Akagi Sushi

A few days ago I was tooling around Okemos running errands. It was lunchtime and I immediately thought of Maru, my favorite sushi restaurant, but they happened to be closed when I happened to be hungry. I remembered a friend telling me about another sushi restaurant in the area, and while I couldn't remember the name, I remembered the general vicinity. I drove around the corner and found Akagi Sushi in a little plaza, open and ready to rumble.

The place is small and obviously isn't trying to attract the same clientele that Sansu and Maru compete for (namely, MSU students.) It's not sexy, the menu isn't too extensive, and there aren't descriptions of many of the rolls. I ordered tea (because whenever I make green tea at home it tastes like dirt) and asked the waitress what her favorite roll was. She recommended the spicy tuna and avocado hand roll, so I ordered one of those along with a piece of yellowtail nigiri and a piece of salmon nigiri.

The hand roll was great. These are different from what my friends typically order when we go for sushi and you might be a little freaked out when you first see it- it is a big piece of seaweed, wrapped around rice, spicy sauce, slices of avocado, and tuna. You pick it up and eat it like a taco. Or, at least I did. And I didn't hear any outbursts of laughter.

The nigiri was pretty good. The miso soup left me crying for more tofu, but I was happy to see tons of seaweed floating around. While I was eating, the old man making the rolls brought me a sample of their white tuna nigiri. He melted my heart and the white tuna was good. I sat and read the newspaper and was happy I went in. It's not the slick, shiny restaurant that is the wonderful Maru, but Akagi is on my radar and I will be happy to go back.

*Akagi is in the strip mall with Cancun Mexican Grill around the corner from the Meridian Mall, towards Wal-Mart. With tea, the two pieces of nigiri, miso soup and the hand roll, my bill was $11.08, which I thought was totally reasonable.