Akira Sushi by Secret Garden

TEMPORARY REVIEW DUE TO FIRE. The restaurant is probably going to be closed for a while:

We had dinner here and went with the AYCE around $ 27
The menu doesnt include Ikura, uni or any special item for the day (as Kenzo does)
The piece of fish on the nigiri is a lot smaller than other AYCE places
But I really like the cleaness and the service here
The ladies always have smile on their faces and chekcing on us
Try some of their rolls and really nothing stand out
Quality of the fish are Ok, not great.
The broth in the Udon is super super sweet, time for diabeties
Coming back here if they put Ikura and Uni back on the menu, and maybe some special items

Don’t think I’ll come here again. The restaurant was nicely decorated. Waitresses were always hovering over us rushing us to finish our food. My water had a bug in it. All the rolls were soggy and drenched with sauce or rice falling apart. Was very disappointed :(

For AYCE sushi, its not bad. No wait for a table as well.
Gave it a lower score mainly for service. I have to highlight that they did warn us we would of been ordering too much and they also didnt mind having some pieces that were left over. BUT… when we gave them our cards to pay, we noticed they havent been back to give us our cards back. My friend and I got notification from our bank on our cards being charged $ 80…about 5 times!!! So our card got declined after that screw up and the bank cancelled our cards after that. WHAT A HASSLE JUST TO PAY? They didnt tell us they were having issues until we went up to the register…
We wouldn’t come back for a while or unless we bring cash.

I really enjoyed my experience here. I ate here with two friends of mine and we all went with the all you can eat option. While the food isn’t top notch, it was all still good and I loved having all you can eat sushi.
As for the food, the sushi was cut well, and seemingly fresh. They have a lot of options on the menu as well for both nigiri and rolls. One of my friends does not like sushi, but there were other options on the menu such as chicken or beef teriyaki, fried chicken, soup, salads, etc.
I’ll definitely be back!

Their AYCE sushi is such a great deal ($ 26.95 for dinner!) They offer you the menu, however, there is a laminated two-​sided ordering sheet sitting on the corner of the table in case you dare try their all you can eat menu. You can order in five different waves and they make the rolls after you submit your ordering sheet to the waitstaff.
(Side Note: Because your marks can be easily erased… check the ordering sheet after they give it back to you to make sure you’ve received all that you’ve ordered.)
Items that I highly suggest:
For Appetizers:
Pepper Fin
Jalapeño Bomb
Tempura
Gyoza
For Salad:
Poki Salad
For Nigiri and Sashimi:
Hamachi
Inari
Maguro
Saba
Tamago
Baked Rolls:
Lobster Crossing
Akira
Special Rolls:
Pink Lady
Dancing Shrimp
Remember, pace yourself. its key.

Love great quality all you can eat sushi places since sushi is so dang expensive. Love that the waitstaff is attentive and they have sake bomb specials! If you have a vegetarian in the group, they have rolls for them too!
Got the poke salad and it was a bit on the spicer side, considering I love spicy food.
Clean restaurant, great choices for sushi, waitstaff was attentive. Hidden gem for AYCE Sushi!

Akira offers great quality to price ratio if you’re looking for AYCE. If you are looking for fresh fish and good service, you should spend your money elsewhere. The fish isn’t the freshest, the rice isn’t great, but it’ll do when you’re in a pinch. In comparison to the rest of the AYCE joints in the area, Akira’s probably has the highest quality fish. The service however, is abysmal and I see they have already crossed off Uni from the list.

I was excited to try this venue as I read this is the nu nu alternative to the other AYCE sushi.
Nigiri is good enuff, but nothing really stands out and no special items other than conch I’d say.
No uni
No ikura
No amaebi
Not a huge roll fan but the ones we had were ok, not overloaded with rice (filler)
There is a good selection of hot foods also, including udon and bulgogi that day.
It will do in a pinch but I’d say there are other venues out there that «revolve» around this one… If you catch my drift…

The best sushi we had here was the hamachi and spider roll.

