, I got two massive slabs of leather and some barbecue sauce. That might say more about Arizona than the restaurant, but good pork is good pork) I haven't tried any other Japanese joints in RVA, but I have elsewhere, and Akida suffices for what it should be: a...

I hadn't visited Akida since it was located on Robinson St. I had been very excited to go back for a good number of years, but, like some, there has been a great Depression of the economy going on. Finally, I went Akida to celebrate getting a decent job. It was not what I was expecting even after looking over their menu on-line in advance. It is a very different atmosphere. I usually just purchase sushi, miso, a Japanese beer or some saki, and some green tea. So I tried one of their dinner specials with some shrimp and vegetable tempura, a couple rolls, miso, and had them bring some squid and octopus sushi as well (which the waitress did try to steer me clear of). I could have bought a pack of miso soup from Krogers, and it would have been just as good. I'm not a veteran of tempura, so that seemed okay but pricey to me. Saki was fine and the green tea was passable. The sushi (main reason for me going) was horrid. I maybe their rice cookers were on the fritz, but what rice there was - an there wasn't much of it - was simply plain rice. Their was more squid and octopus than there was rice and there wasn't much of that. I don't mind paying for decent food; I do mind paying high prices for a little bit of food that is of poor quality. I can somewhat understand the combo meal lacking quality through out; I can not understand the low quality of individual purchased menu sushi items. I have frankly had better sushi at Kroger's and Martin's and not paid the prices that I paid here. If I was to rate Akida the way that I remembered it when it was on Robinson St, I would have given it a 5 stars. 1 Star for this new...

It IS the best Sushi in Richmond. Is there as good or better Sushi out there? Sure, but NOT in Richmond. It is not overpriced; costs less than places like Kobe and Osaka. The ingredients are as fresh as you're going to find in a non-coastal town. People might forget this and give it a low rating because it's not as good as what they had one time at the beach somewhere...ridiculous. Is this rating system a way to rank all restaurants against each other? No. It should be used to rate them based on what's comparable in town and against what the restaurant is trying to be, i.g., I'm not going to blame Outback for not being as good as Morton's. I'm appalled to find a review like the one from Tang Haji Omar on the Most Helpful list. He doesn't give any other places that he likes better, orders fried chicken at a Sushi bar, and complains about the noodles - judging by his other reviews he likes Korean food(Korean noodles will be cooked much differently and maybe that's what he's basing the "doneness" against). He also goes on to state "Sushi was low quality but fishy"....what? I'm going to assume that's supposed to be an "and" instead of "but", again, why is this a helpful review? One star! Give me a break Tang, I got your katsu sauce right here! Then there's Val Schuman, who just wants everyone to know she's from New York. She decided the sushi is not be very good partly because she may, or my not, have seen a homeless person nearby...ffs. I can't help but think she's comparing this place to a restaurant in a big coastal city with a large Asian population...can't remember the name of the town...maybe you can...