Akai Hana

Best sushi in Columbus. Some of the best sushi I’ve ever had.
Scallop roll, Red Dragon, and the Green Hornet are amazing. Want to try the Dynamite Shrimp roll.
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Closest to authentic Japanese in Columbus.
Red Dragon roll and the Green Hornet roll are favorites. Harvest is solid too.
Get takeout. The place is always packed.

I made a lunch reservation at Akai Hana just one week before Mother’s Day weekend for my large family of 21 who were all in town for my graduation. Given the timing and huge party of guests, I was so surprised that the manager was so willing to accommodate me. She also offered to take call-​ahead orders so that we wouldn’t be waiting long for our food. It took longer for me to get all the orders from my family than it did calling the orders in on the Friday night prior to our Saturday reservation!
The graduation ceremony caused us to be a bit late, but Akai Hana was super understanding and had our seats ready in their small room to the side of the restaurant. Seriously perfect. They came out with everyone’s side salads and miso soups. Shortly afterwards, we were given our food orders– all correct! Even those who weren’t able to submit their orders ahead of time and ordered at the restaurant got their food around the same time. Food was excellent, the portions were just right for their lunch menu prices. Couldn’t beat it and my family were all happy. All 21 of them!

I think if we had a different sever for our first experience we would have felt different. She was super behind and in no hurry-​even though not busy on a Saturday afternoon. We had lots of questions as was looking for direction and favorites and she couldn’t deliver. We will have to come back again I believe-​maybe?
Our experience-​BEST Hot Stones in town period so far! Comes out sizzling! Crispy rice, authentic mountain veggies, medium cooked egg, and seasonings! just missed the sauce. I don’t like a lot of spice-​and the sauce they served on the side was too spicy for me. So mine was just ok. I got the seafood and felt for the price little seafood was in it (2 cut up scallops, 2 short slices of king crab, and 3 medium pieces of shrimp. The Edamame appetizer was froze not fresh and not good. Our sushi was just ok. While our speciality roll was beautiful-​it wasn’t memorial.
I actually don’t like they serve the Kimchi and special spice sauce on the side, in large quantities. Looks like it has been used over and over. So I didn’t touch it.

Akai Hana is in the center of a bunch of Japanese establishments: a grocery, a bakery, etc. It stands out, though, and is the best Sushi I’ve found in Columbus so far.
I get the impression that this place is always busy, which must be owed to the fact that it’s very, very good. The prices are a little bit higher than what I’m normally spending for Sushi, but then again, this is really, really good Sushi. In fact, everything is really good.
Splitting a sashimi or sushi platter with somebody else and then going on in a couple of appetizers or individual rolls seems like one of the most cost-​effective ways to enjoy this restaurant. As a nice date night restaurant, it’s a definite winner.

I love Akai Hana, and have been there multiple times. The appetizers are great and the sushi is fantastic. Top notch service, and the prices are good for what you get. It is always very busy every time I go, but the wait isn’t terrible. The dragon roll is always delicious, and although not completely authentic, the spicy scallop is a must-​try.
And if you’ve got a big party, definitely try the sushi boat!

Three words to memorize and recite for your visit to Akai Hana: Spicy Scallop Roll.
Your life has been changed for the better.
You are welcome.

First off this little gem is tucked away in a little corridor of a shopping center, and at first seems a little hard to find. Its ok though, because if you follow the yellow brick road, you’ll find the entrance to a group of people that love to make delicious food. I can only speak from from one experience, but when you know — you just know. We picked up a couple of sushi rolls to go, and we gave them the Chuck Norris thumbs up. They were a good value for the money, and definitely a step up from any mid grade sushi (think gas stations, generic grocery store brands, etc.). I anticipate coming back, and thanks to my fellow Unilocalers, the pictures give me a good idea of whats what, and I appreciate that.
With that said, Im thinking about going next week sometime. Without a doubt I have to sit down at the Sushi bar as with all sushi places I go to. Then Ill update my review with the dine in experience.

