Akashi Japanese Restaurant (Orchard Parade Hotel)

this place is always busy. and you definitely need to make reservations ahead of time especially if you're looking at Friday and Saturday.

not that ideal if you're a group of 8 or more, as the restaurant's fairly compact, and it gets really noisy once the restaurant is full.

the menu is fairly standard with your typical sashimi, tempura and noodles options. my personal favourite is the porridge, which is served in a really tasty broth (seafood and veg options available), but still tastes fairly light. the braised pork belly in soy sauce is also a nice side, but at times lacks consistency in tenderness based on the few times i've had the dish.

my friends aren't all that impressed with this restaurant, but i think it's probably the price that puts them off. to be frank, it's not that expensive, but given the options there are for japanese food around nowadays, the servings may seem a tad bit small and simple to many people.

 but all in all, a can't-go-wrong place to have a good japanese meal.

Every visit to Akashi is good fun as all the chefs there have a most pleasant disposition. I give Mervyn and Don top marks for hiring the right people and they themselves for being so good at connecting with their customer - for those sitting on the counter.

The sushi/sashimi served is very fresh and the brothers dont compromise on quality. I always leave myself in the hands of Don and sometimes Mervyn if he's not already engaged with early customers. Sit on the counter and the magic word is Omakase. But be warned that your wallet will be a lot lighter after! The average price per pax is between $150-$200 without drinks. I'm an avid sake drinker and given the mood of all the chefs (they can sure drink!), my sake bill is equally as astronomical......

.....I do always emerge from Akashi a happy man with my tummy most contented. Unfortunately not my wallet. 

Very fresh food done very well, but you have to look out for those "off menu" items which are extremely costly, and it doesn't help that the service staff do recommend these items as they are taking your order.

Conclusion : If you are on an expense budget, get there as quick as you can, you will really enjoy the food.  If not, be fore-warned.

Once again, me and the husband left our dining choices down to Google and found ourselves at this restaurant.  It's not easy to find if you don't know where to look.

Upon entering, it's like stepping into the interior of a restaurant in Japan itself.  It was busy (restaurant was nearly full, servers were busy taking orders and serving customers) but we managed to get ourselves a table, despite not having made any reservations in advance.

I am very impressed with their service.  Soon after we were seated, we were given menus and some endamame and some pickled items to snack on.  After that, a server came bearing warm towels for us.  Despite being busy, the server was very patient and waited for the husband to decide on what to order.  And when the husband called a server over to request for more water, another one had already reached our table to replenish the empty glasses.

The selections are wide and varied but we finally decided on the yakiniku set meal, saba misoni set meal and several sushi pickings (maguro, tai and shime saba).  I wanted the fried bamboo clams with chilli but they were out of that and suggested i take the clams (asari) instead, which i did.

I can't say much about the sushi but I supposed that the husband did enjoy them as he polished every single one off the platter rather quickly.  He mentioned that the saba misoni was very delicious.

I had the yaki niku which was quite yummy.  All set meals are served with miso soup, pickles, salmon head and fruit.  By the end of the meal, i was so full but we still had the clams to eat - this is a must try!  The clams were done just right and the sauce was garlicky and spicy.

Definitely will eat here again.

The 2 best Jap restaurants in Singapore in my opinion: Akashi and Sugisawa.

Akashi's standard is largely on par with Sugisawa, but the service is probably much better than the latter's.

I had the Akashi bento set ($25 for dinner) which was extremely worth it. It consists of rice, soup, salad, fruit, tempura, mackerel, maguro, squid, pickles etc. Essentially, it was a very filling and healthy meal, to say the least.

I also tried their salmon and scallop sashimi, which were probably the best I've tried in sg. They were sweet and fresh, just the way sashimi should be.

Akashi breathes of quality and presentation, right down to their hot green tea, which is of obvious quality (not the usual substandard type of green tea at Sakae or Sushi Tei).

This place is ideal for truly authentic jap food, although I would say that Sugisawa has a more 'homely jap feel'.

Imagine, the raw seafood here are so fresh that the chef will inform the customer not to eat it with soy sauce, so that one can fully savour the taste of umi (Japanese word for "sea", I don't refer to the sea urchin), yet having absolutely no traces of that fishy taste.  That is how good the food here is.

