Aki Matsuri Festival

This was an absolute joke im sorry. There were 3 tents that had games which you paid to throw a ping pong ball at a plastic cup and only one tent actually selling animé/​japanese goods.
For having a huge parking lot, it was incredibly empty. Entrance fee for $ 6
Food vendors were all local minus the okonomiyaki one and still there were only 3 places to eat plus a bar and lemonade stand.
Really really sad and I won’t be coming back to this

As a lover of all Asian foods, I was really looking forward to this but I left the festival feeling disappointed. My biggest complaint is that there were only 4 foods booths. There was ramen, okonomiyaki, kushiyaki (meat skewers), and grilled corn. I literally spent more time driving there from Henderson than I did at the actual festival.
There are other things that were irritating but I suppose can’t be helped.
–It was soooo hot.
–I wish they didn’t charge an entrance fee ($ 6).
–The okonomiyaki and kushiyaki take some time to cook. In an effort to reduce the lines, the food vendors were rushing and caused the food to be undercooked. They’re caught in a bind. If they were to probably cook the foods, people would complain about the wait.

Very disappointing. There were only 4 food booths, 1 shaved ice truck and 1 drink booth. I was excited about going to this festival and walked away feeling very disappointed.
The okonomiyaki was under cooked and mushy. My mom grew up making these in Japan and so my standards of what these should look and taste like are very high and trust me what you get at this festival doesn’t do it any justice at all. The real deal is chock full of fresh veggies, meats, noodles, everything! Not like what they were selling. The fried squids were descent. Nothing to write home about though. It was way too hot to eat ramen. Especially when shaded seating was very limited. Over 90 degrees outside with limited seating and beverages hard to come by. My fiancé got the chicken meatballs and Kobe beef skewers. Again, nothing fabulous. Would rather get it at a Japanese restaurant down in Chinatown sitting and enjoying the AC.
The shaved ice had a 30 – 35 minute wait which was constantly going up, we gave up and asked to cancel our order because we wanted out of the heat and saw everything there was to see. When we went up to cancel our order they were telling the new customers that the wait would be 45 minutes! For shaved ice? I think not. We ended up going down to Kuma and getting shaved ice immediately, no wait there.
The scene was tacky from the plastic water bottle shooting range to the unimaginative craft booths. Probably one of the worst «festivals» I have ever been to in my life. Oh and the awful karaōke made the heat even more unbearable.
Wanted to go because I thought it would be fun. Now I know and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. Want good Japanese food? I’m sure you’ll have a better cultural and food experience at a Japanese restaurant in Chinatown.

My first Aki Matsuri that I went to was a couple of years ago when it was held at the chinatown mall on spring mountain road. Back then, they only had a handful of restaurants participating at that event. I was unable to attend last years event due to work, so I was excited to be able to go this year!
Like last year, this event was held at the Rio pavilion. This is probably due to the fact that a LOT more restaurants have been participating in the festival, and there were even places from other cities, such as LA!
It’s better to prepay for the tickets at participating locations, as you can save 40% or more off the tickets. That’s what I did and so it only cost 6 bucks, and that was good for entrance on both days. Not bad considering trying foods from different cities, and being able to watch special performances all day, if you choose to.
All around the event there were food vendors peddling their goods. Most of them were from local restaurants, and a few from outside of town. Most of the food was pretty average. A few highlights included restaurants that are popular in the area.
I thought Raku killed it. They were doing various yakitori. The beef skirt steak skewer was magnificent! As well as their pork cheek that tasted like grilled pork belly. Sweets Raku had this amazing green tea roll cake with red bean filling, their vanilla orange cream puff was right on the mark. And lastly, Suzuya made their amazing crepes, another highlight.
But not all was fine and/​or the dandy, lion. I actually thought the restaurants from out of state really dropped the ball.
First was Gaja restaurant from LA and their okonomiyaki. The pancake was very undercooked, even on the outside edges. It tasted like raw batter, which was gross. I do have to say that their deep fried mini octopus skewer was tasty, even though it was albeit greasy.
And the second vendor who didn’t do a really great job was Tanota takoyaki from LA. I thought the sauces were pretty weak, especially their jalapeño one, which didn’t have any flavor whatsoever, it was like mayonnaise. I didn’t like the takoyaki either. It was soft on the outside, and doughy in the middle. A buddy of mine who is Japanese said that it was pretty authentic to the real thing. But for me personally, I like it when the outside is crunchier and more cooked in the center.
Even though I wasn’t impressed with the food, I think the showcasing of various talents that went on throughout the day, was worth the price of admission alone. I don’t know anything about JPop, but a lot of talented young people did some singing and dancing to the music. There were also some skits and comedy acts as well.
Next year, I would like to see more vendors from outside of our state. I know what we have here in terms of restaurants, so more variety would be nice. Overall, I had an OK time.

