Akai Hana - Carrboro (Japanese) - ∆

(Reviewed 7/25/06)

Food - ∆
Atmosphere - ∆ 1/2
Service - (box)

Before moving to the Triangle from the San Francisco Bay Area, we had devised a prediction regarding the nature of ethnic restaurants that we would find in the Triangle. Our theory postulated that while we would undoubtedly have to give up on experiencing the finest of epicurean creations for each and every ethnicity, we would also avoid truly dismal dining experiences for the more "exotic" foreign cuisines. Our rationale was that the Bay Area’s large ethnic population on the one hand draws culinary stars to pursue their art, but on the other, it allows for restaurants of "bottom-of-the-barrel" caliber to survive, simply because many individuals of a particular ethnicity do not find cuisines other than their "native" one to be viable substitutes, thus sustaining a niche market. In places like the Triangle, with its relative lack of a "native" population to sustain a restaurant on its own, we believed that a "survival of the fittest" mechanism would force ethnic restaurants to adhere to an acceptably high standard of cuisine because a greater proportion of individuals would gladly substitute away from a bad restaurant, even if it means eating another type of food altogether. Akai Hana proved us wrong...dreadfully wrong.

Our group of four arrived around 7 p.m. on a Saturday evening, after having unfortunately decided that Waraji was too far of a drive, and Akai Hana (just 10 min. away) had been given some sort of "Best of...Honorable Mention" award in the June edition of "IndyWeek Magazine" or what have you. The small parking lot in front was full, along with the gravel area behind the building. We parked directly across the street at a tire store (no Tow Away signs posted, which at least in CA means it’s fair game). We walked in. The manager sat us at an extremely ill-placed table at the confluence of the main drag into/out of the kitchen and the rest of the dining area, even though a couple of other tables were available by the window in a more peaceful setting. We asked our waitress if we could perhaps switch tables, and she gruffed, "fine, go ahead" and with a snarl left for the kitchen, leaving us to move our menus along with ourselves to one of the other tables. To make sure I wasn’t misreading her reaction, I said "thank you" to her as she was spinning around to leave, but she just turned her head away from me. Wow, sorry I offended her so gravely!

Anyway, service is only one of the three components of a dining experience I tend to weigh in equal parts, and I’ve experienced a good number of horrible service yet ethereal food combos. before, so I was willing to give this a pass. Similarly, I was also willing to overlook the lack of care taken with the décor, which without a occasional flag or wood carving pinned to the wall looked more or less like an American diner or oversized Waffle House. The crudeness and lack of attention to detail translated to the cuisine as well.

Our party was not in a strong mood for sushi after seeing what was being served to other diners, so we ordered individually three teriyaki dishes (chicken, salmon, beef $15.95-18.95) and one sushi/sashimi platter to split among us. These teriyaki dishes, holding with tradition, come with a salad and miso soup. The miso soups were no different than miso soups you find in every Japanese restaurant, except these lacked the cubes of tofu you normally find, and the seaweed was yellowish green instead of a more forest green color. The salad, however, was beguiling. The lettuce was shredded into thin strips, on top of which were dumped two cucumber slices and a whole load of ginger dressing. Zero care was taken in this preparation – it looked as if everything had been dumped randomly in about 5 seconds. I don’t understand why they had to shred the lettuce leaves – it does nothing to enhance the taste, nor does it make it easier on those unskilled with chopsticks. Perhaps to hide the wilt that could still be clearly seen/tasted?
This trend was augmented in the entrees. Salmon teriyaki presented a thick slab of salmon, but the seared crust was terribly oversalted to the point of being inedible, while the underlying meat itself had almost no taste and was dry. On the side were served steamed broccoli and carrots. These vegetables had been chopped into large and crude chunks of random sizes as if they were raw ingredients for a stew instead of a final presentation on a main course dish. Everything was floating in a sea of teriyaki sauce that covered the entire plate, so much so that any rice added to the plate quickly ended up soaked with sauce. Chicken teriyaki came with the chicken breast also chopped into random-sized chunks (why not slice the breast into strips and arrange them parallel to one another?), while beef teriyaki sirloin cooked appropriately at medium rare was still nearly tough as leather, a hallmark of poor-quality meat. The sushi/sashimi was standard as it gets – Kroger or even my lily-white hands could prepare better in my own kitchen at one-tenth the cost.

The only redeeming element of the meal was the side of vegetable tempura. Fried in batter that was light and fluffy, with a nice combination of onions, sweet potato, broccoli, green pepper, and potato.

The total bill – four entrees, one appetizer, no dessert, water all around, ended up at $78 - more expensive than our meal at Merlion, more expensive than our meal at Sitar India Palace, for an all-around unsatisfying experience. My entire party left the restaurant feeling utterly robbed, especially after having already reveled in the other two above-mentioned restaurants the previous two evenings.

I will never again enter the doors of Akai Hana. I wouldn’t eat there if it were on someone else’s dime. In Palo Alto, CA, there’s a casual Japanese restaurant named Miyake, as ubiquitous and Americanized as they come, that serves "Bento Boxes" for lunch and dinner. You get a miso soup, salad, teriyaki, and either gyoza, California roll, or tempura. For the same amount of food, for better quality, the meal there would’ve cost $40 for four, which is reasonable at CA prices given the quality. But $78 for this? Never again. Why was this place nearly full? Why do people throw their money away like this when there’s Merlion and...Hardees...to be had out there?