Went here on a weekday afternoon. Girlfriend orders the AYCE lunch, which was about $ 22, if I recall. She orders two fancy rolls, which were also on the regular menu at around $ 10 each.
For whatever reason, she’s not as hungry as she thought, or the rolls were bigger than she thought, so she leaves about 25% of each on the plate.
The waiter says «You ordered $ 20 worth of sushi and paid the $ 22 AYCE price, so no big deal. Have a great day.»
Actually, I’m just kidding. He enforced the policy («I gotta do it!», he claimed) and charged the full price of the two rolls on top of the AYCE price. So, we paid $ 42 for two rolls.
Smart thinking, Akira Sushi. You got us! Very clever. Enjoy the additional $ 20 you made off of us. But you may find that it’s not a wise strategy long term.

Haven’t actually tried the place yet, but will definitely come back to update my review.
Just wanted to let people know that their kitchen closes at 9:45PM and they only stay open until 11 for customers to finish their sushi. BF and I were mislead and came at 10 only to find out they were closed):
**Updates**
Didn’t know that this place was Korean owned, but we were greeted as though we entered a Japanese restaurant. We made a reservation for two at 8, but didn’t need it since we came around 7:30 we were still seated immediately. Upon seating we went straight to marking our orders down. Under nigiri we got: salmon, albacore tuna, tuna, Spanish mackerel, mackerel, and hamachi. All of it was ¹⁰⁄₁₀. So good. I am salivating just writing this review thinking about it. The rolls on the other hand are your average rolls. Not much special, but still enjoyable. Overall, I’d say go for the nigiri cause I feel like it’s less rice for your tummy, and more bang for your buck.

This restaurant is about 2 months new. Unfortunately they have already cut their menu so now it doesn’t include halibut, uni and ikura. For the rest of the stuff, I think that lunch price of 22 is reasonable. However I probably will not come back because these type of ayce joints force you to eat rice. It maybe good for young people but it’s not such a good idea for older people trying to be healthy. The hot food is ok. Shrimp tempura and chicken kaarage are good.
Again I wish they could offer eating sashimi if we pay a premium. I will not mind paying another 10bucks extra for that option. We can’t really eat that much anyway.

Ayce for dinner at $ 26.95! Whaaaaat!!!
I have a feeling that this is a grand opening special and as they get more popular they will eliminate ayce or bump up the price so get it while you can!
Overall the menu is pretty extensive and the fish quality is above average. Salmon is usually my favorite fish but it was pretty flavorless here. I actually was a fan most of the Ono and unagi! Note: uni is no longer on the ayce menu (smart move Akira’s)
One other thing that was awesome that I love but never usually order is the piping hot freshly fried shrimp tempura — yum!
Overall a pretty sweet spot for bang your buck nigiri and ayce sushi!

Hey sushi lovers!
My friend and I dropped by here hoping to grab 2 – 3 rolls of sushi for the night to find out that they also offered all you can eat, so that’s what we went with – it was about $ 26-​$ 27 per person during dinner and $ 21 during lunch. No special offers for checking in, but that’s not an issue. :-)
The restaurant was very spacious and nicely furnished; I believe there was also a private seating area at the back of the room if I’m not incorrect. All in all, a very nice and cozy vibe with the perfect amount of privacy since the tables are decently spaced apart.
Now, as for the food, everything was freshly made and very satisfying; I was absolutely in LOVE with the sashimi salad mixes! The only reason why I’m giving them a 4 star is because they do lack variety in their special rolls section. Most of the items consisted of the same group of ingredients so after our 3^rd round, we got tired of eating such similar rolls.
Customer service was good; there was a middle aged lady with long auburn hair who was very sweet and attentive to our needs!
In general, this place is pretty decent to stop by for sushi if convenient, but considering the distance (I’m from San Jose) I would have to travel for the lack of variety in my food, I think I would rather stick to some place closer. Definitely not bad but nothing life-​changing.
Thanks for reading!

I gotta stop eating ayce sushi, always feel like Imma step into a place and tear it up, but feel sick of raw fish after a couple rounds.
this place is pretty good though. they said no more uni when I went, which was what I was excited for.

