Excellent service by Adeline. I appreciate that Adeline heard me request GF and informed me that the ginger dressing has soy sauce in it, so she recommended the ranch dressing. I usually don't like ranch dressing, but I loved Akashi's ranch dressing. The $2 garden salad is a surprisingly large portion, considering the price. The raw salmon on my salmon nigiri was moist and fresh and the portions were surprisingly large for the price (compared to what I'm served where I live, in NJ) and less expensive than what I'm used to. read more

Some of the best sushi you'll find in the greater triangle region. Have tried a lot of places, and nothing comes close to beating Akashi. Their staff is very friendly, quick service, fairly priced and overall a great go! read more

Got the Beto box so we got miso soup and a salad. The Beto box tastes very yummy! The wait was kinda awkward. The staff is busy but give them time. They are trying to get to everybody as quickly as they can. read more

Akashi - Shrimp Beto with California rolls - Sushi Bars Near Me - Durham, North Carolina

My favorite go to sushi takeout in the Durham area. Good deal and fresh fish. Always appreciate their variety of rolls too.

Fish didn't taste a good quality (maybe even a little old? But I didn't get sick or anything), sushi was rolled very small, and order was ready 20 minutes over quoted time. They offer deal of 50% if you order through them in high quantities but you understand why with what you get. What's strange is their prices are as high as other places that deliver quality in the area (e.g. Yuri, M). I'm giving 2 stars because the service was great at pick-up and the lady remembered me and found me outside to give me order when ready. read more

I used to come here a lot until bout 2015, then my job went somewhere else, now I'm coming back again and my first visit in 2018 left me a bit underwhelmed. We came late into the lunch rush, so maybe that was it. maybe it was an off day, or whatever. We'll go back as everyone I work with likes the place. I had a variety of sushi rolls and I can't quite put my finger on it, but they were just 'off'. Meaning they were hard to eat as they kept falling apart when you'd pick them up with chopsticks (and I know how to use them) or even fingers. The ones that had extras on the outside had too much sauce which caused the rice to fall apart, or they didn't press hard while rolling. They also were a bit more 'warmer' than I expected. Not in a bad bacteria way but just something was off that day. I'll go back as I work nearby, just hope it was a bad day the day we visited. read more

Excellent sushi for the price. This isn't the fancy anniversary dinner sushi joint, this is the "I want a roll and some toro for lunch that won't break the bank" joint. And in that regard Akashi is perfect. The staff is always very friendly and packages anything you get to go with care, and they almost always have everything ready to go right on time. I used to come here for lunch once a week with colleagues before Covid; hope to do so again someday. read more

This is a great casual sushi place for quick and very good sushi. If you get 2 sushi rolls then you get all rolls at half price which is really a steal. My favorite roll is the special spider roll with fresh fried soft shell crab which is amazing. Their volcano roll is a little different from your standard volcano and comes with a lot of scallops but is really done well. The service is also very fast. I really like the ginger dressing on their house garden salad. This is becoming one of my regular spots to satisfy my sushi cravings. For 2 sushi eaters we usually spend about $50-60 in total which is quite the deal. read more

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Came here in a Saturday night as it gets really good reviews. Ordered two sushi rolls. 50% off when you or two or more rolls! Pretty good deal! The rolls are pretty small and basic. Maybe their fancy rolls are larger. The taste was Ok. Nothing to complain about. If only based on sushi, I probably would give it 3 stars. But I found the takoyaki written on the black board for daily special. I grew up in Asian and I always like it. So I can't wait to try it! It was served pretty quickly. Fancier than the street food I got from Asia. I would prefer slightly more sauce on it and more octupus inside. But I'm still pretty satisfied with them, as they are not very easy to find in this area. The octopus was in fact tender and soft as they should be. Sum up: good deal on sushi, but the taste is just mediocre. Other staff in the menu or daily special might be good! Good variety. read more

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We recently tried out this place and so glad we did! I got the hibachi style bento box and not only was everything delish but I got a lot of food! Took me a couple of days to finish it all. Definite bang for your buck. My husband ordered hibachi and loved his as well. Of course, get the shrimp sauce. We will become regulars for sure! read more

