akiba

did a road trip to canberra and 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 thisplacea 4/5 not because the food was exceptional but rather as it was a memorableplacewith top notch ambience, food was easy, drinks were fab and staff were funny. greatplaceto take a group of friends or colleagues.

new fusionplacein canberra.great to try in

3/5 had lunch here while on our drive back to melbourne and decided to order a couple of things. the tuna tartare was delicious and fresh and had a lovely balance of flavours. the mixed mushrooms while it certainly had a kick to it, i found there was a touch too much liquid in this dish. the beef short rib was delicate and soft and melted in your mouth. the laksa dumplings were a major let down, they were dry (don’t know why they are called laksa as there was no liquid at all) and they came with no dipping sauce so you couldn’t add liquid either. the prawn and chicken dumplings were ok, but the balance of prawn to chicken was out. overall a decentplaceto stop for lunch but didn’t nail all the dishes to make me want to rush back.

( + )
-fried rice was super flavourful
-lovely dining atmosphere, great ambiance and location in civic
-would recommend to friends as a relatively niceplacefor dinner
( - )
-smallish portions
-didn’t particularly fancy the cocktails :(

excellent service. tastes are great. dishes come up very quick. niceplacefor people to hang out but a little bit pricy for students. overall it’s really great.

it’s an australian made japanese restaurant , not the authentic japanese japanese, but the fusion style is quite tempting and creative. personally think it’s not as outstanding as the other sharing mentioned. prefer the smaller cutlery for dessert and not to go at the busiest time like 7pm, been ignored two times when trying toplacean order :(, the staff just pretend not seeing your hands obviously. however the front desk counter service was excellent.

thisplacelooked great; it has a cool vibe, high tables, good music and extremely cute advertisements featuring dumplings. but the food was average, the dumplings were a bit floury and bit over cooked, the king fish toppings were a bit too much- the fish itself was beautiful and didnt need the extras, the octopus was average & the boa was dry; overall underwhelming. the drinks menu was great, lots of different cocktails to choose from and the service was really quick. i would go back and give it another go.

highly recommend, a very cool hang outplacein canberra. parkings right outside the restaurant. bookings got confirmed right away, i had to change and i called up and it was really efficient and easy. staff were all v friendly. food all came up quickly , v high standard. extensive cocktail and sake list, everything v impressive!! the only comment i would make is just not authentic from the japanese dishes, as the coating was a bit thick for the agedashi tofu!

it was my first exposure to japanese fusion food and i must admit,it was a good one.
really busyplaceand nice crowd.
the options are limited for vegetarians though.

i can tell the way we’re served it’s definitely a popularplacein canberra as we didn’t make reservation (obviously not something you would do as a visitor) so the waitresses kept on pressuring us toplaceorder 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 vibeplaceto hangout despite the pressure to order and finish our food.

food was good and alcohol selection better. a modern japanese izakaya feel. akiba has a very good vibe and is a bustlingplaceon friday and saturday nights. so make sure you book ahead!

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).thisplaceis indeed a winner in canberra sad 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🤘🏿🤘🏿

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

we only arrived in canberra on friday for the weekend and hadn’t made any bookings, so when we came by at 8:30pm- we could see that theplacewas 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.

the hype of thisplacewas high so husband and i decided to give it a go. to my surprise,it was one of the most enjoyable dinner i've had in canberra. food was great, we had the tuna tartare, which i thought was fantastic! it melts in your mouth and the sauce was yum! next we had spare rib, it was super tender and very tasty! we also tried the pork bun, i'll be honest, i had better ones, but this one's not too bad at all, still enjoyable. also, we tried the ume oyster, it was really good, so fresh and was just amazing. they i tried their cocktail, i forgot the name but it was really nice. now food aside, the ambiance was quite loud so bit difficult to hear when you're having convo. there was even a dj at the back which i thought was really cool, environment was lively full of lights and service was quick and people are nice. would i come back next time? definitely, can't wait to try other menus! xx

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 theplacewas.

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