I’m going to have to give this place a fair 3 stars. It isn’t the best, but it isn’t the worst. For those that don’t want to read my review, just refer back to my first sentence. (I do have pictures too!)
Review:
This AYCE sushi (with normal ordering style too!) restaurant sits in a little corner of a mini plaza. For those who remember secret garden, this is located at the same place.
Atmosphere/​Ambience notes:
Coming on a Friday night, the place looked quite clean. It was bustling with patrons, and everything seemed to be well in order. I noted that this place in fact, is NOT run by any Japanese whatsoever. Just imagining the thoughts, which were probably running through various customers minds. As for decoration, everything was red and black, and definitely had a different layout than before.
Service:
We were seated promptly, and were given a corner table. Unfortunately this table still had a bbq grill in the middle of the table. This made it quite difficult to manœuvre anything around it. When asked by our waitress, whether we wanted the AYCE menu or the normal menu. We had decided on the normal menu, and had ordered some tea for drinks (ended up being cold).
Waiting around for 5 minutes, we were served tea by another waitress. This new waitress had asked us AGAIN whether we wanted the AYCE or normal menu. They were quite prominent on their AYCE option and pricing, and hardly mentioned anything else. Approximately 2 minutes after reviewing the menu, we were rushed by our second waitress, and were asked if we had our dishes set. I definitely could feel the pressure, as it seems that they were running around aimlessly. We ordered quickly, and the waitress zoomed off again.
Food:
We had ordered a few rolls, some sashimi, the ramen and kimchi fried rice set, and some miso soup. It’s tough to screw these up right? I don’t want to get into too much detail about exactly how they tasted, but I noted that the rolls fall apart too easily. This was quite shameful, as they just looked like a mess on my plate.
The sashimi tasted fresh, and was as expected, none the less. The ramen and kimchi fried rice were probably the most disappointing food of the entire night. The ramen was watery and flat, and the kimchi fried rice (not even Japanese, so WTF?) was horrendously over spiced, and was way too spicy to eat. Finally, the miso soup was standard, maybe sub par at most.
Cleanliness and Overall impression:
The quality level that they put into their chopsticks and plates is just horrendous. There is nothing worse than seeing a big black mark of dirt on your plate, am I right? As I had mentioned the table before, the way these tables were put in the room, left hardly ANY space to move around. Super cramped spots, and stuck in a corner, definitely did not make me the slightest bit cheery at all.
Overall, this place does not deserve it’s average rating. This is just from a personal judgement, and experiences do vary. Through the quality level of food, to overall customer care, and everything else, this place is only worth a 3 in my book.

AYCE DOES NOT INCLUDE UNI !! They used white out to take it off the menu.
That’s the main reason why I decided to try this place out. My best friend said that they would probably take it off the menu now that the restaurant has had some good reviews. She was right, and I was disappointed.
I decided to give the AYCE a chance anyway since the pictures of the fish looked pretty fresh. The AYCE selection was extensive. There were appetizers, nigiri, maki, baked rolls and specialty rolls. I was again disappointed when I saw that the chicken and the octopus karaage were taken off the appetizer menu…
Our first plate came and the fish looked decent, but the salmon wasn’t as vibrant as the photos…
Not everything we ordered was on that first plate so we assumed another one would be on it’s way with the rest of our order. We finished the first plate, and we did not receive the rest of our order so we asked about it. The chefs said they already sent it out… but we never received it…
We really don’t have a reason to lie, and I don’t see why they couldn’t have just sent out another. Ok so whatever, we just ordered it the next round. Most of the items came this time around. Only thing missing was the vegetable tempura…
The décor is nice. Though it was obviously a bbq place previously. The severs were very attentive when it came down to re-​filling waters.
All in all, I would rather go to another ayce sushi place, especially one that does not give me a stomach ache after… UGH.

