Cuisine:

• Japanese
• Sushi bar

Akashi Description:
After 14 years in business, Akashi moved from its old digs, a "buried" eatery in the dilapidated Tanglin Shopping Centre, to a road-fronting, sprawling unit next door at Orchard Parade Hotel. Self-taught chef Mervin Goh has fashioned a convivial Japanese restaurant that is both elegant and boisterous, with a lofty ceiling with hanging rice paper lamps and a long sushi bar. A dining room that fills to the brim daily with tourists and regulars tells the success story of a Chinese-run Japanese restaurant that is pitched to give topnotch Japanese eateries a run for their yen. The quivering, smooth ambrosia of ankimo (monkfish liver, also popularly known as the foie gras of the sea) in vinegared ponzu sauce and prized ebodai miso mushi (steamed Japanese butterfish in white miso sauce) are deserving of a return trip. But the show-stealer is chef Goh's sensuous and utterly sweet sushi; petite pillows of nicely seasoned rice draped with flowing cuts of fresh fish (imported four times a week from Tsukiji fish market) dabbed with a touch of light soy sauce and wasabi. Standouts include the ultra silky Norwegian salmon trout sushi, the toro uni (heaps of oily toro topped with sea urchin) and the smooth and slippery yaki engawa (grilled thin muscle of dorsal fin of a hirame fish). Akashi serves saké only. If you have room for dessert, make it black sesame ice cream served with red beans.


Be the first one to rate and write a review for this Akashi restaurant!