The ambience is decent, nothing spectacular, but provides a simple environment that is conducive for dining.  The only problem with this place: the service of those waitresses.  All of them were permanently wearing this foul looking look on their faces, looked irritated whenever requested them to refill the tea cups or took donkey years to respond to requests.  This is such a shame, given that the food is so good, kind of reminds me of a lady all dolled up, looking great from head to .....knees, except the feet, because she is wearing grey socks splattered with yellow stains.

If for the food only, I will definitely come back.  Taking into account of the service, hmmmm.

Perhaps it was due to the ex-chefs.  Perhaps it was the cosy ambience at Tanglin SC.  My whole dining experience at Akashi's new and bigger premise has not since been the same.  For the record, the whole dining experience has plummeted from a high 8.0 to miserable-barely-made-it 5.0.

Too many ladies-kimono speaking in malaysian-accented mandarin+cantonese somehow has spoiled the whole Japanese dining sessions we had.  Do bare in mind we are not footing Bukit-Timah hawker centre price here.  Premium expenditure should be proportionally tag with premium services.

I missed the old, wooden setting, low ceiling Akashi at Tanglin SC.  Seems like yesterday...

I'm no connoisseur of Japanese food, but my galfren says this is one place worth trying (and for repeated visits too !)

Dishes we liked:

Oysters

Beef Sushi

Claypot Codfish noodles

Half beak sashimi

Salmon Sushi

Soba

Cucumber and avocado maki: My favourite ! Tasted light and fresh!

Dishes we should have skipped:

Some Mushroom dish from the restaurant next door - Give it a pass.

Crayfish sushi - So-so

To sum up our dining experience at Akashi, the expen$$ive part comes in not because each dish costs alot, but because the portions are tiny. So on one hand,you have to order ALOT of dishes in order to feel properly satisfied. But on the other hand, you get to try LOTS of dishes. So if you love variety, this is the place for you.

Service is attentive. They acceded to our request to bring out the actual whole wasabi plant from the kitchen before it was grated. Just for us to have a look!

Can get quite noisy esp if you have inebriated customers sitting by the counter.

Worth it for once-in-a-while indulgence and special occasions.

My bf and I were looking for a decent restaurant that serve till late because it was almost 10pm. We were very glad when the waiter told us they are open past midnight. And I have been wanting to try the food here for a long time.

I am writing this in agreement to a previous review by burp aRoo

1. There was not many people, however the waiting time for the food was horrendous.

2. Their portion of food is unbelievably small,

3. Yes, towards the end of the night, apparently a regular came and the chefs (the one who's cooking and some from the kitchen) actually started drinking with the client, talking at the top of their lungs...how's that for professionalism?

We ordered

1. a sashimi moriwase - small tiny portion, and it can be fresher...

2. 3 skewers of waggyu beef: 2 of them is perfect. one is over done, and the meat became too tough.

3. we asked the waiter for recommendation on what veggies go best with the waggyu beef, but they do not know what to recommend. This is really bad. (For such high end restaurant, I would expect much more from the wait staff)

4. In the end we settled for asparagus and guess what? It took a freaking hour plus to serve...

5. Gingko nuts which is my favourite...too salty. (Nanbantei at FAR EAST SHOPPING CENTRE SERVE MUCH BETTER ONES AT A MUCH LOWER PRICE)

6. Seasonal alaskan crab...it was so-so nothing to WOW about.

Altogether we get an exorbitant price tag of $400+

Very disappointed with the place I must say.

1. Ambience is not there (they scream out their orders, maybe to create an authentic japanese restaurant mood. BUT trust me if you sit through the night with just 10 customers each ordering 5 items, you will be deaf by the time you walk out of the place)

2. Food and Beverage: skill of the chef is really not there...the food tends to be to salty, and they took such long time to prepare the presentation, the food is not as hot as it should be by the time they serve it.

3. Value? One word: Outrageous

4. BAD. They don't know what to recommend. And when we ordered beer, we wanted japanese beer Kirin or Asahi, the guy told me they don't have it. After we ordered Tiger, another couple beside ordered Asahi and they get it...seriously...their conversation skills need to improve. They cant speak english proper.

SO NO GO FOR ME>h

Excuse the pun, since its a Japanese restaurant. Food is good and service is as about standard as you can get for restaurants in this price range, read: bad.