Oh yes! Another AYCE sushi spot just opened up.
My go-​to spot for AYCE used to be Kenzo but quality and service has gone hill so fast :/​I don’t even want to go back.
Came here for dinner right when it opened for an early Valentine’s date.
This place is located in a strip mall, tucked away towards the back left corner. Since this place is fairly new, they still have big advertisement for «grand opening» making this place easier to find.
Plenty of parking! Huge shopping center /​strip mall.
First thought walking in, this place is huge! It is very aesthetically pleasing. There are plenty of tables and booths. Also a bar and party rooms towards the back. I love the décor and ambiance. I think this place is a mixture of Korean and Japanese food.
We were one of the first ones there but within 30 min, this place became full. This was a surprise to me considering this place is brand new.
We did the AYCE for dinner which was 26.95 a person. The rules are pretty standard for any AYCE joint, no sharing w/​non– AYCE customers, no leftovers including or you’ll get charged, 2 hour time limit, etc
I didn’t even get a chance to look at the regular menu bc I was so hungry lol oops
My date and I ordered the first round of nigiri.
It came out rather quick.
First glance, looks really fresh. The taste test = was great! It was really fresh and melt in your mouth goodness. My only complaint is that I think they use regular rice, and not sushi /​short grain rice because it fell apart easily and also some sashimi slices were thicker than usual, but very tasty none the less. I prefer this place over Kenzo.
We did order a couple things off the appetizer section for 2 rounds and we never got them. Ill let it slide this time because we were really full lol Service was attentive and friendly overall.
My date enjoyed his Mango Mania Roll, he said he was comparable to Kenzo’s Mango Crunch.
I enjoyed my meal here, and definitely recommend it for an AYCE sushi spot. Don’t go to Kenzo anymore.
Oh! They have a service buzzer button so you don’t have to flag down a server. Lol
They also have 50% off select items for happy hour. 5pm-​10pm, so pretty much all of dinner service lol
The AYCE menu is good enough for me as I usually only get nigiri but any place that has AYCE nigiri is a plus in my book. There’s no hand rolls on the AYCE menu.

Good all you can eat menu. Very attentive servers. The food came out almost instantly it was crazy, but it wasn’t very busy when we arrived so maybe it might be different with a full house.
⁵⁄₅ would dine again

Decent, fresh sushi, and cheap. Based on the existing reviews, I’m guessing their high average rating is mostly because of their rolls/​nigiri and the value. This, however, is not the best place for sashimi lovers.
The quality of the fish is fine, and you get a lot of fish for a good price. But the slices are cut way too chunky, where most top notch sushi places do them longer, thinner. Thick slices it taste less good overall, IMO.
Also, our waitress was kinda pushy. We had sat down for barely a minute when she came by, said, «you’re not going to order all you can eat?» and tried to take the AYCE menu away. It was my first time there so I wanted to peruse the menu! I told her I was still thinking about it, so she left the menus with me and walked off. A minute later, I was still looking at the menu in front of my face, she came back and asked if we were ready to order. The menu wasn’t flat on the table, so I wasn’t being ambiguous at all. As soon as we were done
I think next time I feel like sashimi (which is almost every time I want sushi), I’ll go to Tomi, or even Satos, which I think executed sashimi better despite their lower Unilocal average. Both are pricer than Akira though, so there’s that. Oh well, I’d rather have better sushi less frequently than OK sushi all the time.

I only wish that I had came hungrier. That being said, the fact that I still thoroughly enjoyed the sashimi, nigiri, and various rolls despite not having a large appetite should show that this place is definitely somewhere you should check out. I had a family dinner here with A LOT of my family members (which I was notified of literally a few hours prior to the dinner), I arrived late so the food was already ordered. So I just sat down started munching away at the large amounts of sashimi, nigiri, and rolls.
Fish looked and tasted pretty fresh but like i said, I came late so it was out for a few minutes. But imo sashimi and nigiri should be room temperature anyways. I hate super cold sushi because it typically means it was recently taken from the freezer.
Luckily, a set of rolls came out after I my late arrival and those were bombbbb. Deep fried rolls are my guilty pleasure so I was munching on those. I feel bad because I didn’t even get to see a menu because everything was ordered before I got there but it’s definitely worth checking out.
Service was great and I felt kind of bad since we were a giant party but despite that they helped us as quick as they could and I had a great experience. *Cue terminator impression* I will be back (with more of an empty stomach).
Edit: I didn’t even know this place was AYCE. AND they have nigiri for the AYCE. Okay. i am definitely coming back for that.

