Aki Japanese Cuisine

From across the room, a shimmering dome caught my eye. First, it glowed red. Then blue. Then green. I stopped a waitress. "What's that?" I asked. "Sashimi," she replied.

I later learned that the fish was served over ice; under the ice was a light programmed to change hue.

In the manner of that flashing sashimi, the restaurant known as Aki has undergone many a change. What started out as Kimo's Far Eastern Grill, a Korean-Japanese-Asian Fusion restaurant, briefly closed for redecoration and reopened as Kimo's Modern Japanese Restaurant. A week later, the name was switched to Aki Japanese Cuisine.

If you look past the fancy fish lights and the incongruous display case of French and Italian pastries, you will find a restaurant where both the sushi bar and the kitchen are serious about food.

Four of us began a dinner by sharing a brontosauran grilled yellowtail collar (hamachi kama), picking off pieces of buttery fish with chopsticks. Another treatment of yellowtail -- raw, with jalapeños -- contrasted cool mild slices of fish with spicy peppers. Vibrant green steamed vegetable gyoza (dumplings) were marred only by slightly hard exteriors. But a vegetable tempura assortment was surprisingly light, a real treat.

Among the artfully constructed maki rolls, two favorites emerged -- the Michelle special (crab, avocado and cucumber on the inside, spicy tuna on top) and the San Francisco special (spicy tuna, grilled eel, avocado, cucumber, tempura crunch, roe and barbecue sauce). The fish was fresh, the temperature and consistency of the rice ideal.

An order of chicken negimaki materialized, instead, as beef. It turned out to be unconventionally good, the thin but tender steak wrapped around scallions infused with a lovely smokiness. It fully eclipsed the chicken version, which was breaded, fried and rather greasy. Another letdown was a wimpy chicken curry, cubes of white meat and rice blended together with a somewhat pasty sauce. But chicken yaki soba, a stir-fry of poultry, vegetables and noodles, was vibrant. So, too, was hibachi-grilled scallops with vegetables.

On another visit, I enjoyed a sashimi plate, this one without the light show (which comes only with the deluxe, not the regular, platter). The fish, lots of it, was beautifully arranged over ice, every piece delicate and well cut. In the end, that's all I want from a Japanese restaurant.

A friend reveled in an Italian coppa (sundae), an import from the ubiquitous Bindi dessert company. There was also a "milles crepes" wedge -- a layering of crepes and custard -- courtesy of Lady M Confections, a Manhattan bakery. Light and lush, it wasn't even remotely Japanese.  --Joan Reminick (10/24/07)