Akane Japanese

As much as we go about our daily lives like things have always been, we never do realize how busy we really are.  Case in point, I had a whole week to drop off some books for Nikita, but somehow I just didn't get to it.  With the weekend upon us, I was not going to be anywhere close to Langley for the book drop off. Yet, with a pending kid's birthday party on the weekend at Rock Guy's place in Surrey, we thought we could kill 2 birds with one "rock" (get it?) by dropping off the books afterwards.  Of course, it also gave me the opportunity to try out Akane Japanese since it was dinner time.

As per usual, for the kiddies, we got one of their favs being the Chicken Karaage.  Comprised of medium-sized nuggets, the fried chicken was moist and succulent graced with a light crispy batter.  This would've been on point if they had seasoned the meat as it was pretty bland.  My daughter was eyeing the Assorted Sashimi as I was taking pictures.  She really wanted to dig into the sockeye salmon and I could see why.  It was buttery and naturally sweet.  The remaining pieces of Atlantic salmon, toro, tuna, ebi and tuna tataki were vibrant and texturally on point as well.  However, the knife skills were a bit lacking, especially with the tuna.

Moving onto some rolls, we got the Red Dragon with spicy tuna in the middle topped with unagi and avocado.  Despite the obscene amount of sauce on top, the roll didn't eat particularly wet nor too sweet.  It was a bit sloppy though where it could've been rolled more tightly.  On the other hand, the Futomaki was prepared more carefully with a relatively thin layer of sushi rice and a uniformly distributed filling.  The texture of the rice was actually rather appealing with a chewiness that was well-hydrated without being wet.  It was lightly sweet to the taste.

For my son, he is all about the Chicken Teriyaki these days (instead of udon), so we got him the combo that included Tempura.  We liked how they were conservative with the sweet teriyaki, but not so much with the thin piece of chicken.  It was rather dry as a result.  The side of tempura was decent though with a crispy exterior and properly cooked interior.  Looking a little dry, the Beef Yakisoba was not bad despite the abundance of bell peppers.  The noodles were well-seasoned and chewy while the entire dish was easy on the grease.   Interestingly, we ended up finishing all of the food, which was a good sign.  It was ultimately decent Japanese eats in Walnut Grove.

The Good:
- Decent eats
- Friendly people

The Bad:
- A little pricey
- Only a family run joint, service can be sparse when busy