It’s been a while since I’ve been here, and it’s still great! Didn’t go for sushi this time, though I love the Buckeye roll.
I got a bowl of Katsu Don: breaded pork, fried egg, and onions over rice. I got the miso soup on the side. The green onion is a prominent flavor in the soup. Both dishes were delicious.
The service is on the slower side, but I think this is just the atmosphere they are cultivating. The menu is long so you actually need the time to make a decision, given all the yummy-​looking pictures to pore over.
On a Saturday for lunch I was surprised how busy they were. Keep in mind the hours, too: they are closed between 2pm and 5pm, but they seem to do a steady business while they’re open. I guess when the price is right and the food is great, I shouldn’t be surprised that they’re busy!

Very authentic Japanese food. The sushi is super fresh and very well presented (I ordered sushi at an office get together and didn’t take pics as I didn’t want to be a distraction)
The food is super delicious. The prices are excellent for what you get.
We arrived at 12:45 on a Saturday for lunch, and it was busy! The hostess said 15 min but we really only waited 5 – 6 minutes.
The waitress greeted us promptly, drinks were brought out and we had plenty of time to look over the menu before ordering.
Order:
Nabe Udon — a delicious soup with noodles, carrots, egg, fish cake, and other goodness. There was even a shrimp tempura on top that was very good. I could eat a whole plate of those things.
This was a lot of food and filled me up.
Katsu Don — breaded pork, fried egg, grilled onions and other ingredients all over rice.

This is probably one of the best sushi restaurants in the Columbus area. It has a good combination of ambience, food, and service. Plus it has great lunch box offerings if you are into that type of food.
The sushi is consistently good. Their una ju (barbecue eel) is absolutely delicious, although I’d probably get something with it unless you plan to go hungry ;). Their Udons are also quite tasty and delicious. For the sushi, I recommend their handrolls. I’ve liked them all. The salmon handrolls, the bluefin tuna handroll. I also like their speciality rolls (especially the rainbow and the spider rolls).
The service is usually very good here. Overall a solid restaurant with great sushi offerings as well as other Japanese dishes. They also have Korean here but I haven’t tried their Korean dishes so can’t comment.

I always start my meal with miso soup.
If you’re looking for a protein packed meal, order the Salmon Teriyaki appetizer
if you’re eating alone and you want bang for your buck or you don’t want too much rice… order HANDROLLS HANDROLLS HANDROLLS. (usually 3 is enough to fill me up) They can make any sushi cut roll into a hand roll. My favorite hand rolls are:
–Salmon Handroll
–Eel Avocado Handroll
–Shrimp Tempura Handroll
–Bluefin Tuna Handroll
Service is wonderful here and I can always count on Akai Hana for a great meal. The Bluefin tuna nigiri is probably my favorite thing to eat but it is $$$. As with most good sushi restaurants, it can get expensive.

Another triumph in Kenny Centre. Akai Hana is damn delicious – that is all. The sushi is consistently good, and I like to try something new each time. The latest successes are the spicy scallop (baked and arrives warm from the oven), and the veg-​friendly Idaho (Vegetable Croquette, Spicy Mayo, Lettuce, Avocado) and Sweet Potato (Sweet Potato Tempura, Spicy Mayo, Radish Sprouts). The table next to us had this huge bowl of seafood and broth (I THINK it was jambong), and I had such intense food envy that I will be back soon to try it.

Unfortunately felt this place was a little overrated. Was here on a business trip and came across this on Unilocal.
Portions are sizable but I questioned the freshness and quality of the sushi. I got the Chirashi (assortment of sashimi over a bed of rice). Typically sashimi is fairly bite size but the cuts on these were bigger. I was excited thinking maybe I got a good bang for my buck, but every piece I ate, which required multiple bites, I had a hard time biting down to eat some and pull the rest from my mouth to put on my plate. Most were very chewy, leaving me to wonder if the chef just didn’t cut it right or if it wasn’t fresh.
Maybe another dish would’ve been better…

Absolutely delicious. I had a Korean beef dish and it was delicious. The beef was tender and succulent.

Well executed, tasty sushi in a traditional sushi restaurant atmosphere.
Very good food, very good service, great place.
Pricey… probably 20−25% higher prices than some other good local sushi restaurants.
I would have given it 5 stars, as many others have, but I ding’d them –1 star for being surprisingly expensive.

