Akagi Restaurant — Restaurant in San Bruno

Went there for lunch on Saturday around noon. Not busy, and no wait. Staff greeted and sat us promptly. Chose this restaurant because it was a mainstay during my high school days and into early adulthood. Surprisingly, it's still here! That is a testament to the quality of food, the atmosphere, and the great value.

You can get bento boxes for under $15.00, and there's definitely enough food to fill you up. From what I recall,my bento was called the Akagi California. It's comprised of rice 🍚, miso soup, vegetable & shrimp🍤 tempura, 3-piece California roll, and choice of one of the following in chicken katsu, 3-piece tuna sashimi 🍣, tonkatsu, or chicken teriyaki. I chose the chicken katsu. I was hungry, and I still had leftovers for a doggie bag to bring home.

My spouse and I shared a tuna ad hamachi sashimi. We also had cold sake, and a large Asahi 🍺.

The cuts of sashimi are different if you order it as a dish or as part of the bento 🍱. The quality of the cuts are superior when ordered separately as an appetizer or side. The cuts melt in your mouth as a separate order, where the cuts as part of the bento are harder to chew.

We had a great experience with the staff, and the food was satisfying. Even when dining in, the food came served in a plastic to-go container, which I found fascinating and intuitive. If you're looking for a fine-dining experience, this is not the place. If you want quality japanese food, great value, and a place that wouldn't necessarily be a place to impress a date, then this is the place to go.

*Update: visited 8/24/22 for dine-in with my wife, and the food was still good as expected. I highly commend 👏 the staff, which consisted of two servers on the floor. They were amazing given that the restaurant was at full capacity, and they were working as efficiently as possible without stressing out. The male server took orders, delivered the food, and bussed the tables. He and the other server/busser were awesome. I highly recommend this place for it's quality of food, excellent service, and...

I was wondering why everybody was going here instead of the place next door.  I went to place my order and it was packed.  There were people even waiting to be seated.   They had to servers/waitress and they were just busy tending to everyone.  It took a few minutes until someone took my order.

As I waited for my order,  I couldn't help but look around. They had the menu everywhere around the walls.   They had a small section in the back where you can sit and order sushi. While you're there, you can watch them make sushi. They were even conversating with the customers.   Usually some places just ignore you and make sushi.  Not here.

I was handed the bill and I was shocked at how affordable it was.   I figured we'll see with the taste test.

We ordered:

Amaebi roll - so fresh and sweet

Crunchy roll - my oh my this is definitely crunchy.  You gotta make sure to open wide for this one. The cream cheese gives it a perfect creamy balance with all the crunchiness

Dragon roll - Deeeeelicious, this one is made with the seaweed on the outside which is different from what I've had at other places

California roll -  I was surprised how something so simple tasted so good

Seaweed salad - I recommend this.  It goes with every item I ordered

Gyoza - Tasted flavorful and fresh. Like it was homemade. You didn't even need the ponzu sauce they provided

2 item dinner - double beef teriyaki.  The beef was so tender.  My husband couldn't stop eating it.

3 item dinner -  tonkatsu, momiji, short rib teriyaki.  Short rib, you can taste the char. Nothing I expected from a Japanese restaurant. Tonkatsu was crunchy, not overly battered. Monmiji was something different for me.  It was super tender.

Honestly,  I highly recommend this place.   It is reasonably priced and the food...

If there’s a zero rating they deserve it. The server was standing in the corner looking out like a spaced out zombie. We were the only customer there and it was a weeknight around 7:15. Not peak time. Never once did he check up on us. If I had my way I would’ve given him 50 cents to send him a message. He ruined the whole dining experience. The carpets are dirty and the restroom is disgusting, smells and is tiny. I had to squeeze my 110 lbs body to the side just to close the door. The shrimps were only 2 of them and were overly breaded. The teriyaki was skimpy, can’t even feed a bird it was so little. We used to love this place, good value but it went downhill since we haven’t been here for 8 years. At Kitaro in SF they give 5 shrimps and they aren’t over breaded. This place is cutting corners giving you tiny shrimps and masking it with the breading fooling you into thinking they’re large shrimps. The teriyaki at Kitaro was enormous. My friend saw my post and was blown away by how much they gave. She said she never saw that much beef on a plate (she didn’t know what it was). Won’t be returning and we save GAS notbhaving to drive 15 miles one way to the Peninsula. Boy, what a ripoff place!!! That server needs to be fired! He wears glasses and is caucasian, he's in his 30’s. He should not be in the hospitality industry. He’d make a good clerk, as long as he’s not dealing with the public. . She also had a bad experience at Akagi. She asked the server NOT to burn the chicken. What did he do? He served the chicken burnt. He should've made that notation to the cook. I advised her not to go there again. I read Yelp reviews. A lot of customers' comments...