BY LINDSEY MURAOKA / Special to the Star-Advertiser
On Wednesday, April 3, I went to check out Aki, a new Japanese izakaya at 1427 Makaloa St. near Walmart. My friends and I went around 9 p.m. and it was pretty empty.
At first, I was worried the food wouldn’t be good since they just opened, but it turned out to be better than I thought.
The atmosphere is modern and clean with comfortable chairs.
For earlybirds, Aki has $12 plate specials and $15 nabe (regular price is $18; choose from Tan Tan, Spicy, or tsukune nabe) from 4:30 to 6 p.m. They also offer happy hour from 4:30 to 6 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. to midnight with food and drink specials for $3.
Aki specializes in yakitori, so they have a lot of different types to choose from. We decided to order the 12 sticks assortment platter ($21). It came with a variety of chicken, sausage, beef, tongue, bacon-wrapped asparagus and quail egg.
Our server recommended that we order this Jumbo Tokyo Croquette ($6.50), which certainly lived up to its name. It was crispy and had a light curry flavor.
We also ordered the sashimi platter ($20). The seafood was nice and fresh, especially the salmon and saba.
I’m picky when it comes to okonomiyaki because it’s one of my favorite things to eat. Aki’s okonomiyaki ($10) is pretty good because the “pancake” had a good consistency — but I wish it came with more seafood filling on the inside.
With my friend Avy Ra.
Overall, the food was good at Aki; it’s a nice spot to chill, chat with friends and have a few beers. This space has been home to several restaurants in the past few years, including a macrobiotic restaurant (I actually miss that place) and another yakitori restaurant, so I hope that this place will do well. Call 955-8528 for more information.
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Lindsey Muraoka blogs about food and drink for the Pulse. Contact her on Twitter or via email at foodlalablog@gmail.com.