This was a stumbled upon by accident almost, but I am sure glad it happened! Typical sushi type of restaurant feel, but the food was actually rather great!
The sautéed scallops appetizer was decent sized for the price and were awesome (as scallops are).
Spicy scallop roll — DELICIOUS!!! FAVORITE SUSHI ROLL I HAVE EVER TRIED!
Red dragon roll — tasty and also a great roll, but nothing compares to the spicy scallop.
Mochi — only available with red bean paste, which is actually quite tasty, but I do prefer the mochi that comes with ice-​cream.
Fried icecream — I wasn’t exactly a fan, a unique way to fry it.
Overall, good portions for a good price. We left there with not a too bad hit on the wallet and very stuffed stomachs!

My Wife and I were in the northern suburb of Columbus visiting our son who loves sushi. Normally we’re budget sushi people, trying to find decent sushi at a Chinese buffet type place. Regrettably, there weren’t well-​rated buffet type places close by, so we went ahead and splurged with this high-​end sushi joint.
We weren’t disappointed. The salmon nigiri was among the best I’ve had. The smoked salmon roll was delicious. The eel nigiri was also great. I thought the shrimp nigiri was just average, and the vegetable spring rolls were just okay.
We were fortunate in our timing-​there was no wait, but by the time we left the waiting area was full of people. One of the interesting things we noticed while there was that the overwhelming majority of customers were Asian. I’ve not seen this at other sushi joints, so it tells me something about the quality of the food.
I won’t pay $ 100 every day for sushi for three people, but if you love sushi and price isn’t an option, this is the place to go.

I could have sworn I’ve done a review on this already, but apparently I hadn’t. This is a fantastic Japanese restaurant, but I never come during dinner hour because of the price. I recommend going before 2pm (weekdays or weekends) for the lunch hours, where you can get the lunchbox of the week for around $ 11.
Each lunchbox comes with a complimentary bowl of miso soup and salad — I usually get the organic salad with miso dressing. The soup is very well done. This is a great value if you think about what other restaurants might give you for the same price — a boring and unsatisfying plate of fried flounder with some steamed broccoli and coleslaw, for example.
The lunchbox of the week typically comes with teriyaki salmon, but you can swap it out for other options. The one that comes to mind is tempura, which comes with tempura broccoli, squash, sweet potato, and shrimp. I usually also get the Age Tofu, which is fried tofu with sauce. It’s delicious.
I also enjoy getting the healthy lunchbox with tempura on occasion. I did get the lunch box of the day one time, which ran for about $ 14 – 15, and it was good, but I still prefer the weekly lunch box.
Of course, this restaurant has a lot of other great things, like their sushi and their udon. Go and enjoy.
Oh, and I also suggest green tea icecream with red bean paste. Delicious.
Good atmosphere and friendly staff as well.

Very, very, very overrated. I’m actually baffled at the number of 4 and 5 star reviews that this place has. The service wasn’t that great (orders came out super slowly, even if you take into account how busy the restaurant is, and it was often hard to get our server’s attention), the prices are really expensive, and the fish is just not that fresh at all. Granted, the presentation is pretty spot-​on (everything we ordered came out looking beautiful), but each bite was just a mouthful of disappointment. The fish had pretty much no flavor or texture, and I think I ended up overloading my chirashi with ginger and soy sauce just so that I would taste/​feel *something.*
The only thing that wasn’t disappointing was the size of the sashimi. While nothing to write home about, they were at least an acceptable thickness (lots of other places around here give you very thin and skimpy cuts). Still doesn’t do anything for the quality, but it’s something.

