Akari Japanese Restaurant - Fitzroy

I have been many times and will continue going for as long as it stands, one of the oldest and most earnest casual Japanese dining in town, no tricks no fancy over priced non sense nor hefty 20+ pages menu, just your simple good old authentic izakaya style dishes, salmon sushi is must try staple, always try to get uni, sardine or mackerel sashimi on special board, ambient minimalist modern decor with cool jazz humming from the speaker and Uptown Jazz next door. A true hidden gem of Melbtown.

We went in here for a quick dinner. We found the prices quite high. We took a starter box and a sushi platter. All the food was delicious. The service was very friendly. I would love to go back to try some more things. If they weren't this expensive I would have given 4.5.

Another great find for authentic Japanese food on Brunswick Street. Always went past but never actually dined here. It was a quiet night for these guys (it's a freezing cold Monday night after all) which is a pity. The food is not mind-blowing or out of the world, but every dish was executed well, tasted delicious and prepared with care. The restaurant interior is simplistic and modern with a calm/relaxed ambience and soothing music playing in the background. Perfect for a date or an intimate dinner when you want to engage in a conversation. We started off with a bowl of mussel miso soup each and it was hearty and warming, quite light in taste and not that salty. For appetizers we had some gyoza, a wafu salad, tatsuta-age, mixed tempura and yakitori skewers. Every single one of them was tasty and beautifully presented. The gyoza, tempura and fried chicken were well-fried whilst retaining the moistness inside. Wafu salad was a good palate cleanser, with a variety of veggies. We then moved onto a sushi sashimi platter and a plate of gyu sashi (this is different from beef tataki because the latter is usually lightly seared while this is actual sashimi). There were diced onions on both dishes and it added a nice flavour kick to them. The sashimi was fresh and my favourite was the tuna which was melt-in-the-mouth soft. Same goes for the gyu sashi, it was incredibly tender and such a delight that I ate every single piece slowly in order to savour and fully enjoy the taste. We were extremely full after finishing everything so we didn't try dessert. On the whole it's definitely worth trying out if you are in the area or live locally. Lunch specials also look very enticing!

If you're after some delicious and fresh authentic Japanese food, make your way to Akari. <br/ The sashimi melts in your mouth and is very reasonably priced. We asked for extra salmon sashimi and they only charged a fraction of the price other restaurants charge for this request. <br/ The ohitashi (boiled spinach with sesame sauce) was amazing. Fresh and packed with a great flavour. We doubled up on this we loved it so much. <br/ Miso soup tasty but not over powering and salty like some places. <br/ Next time we would love to try the tempura as it looked delicious as they were taking it out to other tables. <br/ The service was lovely and very attentive. We are really looking forward to going back soon. <br/ <br/

Brunswick St has a stack of good places to eat and even though it's not famous for its Asian food you can do a lot worse than Akari. Service can be slow but the food has been fresh the few times I have visited.