The weather is beautiful! The food is amazing! The pancake, raku and takoyaki are we’re great. The takoyaki stand however had a huge line they should really look at ways of increasing volume.

This is definitely not the most organized festival. It really doesn’t make sense to me to have one line for purchasing ramen tickets/​drinks and then you have to stand in another line to get the ramen =(. I’m not patient and I hate lines! ha… And it turns out this was one of the hotter days in the fall. The takoyaki place was flat out disgusting… I hardly ever am that harsh, but the dough was not cooked through =(Big fail and I waited over 30 minutes in line for it! The ramen was okay, but I think i would have rather sat down in a restaurant and savored the flavors of a full bowl rather than a few bites of ramen noodles and one piece of pork. It seemed like a great concept, but in the end I probably wouldn’t go back. In the future on Aki Matsuri Festival day I will be there in spirit as I eat at Monta or Ramen Sora. On a side note, they have little prizes they are giving away all the time… so if you are a lucky winner than that’s a bonus. I won a $ 50 gift certificate to Marssa, so perhaps… this might make my review an A-​okay versus I’ve experienced better.

I have to preface this review with the fact that I am not a huge fan of food festivals. I wish I could see it in a more positive light, but they tend to leave much to be desired. Aki Matsuri falls into the same category.
The layout for the venue was odd. All of the merchandise vendors are located at the entrance while the food vendors were spread out along the perimeter. The ramen festival was located within the festival. None of the ramens were amazing and the sizes were smaller than if you were able to go to the restaurants. If that was not a big enough disappointment, okonomiyaki was a biggest disaster. The insides were gummy, the outsides could have used a little more time. With the pace that they needed to keep, the product definitely suffered.
Within a couple of hours, I was ready to head out. It was just nice to spend time with my friends.

The past few years I’ve always been disappointed by Aki Matsuri Festival.
Previously it was at the OG Chinatown venue which led to small turn outs, cramped, no parking, and food running out relatively quickly.
HOWEVER this year it was greatly improved. No issues with parking at the Rio, space was big, and dear lawwwwwwwwwwd all the food options! The food options were definitely the highlight of the event which could be a problem.
While I enjoyed most of the food vendors, this wasn’t a food festival, so the lack of A game that the vendors brought were an issue. Wished for something innovative or unique in terms of vendor or hey even a ramen history lesson since that was the highlight of the event.
Anyways huge improvement than before, but much is to be done!

Another year, another Aki Matsuri Festival in Las Vegas. And your festival experience will likely be very different depending on the time of day you were there. But parking for the event at the Rio was way better compared to when it was held at other smaller venues.
This year the event was held at the Rio’s parking lot, where numerous other festivals and carnivals are held throughout the year. So parking for the event was easy compared to past years when it was held at other venues. Plus you are not disrupting other businesses physically attached to that parking lot (at past venues)
For those that were lagging about getting pre-​sale tickets, they were practically all sold out the day before the event. So in the future if you plan on attending it and getting a discounted ticket, buy it early.
I arrived and met up with friends at around 2:30pm, so the long lines others encountered around noon time had already mostly died down. Buying ticket to get in, and purchasing ramen redemption tickets ($ 7 each as stated on the flyers) were both relatively painless and quick. Some ramen vendors had longer lines than others, but even the ones with the longest line (Hiromaru — a ramen restaurant from Japan that is going to open their very own Las Vegas location in the near future) have no lines at all at times. So it pays to be a little patient. Overall, I was not blown away by any of the ramen I tried at the Ramen Festival (biggest complaint for me is that the broth seems to be more water down, plus portions are tiny for the $ 7 being charged per ramen ticket).
Besides that, these are areas that can use significant improvements in the future:
1. Everything was way too spread out. The layout of the event could have been done a lot better.
2. And for a food festival, there were not enough places to sit and eat your ramen under the shade. And where the tables are located, they were so bunched up together it was troublesome to get in and out of that area, while trying not to spill any hot ramen broth on people that were already seated.
3. Disappointing lineup of non-​food vendors.
4. Entertainment — couldn’t even see it if you are waiting in line for ramen.
Generously giving this traditionally fun event (at least in other cities in California) a 3 stars by rounding it up to the nearest absolute integer.

