akiba

i have mixed feelings about akiba. i do feel they are over-hyped and they get away by serving mediocre fusion food because they're in canberra (and not in melbourne or sydney). the tofu cheesecake (which they should disclose is deconstructed) is just a bowl full of goop with crumb over the top and it was very unappetising. unfortunately that is the standard dessert in the banquet and has been that way for the last 2years. on the other hand, of you order off their menu the josper octopus is delightfully tender with generous amounts of crisp potatoes and octopus. the kobe skirt is also highly recommended as the beef is perfectly rare and has great flavour! perhaps, they bundle the inferior items on their banquet menu to sell more of them?

however, on my fifth visit to this restaurant for lunch today i was very disappointed. they advertised a $10 ramen lunch special and this is by far the smallest serve of ramen i have ever seen. from the top it looks like it is piled full of ingredients. the redeeming factor is that the pork belly slices were tender and the egg was perfectly poached. however, let's not kid ourselves it is obvious from the photo they serve their ramen in a saucer. the sides of the "bowl" is not much higher than the edge of the green plate that is next to it in the photo and is ridiculously shallow in the middle. even as a lunch serve it is grossly inadequate. the ramen was very very over cooked and not chewy at all. the texture of it was like the soggy and paste-y noodles you get from cup-a-soup chicken noodle soup packets. there was barely any noodles in the bowl and i left definitely still feeling hungry. also, the cooked mushrooms on the top were oddly sour for some reason. i'm not sure if they were supposed to be pickled but the sourness was very off putting and odd in this ramen.

i may go back to try their dinner menu but i certainly won't be going back for this pathetic rendition of ramen. save your money and go anywhere near by like the asian noodle house or cbd dumplings and get yourself a human sized serve of noodles.

not really the biggest fan. considering the hype and crowd, i was expecting some good food. was recommended the "king" prawn fried rice which was extremely charcoal-y and tasted quite burnt. the prawns also were in very small pieces, rubbery and overlooked. veges and egg component was okay. i liked the bao buns, however the soft shell crab was hardly battered and not the best. agedashi tofu was again just okay, lacking flavour and quite soggy by the time it was brought out. service wasn't bad, price is slightly steep, ambiance nice yet very busy. on my second visit, i ordered the calamari which i didn’t like, very rubbery and an odd pepper seasoning. pancakes were average. sashimi and greens were nice. dumplings were great, scallops also nice. overall i found its not bad at all but doesn’t live up to the hype.

asian fusion restaurant with cool decor. staff are friendly and energetic, but some of them are carelessness. all dishes i ordered were yummy, especially kingfish carpaccia and potato salad with octopus were great. portion is small, so you will be able to try variety of dishes.

good vege options, food is yum. service inside is okay, much better outside (get a table out there if you can). book book book. agadeshi tofu - get it!

great environment and outstanding service. although the fusion style of food taste good but the portion is too small and pricy. the drinks are nice. but overall not very appealing... maybe on some special occasion i might want to go if my friends feel like it at the same time

great food, service was poor, my water was never refilled even though i was sitting at the bar - had to request a second drink by waving down staff. we booked for our anniversary so i thought that we would get table seating but unfortunately we got the bar, maybe i needed to request a table ?? the icing on the cake was being told by the bartender that australian wines are not good hmmm.
i have recommended many businesses and personal friends to akiba and will continue to for the quality and experience of the food.

amazing recommendation and it's easy to see why it's won such high accolades as australia's best restaurant 2016. we decided to try a number of dishes and share between two people.
the first to arrive was the beef short rib and without any exaggeration was the nicest and most tender piece of beef i've ever eaten and subsequently was the winner of the night.
next dish to come out was the kimchi pancakes. a simple dish done well with nice flavours.
next we had the king prawn fried rice which while our least favourite dish in the meal was very tasty. our meal ended on a high with the divine duck soup dumplings. again easy to see why these won best people's dumplings.
food aside, i had to take the half a point off due to our seat being, not only at the bar despite prebooking a table, but was also directly in front of where the barmen mixed the cocktails and drinks. therefore because of this we had a lot of banging and clashing of glasses in our faces throughout the meal. loud bar atmosphere for a saturday evening but would definitely recommend for all to try!

the kingfish tastes special and delicious. octopus with half-cooked egg is also good. duck dumplings are just so so. akiba's atmosphere is excellent but the drinks are a little bit expensive.

amazing food, fantastic atmosphere and a great selection of drinks. my new favorite restaurant in canberra. will definitely be making it a regular outing!

came here over the long weekend and dined as a group of 4. we made a booking ahead of time which was good considering how busy and popular the place was.

dishes we ordered included
- miso eggplant: a bit rich but was delicious
- kingfish: yummy
- salt pepper calamari: very average
- papaya salad: very average

a group of us came here for dinner on a friday night. music was loud. we had to scream to talk to each other. we waited 1.5 hours to get all of our meals. we received one meal at a time and a long wait in between. i ended up drinking a bottle of wine to myself while waiting. very disappointing.

✅ highly recommend the set menu. you get to try out a heap of great dishes — i think it's the best value compared to getting several sharing plates.
✅ the bao is absolutely delicious, as is the fish!
⚠️ the wait is long in the unforgiving canberra cold nights.
💵 a little on the pricey side, but well worth a try.

went to akiba for dinner and opted for the $49 feed-me options. staff were great and changes to the courses catered to the table's dietary requirements. 

we definitely got some tasty asian fusion however no memorable dishes to mention.

great vibe, loved sitting at the bar enjoying the 'just feed me' meal. the food came fast and fabulous and was more than we could complete. friendly fun staff that were always aware of our needs. a great find.

food was unbelievably amazing! fell in love on the first bite. our fave is the noodle, boyfie loved the peking duck dumplings tho. the service was okay.
worth the trip from sydney, will definitely coming back!