Akira Sushi was an unexpected stop while driving down on El Camino Real. I knew it was going under construction after Secret Garden, but I didn’t know it was done. So my friend and I went in for all you can eat sushi.
The ambiance was modern and interesting. They kept few designs from Secret Garden, while converting the whole restaurant into a Japanese theme. We sat at the sushi bar.
Normally, I don’t have high expectation for AYCE restaurants. Every time I visited, it was always quantity over quality. However, Akira Sushi was different story. Have anyone visited AYCE sushi restaurant that offers Uni? Although you can only do one order per person, seeing that on the menu already won my heart!
Scanning back to the pictures I took, we ordered Tempura, a roll, salad, agedashi tofu and bunch of sushi nigiri, which in my opinion, it was so much better than what I expected! In fact, the qualities of the food and FISH were as great as the ones that don’t offer AYCE. Picture is worth a thousand words.
Overall, I WILL come back! Welcoming staffs, good food, fresh sushi, why not?

So far, this place is absolutely divine. Fiancé and I chose the all you can it course and so far we are enjoying ourselves with the wonderful customer service and quality tasting fish!
The cleanliness of the place is nice too. Everything looks neat and the feel of the environment is elegant and exquisite. Definitely will make multiple comebacks.

Awesome sushi place!
Went for a Sunday dinner for a party of 4 for their ayce. We arrived at 6pm and were seated immediately.
The place looks and feels perfect. Nice, quiet restaurant for a great social dinner; no need to use anything other than your inside voice. The decorations fit really well and make for a very calm eating environment.
The ordering process is easy; just fill out your order and the waiter will swing by to pick it up. The speed at which the food is brought to the table is definitely noticeably speedy. It was surprising considering there were many other full tables.
The rolls are really good and filling. Had a caterpillar roll and a 49’s roll. Both were good sized rolls packed with flavor. Everything was well balanced and thoroughly enjoyable.
The nigiri is great! Fresh fish, tasty rice, and the ratio is excellent. Most other ayce places load up on the rice, but that wasn’t the case here.
The staff was friendly and attentive. Had a great waiter who was frequently checking up on us to make sure everything was going well.
All in all, one of the best sushi spots i’ve been to.

this place is one of THE BEST sushi places in town. first of all, its all you can eat sushi and the quality of their sashimi is super FRESH!!! all the workers are really friendly too. ill def go back to this restaurant!

Great ayce sushi place, would really give 4.5 stars, our new go to place. I came here with my family (group of 4) for lunch Sat at 1:30 with no wait. Fish is very fresh, and service is very attentive. It’s also a great deal at $ 21.95 a person with $ 6 sakes. I was a litte nervous when picking this restaurant out for our family outing, since our usual spot is Kenzo, and this place is brand new, with only a handful of reviews, had a smaller ayce menu, only a few pictures, and it isn’t in that nice of a shopping center. The food was fantastic though, and the interior very modern and attractive. I would say the fish is fresher than at Kenzo. Even my stepdad who is very finicky about his salmon and said the fish was super fresh.
We ordered the first round and everything was out in less than 10 minutes. Miso soup was super hot, and delicious. Agedashi tofu was great (they use a sticky kind of flour — not sure but maybe tapioca flour — which is different but delicious and crispy). Poki salad had decent chunks of fish and delicious dressing. Chicken karage was great — super crispy and juicy. The gyoza were just okay. The nigiri had large pieces of fish — similar to slightly smaller than Kenzo –but I think it’s fresher. The special rolls were great too — lots of fresh fish, crispy shrimp tempura, fresh avocado, nicely made and aesthetically pleasing too!
They also have a regular menu with very decent price; I had just eyeballed it, and they have ramen, bentos, regular rolls, special rolls — probably a few dollars cheaper on average than other sushi places in the area (my memory says around $ 10 – 14, with a good number of special rolls for $ 11 – 12). I may come here to order some sushi rolls to go too.
A few minor things to be aware of that made me back down to a 4.5: 1) the sushi bar closes at 2:30 for ayce, while lunch in general ends at 3:00 pm. 2) They are fairly serious about not leaving any rice I think — we had left a couple pieces (2 – 3) on one plate and they mentioned that normally they would charge $ 1/​piece, but would let it go. I’ve definitely left more pieces than that at other ayce places, as much as a whole roll worth probably between a group of 4 (just so full) and they let it go. Maybe it’s just luck — server dependent? They also charge more at those other places though, so if they really are more strict, this policy makes sense — but just something to keep in mind and not over order. 3) no hand rolls
Really liked this place, would highly recommend. Way better than sushi 88 — and also cheaper, and don’t have deal with the stress of the crowds and wait at Kenzo.