I travel to Columbus for work a lot. There is no eating establishment there that I frequent more than Akai Hana. In the past year, I’ve probably been here at least 15 times. In my opinion, it is probably the best all-​around Japanese restaurant I have been to. I usually come here with a good friend of mine from work. He’s the one that introduced me to the place and we now have a pretty regular repertoire of dishes that we order when we go. It’s gluttony but it tastes so good.
I focus on small plates and sushi rolls to get a good variety of tastes in one sitting. Their entrees are excellent as well but with the two of us, we can’t really get away ordering 10 entrees to share. Well, I guess we could because we go there for full on gluttony but that’d be a waste and the dishes are too good to waste.
In any event, last week we ordered: Shige Nasu, Tatsuta Age, Negima Yaki, Wakame, pork ribs, spicy scallop roll, king crab roll, Power-​Up roll, Dynamite shrimp roll and a couple of sides of white rice. So what is all that?
1. Shige Nasu — deep fried eggplant with meat sauce is how it is described in the menu. What you get is a fried hollowed out eggplant shell filled with an amazingly seasoned sweet and savory sauce smothering either ground pork or beef and garnished with chopped scallions. The dark brown sauce tastes hoisin based but there is some other combination of goodness that I can’t quite put my finger on. I stopped trying to figure it out. This is just fantastic on its own but even better when you put it over white rice. And the eggplant shell is not fried so crispy that you can’t eat it. The outside is crispy fried but the inside is still moist and ummm. .. eggplanty. Probably my favorite of the small plates and we always order this one.
2. Tatsuta Age — a Japanese chicken nugget. Okay, that does not do this simple dish justice. This is dark chicken meat lightly marinated in soy sauce and deep fried with a heavier than tempura breading. Served just by itself. No need for dips or sauces. It just tastes so good. You taste the chicken without anything else masking it. The right amount of saltiness and never greasy. Another staple of our order.
3. Negima Yaki — thinly sliced beef loin wrapping scallions, pan fried and served in a thick teriyaki glaze. Beef and green onions; what’s not to love? Another great staple of our usual order. Put this and some of the sauce over the white rice and you could pretty much be done. The beef is tender and robustly flavored. The scallions are cooked perfectly without tasting raw or overcooked and the teriyaki glaze is so thick that it sticks to anything you touch it to.
4. Wakame — pretty traditional seaweed salad. Very simply prepared but so delicious. The seaweed is fresh and tossed in just the right amount of sesame oil so as not to overpower the seaweed (sesame oil can be pretty strong). Best by itself. We usually get this but sometimes swap out for other dishes.
5. Pork ribs — grilled with salt and pepper to the perfect tenderness. Amazing how little they put on it and how much flavor there is. It goes to show you don’t need to douse ribs with sauce or seasoning to make it taste amazing. We have only gotten this a couple of times but may start putting this into the rotation more often.
6. Spicy scallop roll — scallops inside and on top of the roll then slathered with mayonnaise and hot pepper powder then baked. Sounds strange but OMG is this good. The creaminess of the mayo, the spicy pepper and the fresh scallops make a rich combination. Not your typical sushi roll but you will not be disappointed. .. unless you don’t like mayo, in which case you will be gravely disappointed as this roll has a lot of it. Must eat when it gets to the table as it is best when warm. Not so fantastic after sitting on the table for 20 minutes. This is starting to become a staple of our rotation.
7. King crab roll — king crab (yes real crab; not fake crab) with tobiko and mayo. Very simple and so good. They are generous with the crab so you actually taste the crab instead of just crab flavored rice. Usually order this.
8. Power-​Up roll — tempura asparagus, fake crab, unagi (eel), avocado and tobiko. Another staple for us. Just a nicely balanced flavor profile and adds some crunchiness from the asparagus.
9. Dynamite shrimp roll — basically a roll with tempura shrimp and spicy mayo. Very generous serving of shrimp and just the right amount of spicy mayo. Simple and so delicious. Staple.
What I love about this place is that the food ingredients are fresh, the flavors are always intense and different, and they don’t rely on over seasoning or sauces to bring out big flavor. Their dishes highlight the base ingredients. The service is also very good. The place is usually packed so if you go during normal dinner hours, I suggest you call for a reservation.

This restaurant is one of the reasons I change my mind about Japanese cuisine. It was perfect at the moment of distinguishing the flavors of what you were eating. All the ingredients were really fresh and great quality too. The waitress was really nice and offered a great service.
The layout is nice. The divisions between tables gives the sensation of some kind of privacy, and I like it :)
They really take good care of the cleanliness of the place regardless of the time of the day you’re there.
I wish a long life to this wonderful restaurant.