Akaihana Sushi & Grill

Tried a new five alarm chili. It was nice and hot. Spicy shrimp roll was great. Even their California roll is very good. Place was hopping. They are reasonably priced. We like this place

«I thought I wrote a review for this place.» If I had a maki for every time I said that, I’d really be rolling.
«Mr. Sushi» formerly, and I’m talking at least ten years ago, but this name «Akaihana» was attached as well if I remember correctly. They have dropped the former, but the quality has thankfully stayed the same.
Four stars for sure, but I surrender the fifth for an exceptional treat on this past Christmas Eve. Running late to a late supper in Paradise Valley, we wanted to sneak in a bite and seeing as this place closes at 2pm; I called en route at about 1:45 and placed and order, but I requested that, instead of «to go,» that it merely be ready for our arrival (probably right around 2pm.) They obliged.
We walked in, were seated promptly and much to the other diner’s surprise… several rolls, bowls of miso soup and a seaweed salad were promptly brought to our table. It couldn’t have been timed more perfectly. It couldn’t have tasted more delicious.
I’ve found a wonderful trio of rolls is: the Las Vegas, (note: the cilantro/​jalapeño aioli that comes with this roll also compliments a filet mignon rather nicely, as I found out on a more recent to-​go order!), Spicy Scallop roll and the Alexa Go Go roll. Top it off with miso soup and a seaweed salad and it’s a nice taste selection for two. Add «Forrest Gump» for your shrimp fix and «Marc Roll“gives your tastebuds a River Eel dance.
Notes:
— They close between lunch and dinner.
— They have A LOT of rolls — see menus, the walls for papers with handwritten descriptions as well as the special boards, outside usually as well as the chalkboard behind the sushi chefs
— The strip mall here is totally deserted! Don’t let that dissuade you. You can access via Black Canyon Hwy (which is frontage road I-​17) or from Northern or 24^th Avenue)
— It’s not a fancy interior but it has character
— Service can be slow but always friendly

Stumbled upon this great restaurant by accident. It’s hidden at the back of a strip center and very hard to see. Fabulous service with amazing lunch specials. Everything we ordered was delicious! We will be back.

Some of the best sushi for an affordable price! I have been coming here fairly often since discovering this little mom and pop place a couple years ago. I have never had to wait an extensive period of time for my food, in fact, theyre so quick, that ive been like «hold on, i have my other rolls to eat!» Every person that i have taken here has been somewhat of a sushi snob and they have raved about this place. everything is fresh and affordable, you can have a full meal, leaving you stuff and hating your growing belly for less than 20 bucks (providing that you take part in Happy Hour, which is phenomenal pricing!) otherwise without HH, the prices are still quite good. Now i know there are 2 locations and im not sure which one of the locations these negative reviewers went to, but i frequent the location on i-​17 and Northern and THIS location is amaze-​balls.

If you are looking for good sushi, pay attention to the negative reviews. I should have because everything they said was accurate.
Our food took 45 minutes to arrive for three rolls and a noodle soup.
We had: Manhattan Roll, Spicy Tuna Roll,
Sunset Roll and the Nabeyaki Udon.
Overall the food is not good. Fairly bland, slightly hard rice that is the wrong kind of sticky.
The salmon is not pink, but that odd light orange color of not so good fish. The rolls are haphazardly rolled, the interior shape squashed and oblong. Inconsistent piece by piece.
I will not return. It was not worth the time or money.
If you want decent sushi check out Yen.
Sunset Roll: The fish is sliced messy, no care for details was taken, and placed over the roll in a sloppy hastened manner. The lemon that is placed on top also inconsistently cut, randomly sized and shaped. The rind was left on the lemon. Unpleasant. The salmon as I mentioned above, was not good.
Manhattan Roll: Was only passable because the shrimp was deep fried and it had sauces with flavor. Same rice and shape problems.
Spicy Tuna: not good. The tuna was too light a shade of pink. Bland in flavor, and made too spicy to make up for lack of taste.
Shape and rice problems.
Udon: Bland, flavorless. Needed basic things like salt. Was not hot, just somewhat warm upon arrival. The tempura shrimp accompanying it was also bland.
Odd dirty drawings of sushi rolls on the walls drawn using markers and crayons. I thought they were children’s drawings at first.

My girlfriend and i come here whenever we’re craving sushi (which is very often) and we love this place. The people are really friendly and the sushi is the best we’ve had so far. Surprisingly its very cheap; If you’re ever in the area i strongly recommend stopping by.