Just stopped by to check out their AYCE menu and I have to say I was pleased with their quality. There aren’t that many AYCE sushi around where I live, usually have to drive 20+ minutes. but I’m very glad I decided to give this place a try. I haven’t had their regular menu yet but I’ll definitely be back to try it. If their AYCE choices are this good, their regular menu is probably better. Minus one star because I thought their rice was slightly on the bland side and the servers seemed a bit inexperienced. nothing that time can’t change though. Looking forward to seeing this restaurant grow!

I LOVE sushi and pretty much have been to all the sushi restaurants in Santa Clara, San Jose, and Cupertino. Though I have a couple of favorites, I always try out new restaurants in hopes of finding a restaurant that has quality fish, quality cuts, and just the right amount of saltiness all for a good price; that’s a pretty tall order… and after checking out Akira about 3x now, I’d say it really does the job.
The customer service is consistent, the fish quality is exceptional, and I don’t have to drink a gallon of water after my meal (unlike other restaurants that use MSG or lots of sodium unnecessarily).
I’m going to be coming here now for my sushi fix. :)

I think I found my new favorite AYCE Sushi spot! This is a brand new AYCE place so that means no wait or little wait! Service and food was perfect! Prices are reasonable. I’ll definitely come back for sure! No more long drives and waits times at Kenzo lol.

It’s an AYCE sushi spot with a awesome Happy Hour (especially when it’s a happy hour that’s lasts till after 7pm). I’ve been to a lot of AYCE sushi spots and the quality of the fish here is great!

I had such a great experience at Akira. BTW– I’ve never been to «all you can eat sushi» restaurant. We were a group of 4 ppls and ordered lots of sushi and rolls. All the rolls (Sorry, can not remember names) and nigiri here were good, fresh, and tasty. Everything rocks. Prices are very reasonable. I’ll be back again and again and again.

There aren’t that many AYCE (All You Can Eat) sushi around this area, and I’m glad there’s finally one. I was talking to the sushi chef and he talked about how his priority is to serve high quality fish even for AYCE, which is something you wouldn’t expect. Dinner is $ 26.95 for AYCE, but you definitely get your money’s worth for the quality/​quantity. They definitely did not skimp out on the size of the fish on the nigiri! I ordered Kampachi nigiri (not part of the AYCE) per the chef’s suggestion, and holy smokes, it was so delicious! I think it may be one of my favorite fish (right behind yellowtail)
Overall, friendly staff and great food. Looks like I found my spot for sushi :)

Best all you can eat sushi in town! Also there’s happy hour going on during weekdays 50% off on beers and appetizers. Definitely worth a try!

Ayce sushi with excellent quality! !
Finally in Santa clara~~nice.
$ 21,95 for lunch $ 26,95 for dinner! !

Yay~all you can eat sushi restaurant in santa clara!
I was there for my friend’s birthday dinner and we all loved it. Fish was so fresh and everything came out so quickly. I really enjoyed my dinner there and it’s totally worth it. This is definitely my go-​to sushi place from now on!!!