Akira Sushi Bistro — Restaurant in Virginia

Our favorite sushi place! We say it every time we finish eating here. When we are invited somewhere else for sushi, my husband and I always miss Akira and compare it all to Akira.

Their sushi is fresh, flavorful and so so pretty. There are so many different rolls to choose from, which I just love. It is always delicious with such friendly service. They are so fast, too! Their special rolls are my favorite, but the hamachi nigiri is up there as a favorite. I love the Morgan Roll and Paradise Roll, but when we dine in, I get to pick off the special board. I recently got the Red Carpet Roll and the Sunny Roll, and they became my new favorites.

Tonight they presented our table with a special salmon plate. My goodness we were stunned. It tasted as pretty as it looked!!! Incredible!

The dinning area is comfortable and nice. We eat here quite a bit, and I can’t recall ever being disappointed. We are in love each time we finish, happy and full. We actually do take out more often, but try to dine in when we can. We really try to take family here when they visit. Now visitors...

So where do you go when you find yourself with the cutest lunch date ever? Well, I let her drive, and found myself at Akira.

The aesthetics were impressive, but the front door makes a loud slamming noise when shut, which is probably why they have two doors.

Being the gentleman that I am, I marked down my sushi choices first, and then concentrated on my date's selections. One of her choices that she regretted was the octopus nigiri.

I did enjoy their rainbow, unagi and spicy yellowtail rolls, but the biggest surprise came from the fluke nigiri, but that's probably because neither of us had tried fluke before. It was almost translucent, with a light gray marbling. Had a great texture with no heavy flavors.

The taste sensation award goes to the Tu Tu Rolls, which were featured as a daily special, made with 2 kinds of tuna, some other stuff, and topped with a BBQ sauce. Tangy!

But I wasn't really there for the food. My lunch date was an enchanting, smart, refined and attractive young lady with an east coast style. But alas, she is way out...

Had a fairly pleasant experience. It wasn't busy when I entered, and I was seated promptly by a friendly staff member. They was okay with me not having a reservation.

I started my meal with free soup and salad, which was a nice surprise -- no complaints. The salmon skin and sweet avocado rolls were great! Loved the sweet flavors. They let me know one of the sushi rolls I was interested in (coconut lobster) wasn't available -- was a bit disappointing, so I chose the hawaiian roll instead. The hawaiian roll tasted somewhat bland and could've used more sauce. I also tried the flying fish roe for the first time. I don't know if it's normal, but I found it bland as well. To be fair, I didn't use any soy sauce, so that could've been my mistake.

I had to wait a little while to get my check. It had started getting busy, and my waitress was busy attending the customers that recently came in. I ended up getting the attention of one of the sushi chefs to get my check. Not a huge deal, but I wanted to get going to do...