A young lady named kiokiri-​sorry if I spelled it wrong-​was super attentive and great service from her.
Anyways, great sushi selection and beverages. Thanks again kiokiri.

We have not been here in a few months as the complex has been under construction. But it is by far our favorite place for sushi!

This place used to be called Mr. Sushi. It’s been open as long as I’ve been in Phoneix so going on over 20 years now I am sure.
I’m not sure of the reason for the name change. The new name is difficult to pronounce and even harder to remember. I used to love the Mr. Sushi name– so easy to remember!
Regardless of the name, the place has the same feel and if think the same menu too.
For a reasonable price, you get generous portions of whatever it is that you’ve ordered. It’s a guarantee that you will not leave hungry coming here for lunch or dinner.
I am glad the atmosphere of this place has stayed the same. Warm, friendly and inviting. It’s like greeting an old friend when I walk through the doors after not being here for awhile.
Regardless of how many name reincarnations this place goes through, I hope they don’t change the atmosphere of the restaurant and this place will always be Mr. Sushi to me!

Awesome tasty sushi, made with tlc. The menu sheet is a Little busy but each roll has its own flavor factor.

Can’t say enough about this wonderful place! Great staff, owner and locals!
Happy Hour is available during many hours of the day– check it out.

My husband and I are not necessarily sushi people, but we tried the sushi rolls here and they were delicious. Not realizing how much food we were ordering, we got the blue flame, Philadelphia and Tokyo rolls along with Beef Tataki. It was way too much food for 2 people. It was all excellent, especially the Beef Tataki.
We came on our lunch break, and the place was busy, but wait times were reasonable. Service was very friendly. I appreciated the fact that the waitstaff didn’t seem territorial at all. If we needed a refill and a server was passing, they just offered a refill. It’s refreshing compared to restaurants where your one and only server is overloaded and can’t give you the attention you need.
We will definitely return.

This sushi spot is a pretty awesome little jewel. It is tucked away off of the highway frontage of I-​17 and Northern. We arrived just before the 8PM Happy Hour started and boy was this place packed. At first we were not sure we were going to stay but we walked inside and saw how packed it was and saw large platters of sushi going out to every table. We were sold! This place is not in the best of neighborhoods so we were a little skeptical, especially of sushi. However, we were pleasantly surprised. We got the Aloha roll (which was a bit fishy tasting), the Hollywood roll which was my fav, teriyaki chicken and rice for the kiddo (which was excellent), a sushi and sashimi (raw slices of various fish and octopus) sampler platter, a la carte yellowtail belly meat sashimi (which is my all-​time favorite cut of sushi) and it was a high quality and done right here (to give the melt-​in-​your mouth effect). We also had a roll that had predominately fried elements to it which was the bf’s favorite. For dessert, they had cheesecake tempura that I had to try because it sounded interesting and I’ve never had that before. This was our least liked dish. We would never get it again because there were ice chunks in the middle of the cake and it taste like frozen cheesecake from the box with tempura on in a flashed in the fryer, with strawberries on the side then drizzled chocolate syrup. 2 rounds of saki-​bombs were fun as well.
Overall the price was great and the food was really good. This will be one of my new Happy Hour spots.

I love this place. Always smiling and friendly staff. The Sushi is the best in the valley for the price. Went there again last night after not visiting for 6 or so month… and all I can say is that I do not go to this place enough.
TIP: If you are a lover of sushi rolls with a kick, the Blue Flame is a must.

Go here for sushi! Love love it! Have been to japan and back and I would say sushi here is the closest I have tasted so far in terms of taste. Really authentic. For much bigger groups, you can also rent a more private enclosure for more privacy.
Con: It is a small diner so it can fill out fast especially on weekends. Also will not recommend their combo plates aside from their sushi. Prices can also add up which is why would recommend going during their happy hour.

**Best sushi in ALL of Phoenix**
I frequent this place very regularly and I never get tired of eating it. They have a huge variety of choices to choose from, so you’ll never bore. Variety range from vegetarian/​vegan rolls to meaty rolls and even low carb rolls. Staff is always friendly and very helpful. Each sushi chef has his own unique style/​flare and it is definitely represented in their cooking. Granted all the chefs cooking AMAZINGLY, my family and I have our favorite chef named Sean while my friends have their favorite chef named Hero. You take your pick lol! I would 1000% recommend this place.