Typically, good average sushi. However, the last time I was there to pick up an order 5/14/22, I asked is this everything, when I looked saw the bag with our order in it. I was told yes and left. As I am pulling into the driveway, we get a call that they forgot one order and now I have to go back. All I get from them when I return is a "I am sorry". Now, because I had to return my opportunity for my family to eat dinner together was gone. I have leave to go to the RDU Airport to pick up a family member. By the time I get back we don't get to eat the dinner I picked at 5:34 PM until after 8:30 PM. I love sushi, but there was joy in eating that meal. My father owned two restaurants and when something like that happened, he asked for the address and an and had it delivered. They lost me as a customer. Terrible customer service! read more

Came for lunch with coworkers around 1130 on a Weekday. We did have 10 people in our party but the place only had 1 other party (maybe 6 people?) in the whole restaurant when we walked in. We were quickly seated and served drinks. It took some time for us to decide what sushi to order but we placed our order at 1145. For 10 people, we ordered 24 rolls and 2 separate entrees. By the time we ordered there were a few more parties dining so overall it took about 25mins to receive our order. Total we had got 3 boats so I think that's really good timing for the amount we ordered! The sushi was presented well and tasted delicious. A few rolls we ordered were the tarheel, Wolfpack, blue devil, Carolina, ultimate rainbow, Nemo, and the normal tuna/salmon with avocado. read more

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So we got a bunch of nigiri and couple special rolls. Overall, the special rolls were kind of boring. On one hand, they weren't covered with bunch of random sauce or flavors, but they we're quite uninspiring. But the real test of sushi is in the nigiri, and they we're quite disappointing. The fish didn't taste super fresh, and the quality of the fish is definitely not high. This was apparent when you try the fatty tuna and other tuna...those tuna lacks fatty content and the texture were more squishy than chewy. Also, the appearance on the fish was quite dull; no shine. Service was good. But the food won't make me come back anytime soon. read more

Came here for lunch the other day with a friend. I liked the food and the staff was friendly. The only reason that I didn't give 5 stars is because time was not on my side and they took forever. I had preordered my food via the Yelp app which was ready on time. Then I ordered more food which took a long time for it to come out. The food is flavorful and I did enjoy it. I would return but it wouldn't be on a weekday when I have limited time. read more

I cannot lie, I was super nervous about trying the sushi here simply based on their location. I know, it's not fair to judge a book by its cover but sometimes that cover makes you really question the contents of that book...but don't let the strip mall atmosphere outside deter you! The sushi here exceeded my expectations with the use of fresh ingredients, beautiful presentation, and unique rolls and flavors. I decided to order their sweet dragon roll to test out my favorite roll and ordered their volcano roll because I was intrigued with their twist of adding scallops in the lava sauce. The dragon roll was delicious and fresh. I found that they did a great job having equal parts of avocado and eel slices on top of the roll and was pleased to see that they didn't try to skimp on either. I didn't find the shrimp tempura in the roll to be overcooked or fried but pretty standard with similar rolls I've tried at Shiki and Sake bomb. Now, the Volcano roll is a game changer. I've never really been a fan of volcano rolls at other sushi restaurants because it seemed a bit bland to have a California roll with a spicy mayo/red sauce on top but their addition of scallops in the sauce caught my attention, and I'm really glad it did because it was delicious! It does sound a bit silly that adding scallops makes such a difference but for me it does! I also liked that the roll was "oven-baked" as the sauce and scallops had a bit of a crispness to it. I loved that texture and the flavor combination of crab inside the roll and scallops and the lava sauce warmed up on the outside; it was such an explosion of flavor and texture! Now, I've had "oven-baked" rolls before where it's well over done and dry but I found it to be just right with my roll. My dining companion ordered the spider roll and tiger roll. I tried both and they were good. I felt like the spider roll had too much rice, but to be fair it was meant to be a large roll (only 5 pieces) and that seems to be the norm for 5 piece rolls (or maybe I'm wrong? Who knows?) The service here was good as our server was attentive. I was a bit surprised that it was empty on a week night, hopefully more people learn about their delicious sushi which is also BOGO! Can't believe I didn't start with that but I'm excited to have found another great sushi place that is easy on my wallet. Overall, I really enjoyed the sushi here and will definitely be returning! read more

Akashi - From left to right: spider roll, tiger roll, sweet dragon roll and volcano roll (topped with scallops, so delicious!) - Sushi Bars Near Me - Durham, North Carolina

