Japanese: Akari

Akari
196 Essex Rd
N1 8LZ
Tel: 020 7226 9943

Date of Last Visit: Saturday, April 5

The Victims: Gerry, Ben

The Damage: £30 each?

By Way of Background (Not Really): I am the same age as Victoria Beckham. We are 13 days apart. This frightens me. She seems so super-human. I feel old.

I am closing down my Match.com account. My "Thirty There Dates in My Thirty-Third Year" idea didn't get very far. (I got to three, and then gave up.) And I am just so very tired of "I LIKE UR PROFILE." Oh, for a man who can wield a semicolon AND roast a chicken.

My new neighbo(u)r downstairs sings. A lot. Loudly. And plays the keyboard. 80s style. This is getting very annoying. (I had a neighbor in Chicago who sang opera on Sunday afternoons. Now THAT was lovely.)

I don't have a point. Not really. These are just things that are weighing on my mind as of late. Hmmm. Back to Akari.

The Entrance: I've always wanted to go to Akari. It's a Japanese restaurant located in what appears to be a converted pub. So it's a Japanese bar! But no, it's a restaurant! Well, it's more like a restaurant, but the food is more like bar food.

Deep fried bar food served on limp lettuce. We have deep fried oysters. We also have some edamame. And some sashimi...the yellow tail is very much the best. I get some fried pork cutlet and it's nice. But nothing to write home about. A neighboring table gets a long dish of seared tuna that looks lovely so we order the same. It's gross. (It's the sauce that makes it gross.) I am oh so very disappointed.

The Verdict: Eh.

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