akiba

no wonder it's rated so highly, definitely the best asian cuisine i have ever had incanberraand sydney. get the soft shell crab bun if you are going here, you won't regret it. to top it off all the guys here are great service and super friendly and make you feel comfortable in the busy environment it is. add this to your bucket list, it's worth it!

did a road trip tocanberraand we walked into akiba at 8pm as it was loud, packed and looked like fun.
it was exactly that- cocktails were great, food was fun, and those vegan laksa xiao long baos were awesome.
price for 3 including heaps of cocktails was approx $70 each. i rated this place a 4/5 not because the food was exceptional but rather as it was a memorable place with top notch ambience, food was easy, drinks were fab and staff were funny. great place to take a group of friends or colleagues.

new menu items. good to go back after a couple of months and see some new menu items. smoked potatoes were great, and sirloin was divine. service a bit hit and miss, but mainly around timing of wine orders.


-----12 jan, 2015-----

good food, awesome space. awesome space, clearly designed with a younger, hipster crowd in mind. food was mixed, too much mayo on the crab bao. pork bao was great. beef short rib was sublime. good list of wines by the glass, including some locals. overall really good forcanberracity.

it was our first time incanberraand was recommended to eat at akiba. we didn’t know what to order so opted for the feed me option. we loved everything! the eggplant, wontons and ceviche were our favourites. would definitely come back again.

we had one night in canberra, and after many research and recommendations by friends, we’ve decided to dine at akiba. did not disappoint at all!! we didn’t have a booking and despite being packed, they still squeezed us in. eggplant is a must try and everything else was just delicious. service was spectacular and their drinks menu was awesome with lots of variety. would definitely consider coming back tocanberrajust for this!

i can tell the way we’re served it’s definitely a popular place incanberraas we didn’t make reservation (obviously not something you would do as a visitor) so the waitresses kept on pressuring us to place order of the food and telling us you’ve got less than 40mins for the table. as we usually eat our food quite promptly we weren’t concerned at all. anyway the foods looked really good on the plates and juicy and taste delicious as well. unfortunately the octopus could have been more fresher otherwise it would have been a perfect dish. thoroughly enjoyed the fried chicken with sriracha and mayonnaise sauce. overall it’s a good vibe place to hangout despite the pressure to order and finish our food.

almost a year since i have been here and food and the ever friendly ambience remains the same. started with prawns and chicken dumplings with momo ice tea and asahi followed by japanese fried chicken and a kickass chocolate based dessert( can’t recall the name though).this place is indeed a winner incanberrasad food environment; the food and drinks are made to perfection and every bite feeds not only your stomach but soul..
see ya soon peeps; ps whoever trains your staff to be so amazin; you are doing something really awesum🤘🏿🤘🏿

we dined at akiba for lunch on a hit and run visit tocanberraafter seeing some favourable reviews.

we elected to go with the feed me option which consisted of 8 servings made up of a combination of smaller and larger plates and a dessert.

the food is best described as asian fusion and follows on the same path as a number of these types of restaurants that are prevalent in sydney and melbourne. living in melbourne i would compare it to rice paper scissors.

from the menu we had the king fish which was delicious, the prawn fried rice and prawn/chicken dumplings which were serviceable, the pork belly bun which was rich but tasty, the kimchi pancake which was unusual but ok the beef short rib which was a bit bland and a disappointment and the chinese broccoli which was ok. we also had the tofu dessert which was average.

my wife did have the lychee martini with popping candy which she really enjoyed. the general look of the restaurant was very modern and cool and i suspect has a nice atmosphere for dinner service. the staff were courteous and attentive and food was served promptly.

all in all it was a pass but i must admit my expectations were a little higher based on past reviews. definitely worth a look but maybe a once in a lifetime experience.

this restaurant has really great reviews, so we decided to come for dinner tonight and even at an early time of 5.30pm the restaurant was buzzing and had a great atmosphere.

service from staff were friendly and very accommodating when we needed to change the dishes slightly so it wasn’t too spicy for my son.

we started off with the tuna tartare which was a great way to start and then my son loved their corn pancakes that came in 4 small pieces. this was made not spicy for us and he wanted another order after he had the barramundi with rice and chinese broccoli. we also tried their roast duck with sichuan and orange. this wasn’t the best duck we have tried and it is a generous serve.