When one of my coworkers suggested this place for lunch, I was a bit skeptical due to the location. However, after my experience, I take it all back. We came in around 11:40 and got seated right away. I ordered a Bento box while my coworkers ordered the BOGO sushi and Mackerel Teppanyaki. When the Bento box came out, I was really impressed by the variety of that it came with. I ordered the Tofu and it came with stir fried zucchini and onions, vegetable tempura, 4 pieces of California rolls and white rice. The tofu with the vegetables were delicious and flavorful. The vegetable tempura fried perfectly; light and not too oily, perfect for dipping in the white sauce. The California rolls were decent but not mind blowing. Overall, it had the right amount of food that will fill you up for lunch. My coworkers all enjoyed their meals as well. Service was good. I think we'll definitely come back in the future. read more

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This is my favorite sushi place close to Chapel Hill (the options there are pretty non-existent). Akashi has a large menu, usually has a buy one get one special going on, and several vegetarian sushi rolls to choose from which I really appreciate. There's lots of seating available, so there usually isn't any wait. I do wish they would abolish tipping though, just read this paragraph: Studies have shown that tipping is not an effective incentive for performance in servers. It also creates an environment in which people of color, young people, old people, women, and foreigners tend to get worse service than white males. In a tip-based system, nonwhite servers make less than their white peers for equal work. Consider also the power imbalance between tippers, who are typically male, and servers, 70 percent of whom are female, and consider that the restaurant industry generates five times the average number of sexual harassment claims per worker. And that in many instances employers have allegedly misused tip credits, which let owners pay servers less than minimum wage if tipping makes up the difference. Citations for those claims can be found here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/15/the-case-against-paying-waiters-in-tips-in-one-irrefutable-paragraph/ read more

FAVORITE sushi and hibachi joint in Durham. Great food and wonderful service. My husband and I have been eating at Akashi for almost two years now. When we first moved to Durham, we NEEDED to find a local sushi place to get our sushi and hibachi fix. Many people recommended Shiki Sushi to us, but we found to food to be just okay, the service to be disappointing, and the price point to be too high for what they offered. We found Akashi due to it's good reviews, and although the location was a bit odd, we fell in love with this restaurant. Let me tell you, this place blew Shiki out of the water. The service is way better, and the people are much kinder. They always put us in such a great mood. The food is more affordable and more delicious. My husband and I always split the Hibachi chicken meal and get two sushi rolls (if you buy two rolls, you get them both half off). The price usually comes to around $30, which is great for sushi AND hibachi. Our favorite rolls are the Carolina Roll and the Blue Devil Roll. We also love the Bagel roll. My mouth is watering now just thinking about it! If you're worried about the ambiance of the place, I totally recommend placing a takeout order. We often do this so we can spend more time at home with the dog (great decision, am I right?). read more

We love this place because they have a decent selection of naruto and my husband is Keto so he can't eat rice, but the sashimi is always fresh. The rolls are a perfect size and the soup is good too. Four stars because they refuse to open their dining room. Before someone gets all mad at me, I get it. I understand why they won't open, but that doesn't add to my experience. read more

Really good service. Amazing food! Highly recommend! We are from out of town. The area looks sketchy from the outside and we almost didn't go in but so glad we did! It was incredible! read more

Akashi - Sushi and Sashimi Platter 4 Pieces Wasabi Flying Fish Roe Sushi 4 Pieces Smelt Roe Sushi 8 Pieces Volcano Roll Atomic Tuna Roll - Sushi Bars Near Me - Durham, North Carolina

Great sushi and love their steak yaki soba. Call your order in and it'll be ready and yummy.

Great sushi and great special when you buy more than 1 50% off. Everything had a great taste and fresh! The tuna, salmon, whitefish and crab were great. The menu is extensive, but take your time and read through the descriptions. read more

Hard to find a sushi place where I truly enjoy the non-sushi offerings, but this place hits it. Huge variety of sushi options for the girlfriend, and I can enjoy the phenomenal bento boxes that they put together. Every component of these are delicious. This was seriously unexpected, but I love this place and will continue to order from them often. Definitely check them out! read more

This did not blow me away, but I'd give it 3.5 stars if I could for the value. Next time, I probably wouldn't get the apps. Salad was average (but only $2.50!), tempura and soft shell crab were just too much batter for me. Sushi was decent. Had the Volcano roll, Blue Devil, Carolina and Spicy Tuna Crunch rolls. Would go back, but probably only if I had a major sushi craving, and even then might pick Shiki or Peony. One thing that I loved was the sushi was 1/2 price (even better than BOGO) as long as you call in your order. read more

