Food

My Omakase Experience at Akiko’s in SF

March 29, 2022 / Comments Off on My Omakase Experience at Akiko’s in SF

I enjoyed my omakase experience at The Shota, and my experience nearby at Akiko’s has been fabulous as well! Akiko’s omakase was a rather different experience, but in a very good way. 

Akiko's omakase menu on 2/26/2022

The Location Info

Address: 431 Bush St., San Francisco, CA 94108, United States

Website: Akiko’s Restaurant (or Akiko’s Restaurant and Sushi Bar, not to be confused with Akiko’s Sushi Bar and Restaurant nearby). For y’all Crub fans, which one’s the spite restaurant? 🙂

Dinner Hours: 5:30PM – 9PM when they’re open. 

It’s still the pandemic, so they only have omakase variations currently. Their regular menu looks great, but it hasn’t been updated since 2018 according to their site, but as of when we went they were only having a light version of omakase and their regular omakase. $250.

Now Let’s Get Started with the Photos!
Drinks at Akiko's are pricey. A glass of sake is quite a bit and a bottle is over $100. There aren't cheaper variations that I see. A bottle is about 6 glasses or so, based on how we were told our party of 3 would get about 2 glasses each if we got a bottle. This photo shows how much a glass contains. Not much...
1st Course - Suimono - dashi consumme with sakura ebi, baby sea eel, baby scallop, mitsuba. Wow, impressice 1st course! The seafood in here had very soft, melt in your mouth textures. The seawoods were really good in here too. A great way to start this omakase meal!
2nd Course - Smoked sashimi. Katsuo, hamachi, sake. Tuna, yellowtail, and salmon. This came with a nice presentation when they lifted the lid and smoke came out. So awesome. The smoky flavor was throughout each piece and bite, and it was one of our favorite starters. My favorite piece here was the yellowtail, followed by the salmon, and then the tuna. The others in our party enjoyed the tuna the most. It was really good!
3rd Course - Wagyu Dumpling. Sandai beef, puff pastry, aged parmesan. Take this all in one bite, they say. It was such a good bite! Everything mashed well with each other and it was really cohesive. One member of our party said this one bite tasted better than everything he had in France! That includes michelin star restaurants, so it's saying quite a bit.
4th Course - Chawanmushi. Snow crab, duck liver, black truffle. OMG this soup/steamed egg dish was AMAZING. It was one of my faves since it was rich in flavor and it was extremely texturally pleasing. The steamed egg was very smooth throughout and the bits of liver and other parts added more to the richness of this dish. The truffles hadd a subtle flavor and some more texture to add to the steamed egg and such. Gah, I want more!
5th Course - Gindara. Black cod, trout roe, bottarga. Wow, this bite was delicious as well. Pleasing to the eyes and pleasing to the tongue. We all made sure to eat every last bit, including all the roe and the flowers (not the plants outside the silver). The sauce was nice as well!
6th Course - Shokupan. Milk toast, toro, golden kaluga caviar. This was our other member of the party's favorite course. The milk toast was extremely flavorful and the edges of the toast were perfectly toasted with a soft center. The chopped toro (fatty tuna) was very smooth and the caviar added a nice subtle saltiness to the dish. I personally thought the milk toast overpowered the toro and caviar, so I tried a bit of each in separate bites and it was great.
7th Course - Hokkigai Sunomono - surf clam, fresh wakame, cucumber, nashi san baisu. This was the final dish before the nigiri, and this was really refreshing. It cleansed our palletes from the very flavorful bites previously. This was light and refreshing, and also delicous.

Talking Break Before the Nigiri

Wow, those 7 courses were delicious! The blow torch and smokiness seems to be a big thing at Akiko’s omakase. The 3 of us went here to chill and have a delicious meal and we sat at the sushi bar and saw the sushi chefs in action. Really nice. The plants used to decorate around the plates were beautiful too. Has anyone ever asked for a takeout container to keep the plants? That’d something I’d definitely asked if I wanted to pay hundreds for alcohol to feel something. Honestly, what do they do with the plants after they take away the plates? The plants would look great pressed and such. OK, let’s move onto the nigiri!

8th Course - Zuke - Soy Cured Bluefin. OMG, what a way to start nigiri right. I've heard light to dark, and I love how Akiko's went for the fatty fish right away. Extremely delicious!
9th Course - Sakuradai - Cherry Blossom Snapper. The cherry blossoms were put on top and the chefs had those little pieces in an organizer that they used tweezers to pick out and place carefully on the fish. This was a clean, not so melt-in-mouth piece, but it was still good. I appreciated the texture.
10th Course - Sakuradai - Cherry Trout. Very nice, lighter kind of fish, but the sauce and such they add on perfected the nigiri. Though sauce and garnishes are similar throughout, they all add differently to each fish.
11th Course - Ji-Kinmedai - Goldeneye Red Snapper. These nigiri were fun to watch being assembled. Rice, fish, brush with sauce, and and some were torched. Yummy, but not as great as the fatty tuna.
12th Course - Akagai- Red Clam. This was quite interesting as we all don't remember having clam nigiri much at other places. It was texturally pleasing and light, yet umami, in flavor.
13th Course - Tsuri Aji - Horse Mackerel. Wow, a pretty piece of makeral, especially with the slices within the center of the piece to maximize the flavor. Pretty good!
14th Course - Nama Hotate - Scallop. OK, I love scallop and I admit this piece was a bit underwhelming. It didn't taste as "fresh" as the other fish, but perhaps it's this type of scallop? The other omakase's scallop was significantly better. This one still tasted good and had a nice texture, but there was something about the flavor.
15th Course - Kamasu - Young Barracuda. I have no idea what barracuda fish is, but the piece was delicious!
16th Course - Nama Uni. Hokkaido Sea Urchin. OMG yes!!!! This is why I pay for omakase - the uni dishes! I love fresh uni prepared in premium seaweed with subtle flavors that elevate the uni itself. The uni would taste amazing as is because it's so fresh, but this was one of my favorite nigiri bites. One member was amazed by how great this tasted as it was her first time having uni this way.
17th Course - Toro - Bluefin Belly. The final non-dessert course of Akiko's omakase that evening. It was pretty cool how they started nigiri with tuna and ended with tuna as well. Such a premium and delicious piece here.

Talking Break Before Dessert

Wow, so how amazing did those nigiri look? Nigiri courses are some of my faves in omakases since I’m not quite sure what to expect and I love nigiri/sashimi. They asked if we wanted to order anything a la carte before dessert, and though we could have had more, I think the guests didn’t want to rack up the bill too much (aw, thanks for sparing my wallet) so we decided to go straight for dessert. Let’s see what it is!

 

Matcha Ice Cream! Final course of the omakase that evening. Made in house, and it was delicious. I could really taste the matcha and its creaminess, and it was just amazing. Perhaps I'm a bit biased because I love matcha, but yet again, my matcha standards are rather high. YUMMY!!

Overall Thoughts and The Damage

Photo of the check is below. I love how you don’t need to prepay and add 20%. Akiko’s atmosphere is smart casual. We go there to have a great time and some conversations, especially to enjoy the food. Some other omakase places seem a bit too formal, which one of the guests loves, but personally, I really enjoyed the atmosphere at Akiko’s. Though after tips and such, the meal for the 3 of us was easily a bit over $1K, it was very much worth it. I’m glad the other 2 enjoyed the food as well. We did have a bit trouble finding the restaurant because we didn’t see a sign, but luckily one of their regulars helped us. I’d love to go back at some point because it was that amazing. 

Funny how it says guests 2, when it was 3 of us.

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