I loved being able to try so many varieties of ramen all in one spot! The layout of the booths and ticketing system left something to be desired, but all in all, my focus was on the foods, especially the ramen, and for that this ‘festival’ was exceptional. I will definitely be back next year, as they just keeping adding more and more vendors and entertainment. Now if only they could drop the ticketing system…

Roshambo + Ramen galore + Shaved ice + Okonomiyaki + Japanese beer = A great Saturday
Good food and good company on a lovely Saturday afternoon (or night if you went later than me). The festival lasted from 11am — midnight and was filled with performances, food, and booths from local organizations. Yes, it was a hot and I wished they had more covered seating, but that is the benefit of going in groups. This way you just have to rotate who is going to get the food and who is going to hold the fort down in the shade.
Logistics: Tickets were $ 8 at the door ($ 5 for pre-​sale at local shops and restaurants around the valley). This event was also very family friendly and free for children 8 and under. Once you got in you there was a line to buy tickets for Ramen ($ 7), soda ($ 2), and beer ($ 5). Warning though the beer was cheaper $ 3-​$ 4 from the non Ramen booths. From 12 pm to 1 pm this line was super super long, but after 1 pm it definitely died down. If you wanted other food like skewers and Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) no ticket required, just good old hard cash.
Hiromaru: By far the longest of the Ramen lines and for good reason. It has a very rich and creamy broth without being overpowering. The noodles were on the thinner side which I personally like because I feel like I get more broth with what I am eating. This one did steal the show in most everyone’s heart. They are originally from Japan, but the flyers said that they were going to open a shop here in Vegas and I will be a future customer for sure.
Iroha: Another festival favorite. They had the second longest line. Their noodles were much thicker and their broth had a little more spice to it. The servers warned us that it was spicy, but I didn’t think it was bad at all.
Vegetable Okonomiyaki — Lots of fillings, heavy on the pickled ginger, and still squishy on the inside. I like it, but if you a super crispy pancake this might not have fit your fancy.
I had a wonderful time eating and drink from the different booths, hanging out with friends, and even my failed attempts at Roshambo (rock paper scissors) to win gift certificates for local restaurants. I’m pretty sure I will be back next year :)

The Aki Matsuri Festival is a fun idea that needs better execution. There was a ridiculous amount of space that was poorly or totally not utilized. There could have been more shade, more chairs, more trash cans, more ticket vendors and more space between tables. It was literally impossible to move between two people sitting at different tables, which is just poor planning and management.
I actually had a good time, but it wasn’t the festival, just the people. It was honestly kind of annoying to have some people singing terribly being blasted into my ears half the time (no offense).
It was definitely cool having a variety of ramen vendors, but in the end, all the places that are local seemed to get little to no business because of the fact that we as locals can just go there at any time. That certainly would skew even out of town visitors from going to those stations since they will have a look of being unpopular and bad.
Part of the problem was they took a festival with a lot of potential to look like it was bigger and just put everything around the perimeter, meaning that once I walk into the middle, I’ve seen it all. Not much amusement beyond that.
Anyways, I hope they can do better the next time. I, for one, would have liked it to be more like a contest between ramen vendors the way they hyped that up so much.

