The Weekly Eater: Akira’s kaiseki fascinates from start to finish

Several great Japanese restaurants opened this year, but Akira is proving to be the best of the bunch. If I had five stars to give, this restaurant would deserve them.

Akira is the work of chef Taiki Kawai, who honed his skills at the New Otani Hotel in Tokyo, before becoming head chef of the local New Otani branch. He named his new restaurant for his father.

Out of his small kitchen comes some of the most refined Japanese fare available in Hawaii to date, geared toward lovers of traditional cuisine.

It sits in a small space next to Morio’s, in the same building that houses Nonstop Travel, between Pensacola and Piikoi streets. I give you all this information because friends have gotten lost trying to find this place. There’s no sign and parking can be tricky, with the valet entrance on Young Street, where the sign “Eleven 50” marks the spot.

The best place to park is on King Street, after tow-away hours end at 6 p.m. If you wait until then, though, you may miss out on one of the best deals in town, a nine-course $48 kaiseki tasting menu. Only 10 are available daily.

If early dining is not for you, your options are to order a la carte or go for the chef’s $85 kaiseki omakase, with a full range of boiled, simmered and grilled dishes, plus nigiri sushi.

EITHER TASTING menu is a great introduction to Kawai’s work, but the smaller menu is a great way to confirm whether this is the place for you. It touches on seasonal ingredients and the different cooking methods associated with kaiseki.

The teaser-size kaiseki portions may not be for everyone, but each dish was like a perfect jewel, a joy for the eyes and soul, and the surprise element was enthralling from beginning to end.

The $48 tasting menu started with a trio of appetizers: delicate housemade egg tofu topped with kizami wasabi (the milder stems) and light dashi; sliced eggplant in ponzu, garnished with grated ginger, daikon and katsuboshi (bonito); followed by tomato poke.

Next came a sashimi course of hamachi, tender ika and crunchy octopus, a couple of tentacles only. It was the first time I’d enjoyed the tentacles alone for a full appreciation of the texture.

A bowl of sake-steamed asari clams followed, before the arrival of a small piece of grilled king salmon with miso and a delicate shiso sauce.

The fried category was represented by soft-shell crab encrusted in bubu arare. Simmered butterfish and a meat wrap of rare beef, uni and kizami wasabi preceded the final course of nigiri sushi. The four selections were aji (mackerel), kinmedai (golden eye snapper or sea bream), botan ebi (a shrimp that is sweeter and more delicate than amaebi) and chutoro.

The meal came to an end with miso soup flavored with the ebi head, and dessert of a scoop of green tea ice cream.

The $85 omakase offers more, beginning with five appetizers, including a delicate steamed cake of araimo (Japanese taro) in dashi, topped with abalone; and tai carpaccio with olive tapenade, tobiko and sea asparagus, served over a thin slice of grapefruit. My favorites were dishes of fried chilled eggplant topped with uni with a touch of wasabi, a sprinkling of nori and a yuzu sauce; and a simple egg agedashi with ginger sauce.

Next came a steamed cup of chawanmushi with shredded snow crab, then a raw course of four kinds of sashimi: bluefin tuna, lightly seared kinmedai, uni with ikura and tobiko, and soy sauce-marinated tako.

The meal continued with grilled Chilean sea bass, sweet fried Tristan lobster with a coating of crunchy bubu arare, simmered perch accompanied by a lightly fried agedashi potato ball, a slice of filet mignon topped with foie gras and six kinds of nigiri sushi. During my visit, these were chutoro, nodoguro (blackthroat seaperch), saba, botan ebi, ika and chakin zushi, a special- occasion bundle of rice and eel, wrapped in a fine egg crepe, tied off with kanpyo and finished with gold leaf and pearls of ikura.

Again, the meal closed with miso soup and this time, a scoop of grapefruit ice cream.

THE ONLY style of dining left to try was the a la carte menu, with a few specialties missed in the tasting menus, such as delicate Pacific Northwest Miyagi oysters ($4 each), a dashimaki egg omelet with crab sauce, and sushi rolls the size of tekka maki, such as a delicious toro taku roll ($8.50) of fatty tuna and takuan.

Considering the delicacy of the menu, pork kim chee with cilantro is the most unusual offering because of its Korean bearing, a stir-fry strong on sesame oil, but again, a perfect dish with onions that maintain their crunch, but still soft enough to take away their bite. For $8.50, it’s one of the more substantial dishes on the menu, along with other meat dishes such as teriyaki rib-eye ($20.50) and savory lamb chops ($7) per piece in a basil sauce.

No matter how you choose to dine, each experience is a treat for the senses.

Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.