Last night, sweetie wanted some non-fast-food Yakisoba, so I did some searching, and found it on Akashi's menu. They had a tasty looking sushi menu too, and we thought we'd give it a try to see how it compared to our go-to favorite sushi/Japenese restaurant nearby Shiki. We were pleasantly surprised by the restaurant - it far smaller and less "fancified" than Shiki has become in the past few years (it's expanded and upgraded a LOT since it opened a dozen or so years ago). It was low key, uncrowded, simple, and very pleasant. The service was lovely and prompt. We decided to order a number of things to share: Beef Yakisoba and 3 sushi rolls (with the following proteins in them: shrimp, spicy tuna, eel, and seared filet mignon). We asked for the Beef in the Yakisoba to be cooked medium rare, because so many places (across all cuisine types) cook their "small pieces of beef" dishes to tough shoe-leather death. The salad with house ginger dressing that came with the noodle dish was nice, nothing fancy. We were pleasantly surprised with the yakisoba - the noodles were thin, seeming more like ramen noodles than the thicker yakisoba noodles we're used to (the restaurant also serves a couple of ramen dishes), but the flavor of the dish was nice and the beef was TENDER and cooked just right and very tasty, although it could have used more vegetables. The sushi was also very tasty, although we thought it was not QUITE as good as Shiki. Our impression upon leaving Akashi was "This was pretty good. We'd come back here." - 3-4 stars. BUT... on the way home, I started to feel stomach discomfort and bloating. I took some anti-gas medicine in hopes that it would clear that right up. It didn't. Within an hour of leaving the restaurant, I was in the restroom feeling MISERABLE. I spent the rest of my evening in severe crampy gastro-intestinal distress - my evening was SHOT. I couldn't get too far from the restroom, and when I could, I lay on the couch moaning in discomfort while sweetie worried over me. I thought "maybe it's just me... we ate the same food and sweetie, with his iron stomach, seems to be fine." I went to bed still in crampy misery, struggling to find a comfortable position, wondering if I was going to be up and down going to the restroom all night long. Thank goodness I wasn't, but I still felt GI distress this morning. Sweetie, who thought he was just fine, just had a more delayed reaction. He was awoken by stomach cramps in the very early hours of the morning and spent the next few hours in the same state of misery I had the night before, barely able to leave the restroom. Now, early afternoon the next day, neither of us has had any desire to get any food anywhere near our faces, much less eat like normal humans. We're still getting over the digestive unrest. I hate to leave a review like this, because we genuinely enjoyed our dining experience, but it was NOT worth the gastro-intestinal misery we experienced and are still experiencing 18 hours later. We don't know what it was that we ate that caused the problems, but it's not something we're going to chance by coming back. read more

This place is half off sushi from Thurs - Sun and we stopped by - it was super empty at 5pm on a Saturday night (that should have been our first sign). We all ordered all sushi rolls - we had the special spider roll (decent), cruncy tuna (probably my fav), caterpillar roll (smaller and not as impressive as I'm used to), Royal Dragon Roll (Alaskan Snow crab in it which was also decent but not terribly impressive), and the shrimp roll (also decent but nothing wonderful to rave about), but overall experience was mediocre sushi. Service was friendly but it did take quite a while after ordering. One of the girls got her sushi within half an hour of being seated but the last person didn't get her food until nearly an hour of being seated. Raw fish sitting out waiting for other people just nearly doesn't taste as good. Overall, a decent experience but I'll stick to SoCal and Chicago for my fav sushi places from now on. read more

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Very tasty food. The best hibachi in Durham. I took my family and they very pleased and satisfied.

I had my small college reunion at Akashi. The ambience is good and 6 of us were very comfortable. We mostly ordered the specialty rolls along with tofu stir fry. Some of the rolls in this picture are Wolfpack Roll (my favorite), Ultimate Rainbow Roll, Nemo Roll, Tar Heel Roll and Yellowtail Special Roll. Some of the rolls were letdowns but all in all a good experience. read more

Akashi - Sushi Bars Near Me - Durham, North Carolina

I was looking forward to this based in the yelp reviews, but it turned out to be just mediocre. I got asked 3 times in 3 minutes if I was ready to order. The ramen has no flavor and was just disappointing. I lived in Japan, so maybe I have high expectations, but this place was mediocre. I probably won't be back. read more