I love everything Japan-​related, so when I saw this festival first advertised I posted the event on Unilocal.I bought $ 5 advance tickets at Japan Creek Market. I planned to go at the beginning because our Saturday was full of to-​do list items. We arrived around 11:15 AM. Some of the vendors for food were not yet open, but the ramen line was already enormous. Since I don’t eat pork, there was no need for me to stand in line, and Eric was unsure if he wanted to do that anyway. We started with okonomiyaki (sans mayo) — it was okay but we just love Hiroshima-​style and this one was Osaka-​style and rather bland. I got in the takoyaki line and saw one of my students taking orders.
I ordered the takoyaki with mentaiko sauce, and it was the best thing I had all day. Super hot and soft inside with tako, outside crisp, covered in mentaiko sauce, green onion, bonito flakes, and shredded nori. It came with 7 which was a great deal and I got iced green tea. Eric R. decided to get honey toast from Ichiza (he made them remake it because they gave him a completely burnt toast) and I got brussel sprouts from Yonaka as soon as they opened. Curry Zen was not ready to open, Kyara served no food (only drinks) though they had a cool seating area, Snowflake was not there yet, Yu-​yu only had a few kushiage options, and Raku had a really long line.
I offered to get in the ramen line with Eric when it got shorter but he was full. The stage performances and games were cool — Eric R. tried to play rock-​paper-​scissors for gift certificates to restaurants but lost. I agree with Nelson that the vendor options for the «market» were limited, so there was not much to see. I also wish the drink booth associated with the ramen line was separate and took cash instead of requiring people to wait in the ramen line to buy drinks, since there were more options there than at some food booths. Plus, the drink booth at the entrance was price gouging whereas most restaurant booths sold bottled water for $ 1 and Calipico/​green tea for $ 2.

There was much more to be desired after leaving this festival. Yes, there were alot of food options, and the cultural entertainment was aright, but things like a market section would’ve been great where people could buy Japanese ingredients (Japan Creek Market)
tea vendors, noodle demo, mochi pounding demo… something???clothing, kitchen, and home accents (Tokyo Discount) I don’t know, more stuff than just food vendors and an entertainment stage. There were a few people who also looked cool in Cosplay… was there a contest for that?
A martial arts demonstration would’ve been cool (Karate, Kendo, Aikido) or even traditional dances too. More seating would’ve been awesome for both the eating and stage areas. Food options were cool, but were lacking in the dessert department. Perfect Scoop would’ve done well, helping everyone cool off, and even Suzuya would’ve made a killing on desserts and crepes.
Food wise, we went for the out of town/​places we haven’t tried spots. We tried a Curry Okonomiyaki, and the first bites were okay, but towards the center, it tasted under cooked… Ramen vendors Hiromaru and Iroha were the longest lines, so we hit those up. Although I thought Hiromaru’s Tonkotsu Ramen was very delicious, it was very skimpy portion wise. Iroha’s Spicy Ramen was pretty good too. Felt pretty bad for alot of the local vendors (Sora, Monta, Kyara, Yonaka, etc.) as they didn’t have lines when we were there, and we had half of Yonaka’s offerings the night before, so we tried other spots.
Hopefully more improvements are made for next years festival because I am a huge fan of Japanese food, arts, and culture… ALOHA!!!

We went to the festival around 10pm and while it was winding down, I had a good time.
When we entered the festival, we were surprised to be only charged $ 5 a ticket instead of the at the door price of $ 8. I’m guessing that we were given the $ 5 rate due to the event ending within two hours. Never-​the-​less, it was a nice surprise and ended up being a good start to our visit.
Since it was so late, there weren’t large crowds. Most of the ramen booths were open and serving satisfying bowls at $ 7 a pop. We tried Jinya and I believe Takara. I wanted to try Shalala and the others but was pretty full. The vendor from Japan was sold out but I wasn’t surprised being how late it was and I’m sure a lot of folks earlier were wanting to try ramen from Japan.
There was still entertainment on stage playing music and many merchants still had wares for sale.
We didn’t stay too long but we left feeling satisfied for what we were able to experience.
I’d definitely return next year; hopefully a couple hours earlier.
Pros:
–Reduced ticket price
–No lines
–Easy parking
–Plenty of food choices
–Late night hours
Cons:
–Some booths were sold out/​closed