food is slightly overpriced but the quality is there, while i’m glad i got to try it, i won’t be rushing back when i visitcanberranext.

when you’re in a new place and you don’t know where to go- akiba offers a great vibe, food fun and just an all round great night.

we only arrived incanberraon friday for the weekend and hadn’t made any bookings, so when we came by at 8:30pm- we could see that the place was jam packed. luckily, for a table of 2 we only had to wait 20min for a seat.

the point of akiba is to try lots of different drinks and dishes to share- and they even had a yum-cha style trolley offering off menu dishes that the chefs had whipped up to use customers as taste-testers.

food and drinks were tasty and definitely a great japanese fusion style, it’s not a cheap eat- but it’s not extortionate either. as long as you’re looking for a restaurant/bar with pumping tunes, loud vibes and everyone (staff and customers) shouting “eyyyyy!” when the kitchen drops a plate - then you should definitely check akiba out.

akiba sits on bunda street, canberra’s main shopping strip. it presents youthful, contemporary pan-asian dishes, from a raw bar, barbeque and dim sum kitchen. it reminds me a bit of manly’s daniel san, though i’d argue the dishes here are slightly better. akiba also wins on the friendliness of their floor team, who take the time to make friends, as well as serve. we’re seated on comfortable stools at the raw bar. with a large function coming in at dinnertime, the chef is rapidly breaking down whole fishes. it’s clearly a space and menu designed around doing volume, which makes me suspect it isn’t the owner's first restaurant. my inquiries uncover that the harrington brothers, peter and michael, own akiba. they’re second-generation restaurateurs with sage and kokomo (a neighbouring 600-capacitycanberrahotspot) also under their wings. drinks are obviously a big focus here, so we double-park with the ultimate boiler maker ($38). it teams my favourite japanese beer, echigo koshikikari rice lager, with a mild, dry wakashika ‘blue bambi’ sake cup. to avoid fomo (fear of missing out) we create a second boilermaker ourselves by teaming...

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 incanberra(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.

✅ 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 unforgivingcanberracold nights.
💵 a little on the pricey side, but well worth a try.

akiba. think fusion new age japanese. 

this is a hip dining bar scene located near the centralcanberracentral precinct. parking on the street is time limited so you may be better off spending $2 to park atcanberracentre.

service here is pretty decent for a bar. you can book online instantly and having only booked hours previously, sat on a stool overlooking the 'raw kitchen'. it seemed pretty busy for a monday evening! the bar and waitstaff young, vibrant and about as attentive as you'll get in a busy bar scene. 

the japanese whisky selection isn't anywhere near melbourne bars, and priced somewhat on par from canberra. that is, overly inflated given the supply and demand problem with japanese whisky. everything else was to standard though.

food. there is a 'vegetarian menu that shortlists all the vegetarian options on the menu. 
tuna tartare. simple, of reasonable freshness. the jalapeño mayo not really spicy, and rather creamy. topped with prawn crackers for texture and a sweet, ginger ponzu sauce and jelly. didn't mind that at all. the sweet corn pancakes. batter was pre-made and only took 5 minutes to come out. simple, somewhat dense and filling. the wok blasted asian mushrooms were a bit of a 'miss'. the caramel and soy sauce dressing way too salty and overbalancing the dish. we ended up mixing the sauce with the green papaya salad. the roasted carrot. simple, somewhat soft but satisfying. agadashi tofu. light batter, quite fluffy and fresh. a fun evening. then i suggest heading to one of the well known nearby bars to round up the evening (though my preferredcanberrabar isn't open monday evening)

a hip and casual 'bring your friends for a group date' type of place.

as the dear luncher strikes off yet another reputable eatery in the nation's capital, it's fair to saycanberrahas got its act together in a serious way. akiba is nicely located near the dear luncher'scanberrasatellite gulag. as such he was able to escape for a swift lunch with minimal effort or time wasted. those that follow the dear luncher are aware of his addiction to fried chicken. as luck would have it akiba have on their menu a japanese fried chicken dish. not only that, it's smothered in cheese. parmesan cheese. the dear luncher did not hesitate and asked for the supercharged version, which includes spiciness on the side. not much else needs to be said. the mayo provide was spectacular.  the chicken was crispy and delectable.  your dear luncher was an extremely pleased individual following this experience. bravo, akiba.