Their buy two or more rolls, and get 50% off deal was really exciting. I got the crazy roll and the volcano roll. My bf got the fried rice which was absolutely delicious. The sushi was good too but I was more impressed with the rice. The service was amazing, we got our appetizer (delicious spring rolls) and our food quick. Overall great experience! read more

Akashi is about a 20 minute drive from us but I wanted to try it because of the consistently good reviews. We were there on a Saturday and it was pretty empty. I found the overall spot kind of dingy, however, the staff was very friendly and attentive. We ordered takoyaki, 4 special rolls, and a couple regular rolls. The sushi rice was soggy and gross. Everything else was bland. All the rolls tasted the same. The takoyaki was pretty sad with its one piece of chewy octopus in the tasteless batter. My husband started wrapping ginger around the rolls just to get some flavor in there. I put an enormous amount of wasabi into my soy sauce to add spice. The rolls with uncooked fish were borderline nasty. I had to take the salmon out of the salmon avocado roll and the tuna tasted less than fresh. I wasn't expecting anything magnificent from a BOGO spot in a strip mall, but Akashi didn't even deliver on the solid BOGO mediocrity I was hoping for. read more

We got take-out. Very was good food. Sushi was fresh and tasty. Hibachi chicken and steak dishes were not greasy, veggies not over cooked, and taste great. Bento box gets you a good variety. Tempura was nice. Plan to go back. read more

Their discounted sushi is better than most places --- Here, if you order more than 2 rolls they are all 50% off. (I like this because we typically get 5 rolls when we eat sushi - and the BOGO doesn't work well with that). Akashi Sushi is great - they have a very good selection on their menu and their staff is always accommodating! We are gluten-free, and they are very helpful and considerate here. Because Akashi is in the heart of RTP - it is never crowded in the evenings so you can get in without a wait. I have found about 4 sushi places I like - but Akashi is by far my favorite. The only reason I give them 4 stars and not 5 is because they are very good for a typical sushi restaurant that you can get quality and consistant sushi any day of the week. This is not where I would go for specialty sushi or a fancy night out. Cost - Great Staff - Great Variety - Great read more

A hidden gem! Tucked away in a small strip store area, this Japanese restaurant delivers big flavors at cheap and affordable prices. Buy 2 or more rolls and get them 50% off- so speciality rolls are around $7-8!! Excellent quality and clean fish, and yummy creative combinations and classics. Service was very friendly and they were fairly quick bringing out the food. It was actually pretty filled for a random weeknight dinner, so that was def a good sign. Can't wait to come here again when I want my sushi fix. read more

The food is pretty good. I've noticed that even when I call in a head of time, I still end up having to wait 20-30 minutes for my the order that I place over the phone 15-20 minutes earlier...so annoying. read more

Some very enjoyable vegetarian sushi. My whole family enjoyed. We aren't melon eaters due to taste & allergies and they easily swapped it out for carrot or pickled radish. So delicious and the staff is so kind and friendly. I've truly become a regular during the pandemic and I'm so happy I've found this restaurant. read more

Akashi - Avocado Special Roll & Vegetable Tempura Roll takeout in my backyard. - Sushi Bars Near Me - Durham, North Carolina

I can't believe I haven't tried Akashi yet, small place that gets quite good business on Saturday nights. I'm definitely going to recommend this as a lunch spot. Udon noodles were fantastic. Noodles were the perfect consistency, and the right amount of flavor without being too salty. Airport roll exceeded expectations, it wasn't complex justshrimp tempura, salmon on top with spicy mayo. Dynamite roll was fully cooked tempura with salmon, certainly a different taste for a sushi roll but it was very good. I didn't care for the spider roll the crab tasted a bit old, won't be getting that one again. read more

Wow, that was bad. Like really bad. The rice tasted like soap and the sushi smelled and tasted fishy. They had no idea how to slice it and the pieces I actually ate were full of fat and tendon. The noodles came with only black pepper and oil on them and for some reason the wasabi would not dissolve in the soy sauce. Not at all. Overall a very weird and unsatisfying experience that has me feeling impending diarrhea. The best part was the Michelob ultra. read more

This sushi is good for the price (1/2 off all rolls if you get two or more), but maybe not as good as you would get at a more expensive place. The staff is really friendly, though, and the service was relatively fast over the busy lunch hour. read more

Akashi - Sushi Bars Near Me - Durham, North Carolina

Japanese restaurant has no taste of Japanese food at all!!! My udon not hot hot at all. Spicy tuna rolls like the one I can get from gas station. So disappointed read more