Having family dinner here on a Sunday evening and is pretty busy.
Ordered the Salmon combo #C which comes with miso soup, salad, tempura, rice and California Roll.
The Salmon is on the small size but pretty tasty. The Miso Soup is pretty good with a generous amount of salad. The tempura is crisp yet not dry.
Have had the Udon and Ramen Soup before and they are both served in good size bowls.
Service is always fast and reliable. If you can understand their broken English.
Don’t generally come here to eat because of the distance but they do a great job with food and service.

Overall, this is a decent place for inexpensive Japanese food, but you’ll have to endure questionable service and a landmine of unsavory rolls on the menu on your way to a satisfying dinner. Also, show up early. If you wanna eat at 9, be there before 8. It gets PACKED. They close at 10.
I arrived around 8:30 and was understandably told to wait. At about 9 I was seated, and we ordered appetizers. The entire time, I was gawking at the menu like «OMG I can order like 3 different things this is so cheap». I ordered the terriyaki chicken as an app. It was freaking delicious, and came out in less than 10 minutes. My dining companion and I ordered 3 rolls between us. They are, on average, about $ 7 each for some decent stuff.
Only problem is that it took a bit over half an hour to arrive! WTF?
The hana roll was beautiful and tasty, with the multiple varieties of fish. Unfortunately, they fell apart rather easily, even for something so large it was cumbersome to enjoy with chopsticks. I still approve. The tootsie roll was not exactly what I was expecting. Didn’t realize that all the contents would be cooked, and thought it was weird that there were tempura batter bits mixed throughout the rice. As for the tropicana roll, mango and salmon sounded lovely, but I didn’t realize there would be excessive globs of mayonnaise on top of it.
I feel as though the menu does not accurately describe what you’re signing up for, and that can result in disappointment.
In the end, I barely had time to take a couple of bites before a server dropped off a check. They were adamant about getting us out ASAP despite being patient with them. It’s hard to knock a sushi place that’s offering such great deals, but it really pushes my limits of how much questionable service I can put up with before I ding you. I really want to drop this to a 3, but I just can’t. You were too easy on my wallet.

Ive been here for years! i love ittttttttt. Hands down the best sushi everrr!!!
Hole in the wall??? Yes. Yes it is. But this is the only place I go for amazing sushi!!!
Happy hour starts at 8pm Whooo. I always get the vegetarian blue flame. It’s so delicious. Love the sweet sauce they sprinkle in.
They don’t speak English well… but it works out some how. Ahha.
I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!

Did I eat at the correct Akaihana? Because based off the reviews, it seems like I had a completely different experience here that was hardly passable in my book.
Akaihana advertised a happy hour and had deals for apps, sushi rolls and alcohol, plus it was cheap, but I guess some things are too good to be true. I stepped into Akaihana and was greeted by the sushi chef in some kind of indistinct Asian language, I’m used to the «Irasshaimase» greeting as I used to serve at a Japanese restaurant in the past. However, I could not make out what language he was speaking. Regardless, I was seated in the corner of the restaurant and was given 3 menus.
Since I was sharing dinner, the items that were ordered were: Tootsie Roll, Spicy Salmon Roll, Tropicana Roll
–Tootsie Roll: deep fried salmon surrounding imitation crab meat, big roll and served with a soy-​based sauce
–Spicy Salmon Roll: chopped up salmon mixed with spicy sauce in a roll, this is nothing special. Spicy salmon does not work in my book, spicy tuna does though.
— Tropicana Roll: Salmon with mango, each piece topped with spicy mayo and sriracha and more soy-​based sauce
This place masks the quality of their fish with sauces, deep frying and rice portion. The portion of rice was overwhelming in comparison to the rest of the fish in the rolls and wasn’t seasoned well and hard, the sauces overtake your tastebuds not allowing you to taste the fish. The ginger was very sweet and I didn’t even dare try the wasabi.
Cheap prices are reflected in their quality of rolls: over sauced, too much rice and lacking in quality of fish. Interior is a bit crazy with variety of menu choices and service is decent at most. Also upon leaving, the sushi chef greeted me once again in some indistinct (made up sounding) language which I found to be a bit offensive. Because I know for a fact he was not speaking Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese or Filipino because I’ve worked and frequent Japanese and Korean restaurants/​have friends who are and that I am both Vietnamese and Filipino.
*Pass on this place, I got a stomach ache the whole night after dining in here.