I think the experience at the Aki Matsuri Festival changes quite a lot after say 4 pm which is about the time I arrived. It was rather warm when I arrived but the shadows were getting long and soon it cooled down. There was a good attendance at the festival with a lot of people sitting under shade at the tables.
I saw the Ramen Dorlee was talking about at Jinya. They were serving the cold ramen during the hot part of the day and then the hot ramen after about 5 pm. While I saw the procedure and the line for getting tickets for Ramen and drinks, we decided to hit the vendors who did not require the tickets. This wound up to be a pretty good idea.
At Yonaka we shared pork belly, chicken katsu and the pork sandwich thing which I can’t remember the name of. As per Yonaka usual, it was all outstanding. To the left of the Yonaka booth was a place that only served cocktails. At Kyara we ordered the first of our sangrias and brought our Yonaka into the low Japanese tables to have together. My Japanese friend and I had a nice long lovely visit. We managed to solve all the world’s problems on just three sangrias.
I give five stars to the cultural performers. The tako drummers always makes me want to get up and move to their beats. It is a hard thing for a dancer to resist. I appreciate the costumes and the performers who are fascinating to watch.
The Kayara cocktail bar was such a cool diversion and I think a lot of folks did not know it was there. I liked how it was small and intimate but yet we could hear all the drummers and their beats. I am sure we had a really different experience from most of the other attendees at the festival.
The reason I am only giving three stars is that there is not enough seating to watch the performers and just not enough seating overall. Yes and it would be more convenient to have more trash cans about.
If I could make a suggestion for improvement would be to create little small rooms like tea gardens or cocktail gardens such as I experienced that for a little while transports you to some other place. I would also like to see something for dessert. I was craving a malasada or something like that at the end of the festival.
I wanted takoyaki but the line was really long. I did go over and watch the cooks furiously making them as fast as they could. They looked amazing and I am regretting I didn’t get any.
I do love festivals like this. It just seemed there was not much to do once you make your first pass through the booths.

I went here with a couple of my friends and I had a really nice time here. I heard about this place when they had fliers up at Curry Zen, and I decided to go with my friends to check it out.
The main goal of the day was to try the various ramens. We didn’t get all of them, but we did try 5 different places. The set up was a little strange with us buying tickets for the various ramen places beforehand, and I can see why they did that and it’s for the actual tents dealing with money. It’s a lot easier to collect ticket stubs rather than to collect money so they had someone else deal with that. The lines got long after a whole in the day, but if you got there early, you didn’t have to deal with the ridiculously long lines. They had other food places serving food like Curry Zen, Raku, some place selling okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake) which was really good, and other miscellaneous things. I personally only went there for the food, but they had a strafe with various performances and booths you could check out. I had fun and I’m definitely going to be going again next year!

I agree with Nik O., it was too hot with not enough shade. Not even a gust of wind. There were a few out of town good tasting ramen stands that used tickets (with a set price) like Men Oh, Iroha, Jinya, and Hiromaru. Then on the other side you used money (from various prices) to buy food, alcohol, and other drinks from Yonaka, Ichiza, Kyara, Hikari, Aloha Kitchen, Gaja, Takoyaki for example.
There were not enough hand washing areas, seats, or tables for eating. Also there were not enough dessert stands or hot teas offerings.
All in all it was an interesting first time!

