Akakiko - Munich

One word: AWFUL! And that's just the service! To recount the tale, we went in one evening and asked for a table for two. The shifty looks we got and the surly service should have been clue enough. Being generally a non meat-eater, I asked if the soup had contained any meat in a perfectly polite and reasonable fashion (having lived in Germany for some years, you can never be sure when meat will be the magic ingredient in anything). Suddenly the waitress practically screamed back at me, "WAS?" as if I had crawled out of a cave. This is caused a sudden silence amongst the few other people in the place. After a careful and patient explanation I hoped any misunderstanding would have abated. This may have been an involuntary outburst had it been an isolated occurrence. The tone of the rest the conversation left no doubt. This was an appalling level of rudeness even by German standards! This was so awful we got up and promptly left. Having grown up in UK where such an extreme form of protest simply goes against the grain, this really took some doing I can tell you. Having tried Akakiko sometime ago previously, when they obviously held back that "superb" level of service, the Sushi was at best, second rate. I had hoped that perhaps in the intervening time it had changed. It certainly has, but not for the better. And after the last visit, NEVER AGAIN!

Aren't they the ones that do the all-you-can-eat sushi at lunch and dinner?

I am reviewing: Akakiko at Amalienstrasse 39 All-you-can-eat: Small: 20 Euro Large: 25 Euro When you go, you are basically offered those two choices. Although you may order ala carte, the employees advise against it -- "too expensive". So we went for the Large all-you-can-eat, thinking pricey but a good value. This system is set up to cheat you, but you'll only start to realize it after you've been there for about an hour. When you first arrive, the conveyor belt of sushi will have plates of sashimi on it, nagiri sushi (strip of fish on rice), interesting rolls, bowls of mussels, grilled prawsn, and some fried items. Since customers are plentiful these disappear quickly (Grab While You Can!) ... and the fish isn't replaced. Your sushi choices quickly become long stretches of empty conveyor belt and many of the same deep-fried item. It is very unclear how the whole thing works so we asked the waitress if we could order sashimi since there wasn't any on the conveyor belt. She promptly lost her ability to communicate and could only point at the conveyor belt and say "Sashimi, ja, sashimi". Not wanting to fill up on the huge wads of rice in the nagiri, and not able to get any sashimi, I ate the fish and left a few of the rice wads in my plate. The woman who collected the plates scolded us, saying "the fish goes with the rice. if you don't want rice, take the sashimi." When we told her that there was no sashimi on the belt and that we ordered sashimi from our waitress, she quickly hurried away. No sashimi ever came that night. So you get the picture. They get your 25 bucks, you get stuck with a lot of fried dumplings. One other note -- the quality of the sushi varied greatly. A few pieces of tuna I had were dry, almost crisp, around the edges, like they'd been sitting there for quite awhile. From the types of fried foods, chicken wings, lo mein, etc available on the conveyor belt, in addition to the quality and preparation of the sushi, you have the distinct feeling that this operation is chinese ... very little Japanese to be found, other than the Geisha dolls perched above the food. One more thing -- and this was the worst yet. Most of the dishes on the conveyor belt had NO PLASTIC COVER over them. There is something inherently wrong with that. I've never seen it before in a self-serve sushi place and there must be some kind of health code being broken here.

I'd agree with Crystal's comments about Fujikaiten. Go to Akakiko instead! I was at the Schwabing branch on Saturday, and have been going regularly for a couple of months now. The sushi is delish! I think there's something about the rice vinegar they use. It's different to anywhere else I've tried. Oh, and on Saturday they had deep fried sushi! Not seen that anywhere before.

I went to the place near Rosenheimer platz. I was staying at the Max Emmanuel hotel round the corner. It is the worst experience I've ever had in a "Japanese" restaurant. I have to agree with Zebedee. Rude surly waitress (manager I suspect) shouting at me for asking for a receipt. Well, sorry! Misrable teenage staff (her kids probably) glaring at me while I ate. Awful rice - not Japanese rice some kind of yellowing Thai mush bound together with starch. My sushi starter was prepared by taking it of the conveyor. It was warm - the fish was dry like leather. Yeuch! They were not Japanese they were Chinese or Thai but that is not critisism in itself as many Japanese food places in Europe are well presented by non-Japanese. But these people haven't a clue how to prepare Japanese food and they don't now how to treat customers. This place is a dump - avoid at all costs!

Well, I have been there a number of times and it may not be the best in the world it is not bad and is a good value. They have a half hour all you can eat deal at lunch time for 8 Euros! Besides, the Yellow Gunk was probably one of the Tofu or Egg things, it had a sweet taste, no? Anyways, I don't like the mackeral belly's flavor or eel, but that goes for anywhere. If you want especially good Sushi Kaito is good, but it is expensive. Sushi Duke by the Hof Brau Haus is a bit cheaper (than Kaito, not very cheap like Akakio) as I remember but also quite good.

Sorry Rob but the rice I was referring to was the rice in the nigiri sushi. It was definitely rice not egg or inarizushi. Many rices aren't naturally sticky like Japanese rice so I think they gave this non-Japanese variety a little help. But compared to the service the food wasn't bad. Perhaps its just the evening staff who treat the customers like dirt. I realise I have been to Akakiko in Schwabing and that was ok. Run by chinese again but that is not unusual. It's just the place on Franziskaner Str which is bad.

we bought some sushis and some sashimis to from the akakiko in riem, we ordered some alaska, california rolls and the sake sashimi, waited 20 mn, paid 41 euro and brought it home, we saw that they gave us a totaly different order, ok mevermind suhis are sushis, but what the sashimi was spoiled and the rolls were at least 3 days old, everything right to the trash, i tried to call them but they prefered not to understand, wrote them an email and they answered the next they saying that we were just lying, that their business runs so well that they cant have 3 days old sushis, blablabla... they may serve good sushis in the restaurant but dont take sushis to go, they will just give you the restposten. dont even think on making complaínts, the customer is always "lying as we did"

Went to the branch near Rosenheimer Platz (Franziskanerstr. 15) and opted for the "All-you-can-eat" offer for €17,90. I overlooked the fact that we didnt get the soup or ice-cream that was supposed to be in the offer, partly because there were other desserts on the conveyor and I also because I am not a fan of miso soup. So on to the main event. We were given a free piccolo of Sekt as they were celebrating 8 years of business, which was a good opener. The selection was excellent and was constantly being varied. Along with the usual sushi standards (maki, nigiri, gundan) there was a wealth of other options - pickles, vegetables, seaweed, yakitori, every type of grilled/fried/breaded prawn, chicken wings, duck(?) breast, tempura, wonton, various desserts and a load of other things I just didnt get the chance to try. Service was friendly and unobtrusive and I would happily go back. Would however agree that this place is probably not 100% authentic Japanese. Bloody good pig-out nonetheless!