Hot as hell. Would’ve rather spent the $ 8 on foodie fest entry. Line to get ramen and bevg tickets then line to order (even though they all only have 1 thing) then another line to pick up. Then burn the sh*t out of your hands on the plastic bowls. Ok sized portions but no ramen was amazing. Save $ and go to sora instead.
off to snowflake to cool down

I’ll agree with the previous posters on the fact that it was quite hot, which is actually surprising. I had checked the weather before coming to the festival and it was in the low 70’s but it did not feel as such. However, weather isn’t something you can control. I’ve been through 80 – 90 degree weather for the 626 night market that was also outdoors and had zero shade areas so I’m not too concerned on that aspect.
Though, there wasn’t enough places to sit — that’s for sure. Not only that but we also found a huge lack of trash cans. What the heck? I didn’t understand. A good 75% of the festival was food booths but finding a trash can was similar to trying to find Waldo.
RAMEN:
The way they structured this was: you have to buy a food/​drink ticket first. $ 7 for ramen and $ 2 for soft drinks. So you buy however many tickets you want. Each food ticket representing one bowl of ramen. With that ticket, you get in line to whichever ramen booth you want to try. Even though I don’t particularly prefer this get in line to get in line concept… I find this a little bit more sanitary. Why? Because the people making, prepping, and giving me my food haven’t touched money. Money can be very dirty. So it’s less hassle for both sides. We don’t have to worry about taking cash, giving cash, and getting cash back.
My friend and I tried three different booths for ramen.
Hiromaru: To be honest, it’s pretty good. I do believe that this is from Japan so it’s typical that the broth/​flavorings aren’t incredibly salty or rich. Japanese food is typically very bland. I loved how the tonkotsu soup base was not overly powering. You won’t get tired of eating this. Because if the soup base was too rich, I’d typically get tired of what I’m eating and then it won’t taste good near the end. Hiromaru is very balanced for my tastes :) I typically like thinner noodles but for some reason, their noodles reminded me of spaghetti XD!
Iroha: My favorite booth for ramen. It was different and not your typical soup base. It held a spicy kick to it, which I liked. The noodles were just right — not too soft and not too hard. The wait for this line is actually quite long when we were waiting for it cause they didn’t have that many people working and only one pot to cook noodles in. But it was worth the wait imo. Maybe next time I stop by SoCal I can visit this place and eat there!
Tsujita LA: What an interesting concept. We decided to try this stand because it serves cold ramen. And boy were they not kidding. Everything was cold from the soup base to the ramen noodles. It was almost like they got it out of the fridge! The soup base was really refreshing though considering how hot it was outside. And it kinda reminded my friend of an udon soup base. It wasn’t horrible or anything but not my preference. It was a good experience though!
Would definitely like to see more of these types of things! *Thumbs up.*
OTHER:
There were a lot of other vendors there including Yonaka, Raku, and Ichiza. They also had a booth that sold takoyaki and also shaved ice from that one Frog truck. can’t remember the name. There wasn’t anything particularly interesting except Raku. they were selling skewers for $ 3 – 5 each. which was kinda pricey. My friend and I tried the tontoro, the pork cheek skewer and it didn’t really taste like pork … didn’t really taste like anything actually.
A lot of the booths sold beer, one sold cocktails, and some were selling water and soda for $ 1. Not enough variety on the sodas :(made me a little sad. I don’t drink beer so that was useless for me. And aside from Ichiza selling their honey toast for a whopping $ 6, there weren’t any desserts.
RETAIL:
A lot of different booths selling merchandise: from handmade crafts to stuffed animals. Some had jewelry. Some had hello kitty merchandise. Some had t-​shirts and what not. Some had animé. It was like a mixture … of things. There was also a nail art booth where they’ll do your nails. $ 5 for polish and $ 7 for gel, which is a fabulous price. The designs looked cute too. I would’ve totally had mine done if my job allowed it: P Alas, job doesn’t allow anything but neutral colors. Darn!
They also had your usual festival games… well two. The balloon fishing $ 2 and actual fishing $ 4 for one game and $ 6 for two. Kind of pricey for fishing the gold fishes but everyone has got to love those games.
STAGE:
They had a bunch of events going on the stage continuously from dancing to games to show you the arts, which was interesting. They even had a karaōke contest early around 2 PM. So if you’re ever tired or just need a break from stuffing yourself, just go and watch some of that entertainment.
Overall, not bad at all. It’s just a little lacking. There weren’t enough things to look at or things to do to be able to stay at the festival for that long. Also entry is $ 8 at the door and $ 5 for advanced tickets. Would be nice if it was cheaper :[