A few weeks ago, my (very excited) friend who works at 1004 Gourmet told me Akira Back is opening at W The Palm. My response: “Oh, cool, who’s it by?”. I mean, nearly nobody knew who Akira Back is, let alone that he is setting up shop in Dubai, we were too busy judgmentally gasping over the fact that Massimo Bottura has caved, but that’s another topic for another day.
Since then, however, Akira Back has been on my radar and I couldn’t wait to try it out. Thank The Lord for Zoe Bowker, as she got an early media invite and took me as her +1. You can read her review here, and be assured it will. be much better than mine so you could totally just stop reading now, really.
The first thing we noticed was how stunning the vortex-like entrance was, completely in line with the quirky W theme, and the restaurant fit-outs were easily the best I’ve seen in Dubai. Even the lights were the perfect degree of warm, and allowed us to take stunning pictures!
A quick dance at the first page of the menu reveals that Akira Back used to be a professional snow boarder, and he aims to channel a bit of his wild side through his modern Japanese menu.
Since I went with Zoe, our experience and choice of menu was very different from that of others. You see, she’s allergic to seafood, and while I’m not, I prefer to mostly just order the things both of us can eat, because it’s more of a shared experience when everyone on the table can try the same things and exchange notes. Consequently, when together at a seafood-heavy restaurant, we often end up trying what I like to call “the minority menu”, and I learn to empathize with those who have food allergies.
Here’s what we had:
Eringi pizza with “umami” aioli, micro shiso and white truffle oil. While my friend liked this a lot, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the crust (it was just a little too thin and crispy for me, and not as toasted/charred as I would have liked it to be), and I suppose a part of me kept thinking of how much better the tuna version must have been! Also, truffle oil never lives up to real truffle shavings which would have been more appropriate for a restaurant of this caliber, even if it requires the price to be a tad dearer.
The AB tacos, definitely on of the highlights of the night. The Wagyu bulgogi and roasted tomato ponzu with a slice of fresh chill on top made for a most delicious appetizer. We took a while photographing these before we ate them, so they were at room temperature by the time we bit into them, and I can only imagine how much better they would’ve tasted had they been piping hot. These were a unanimous hit on our table, and I definitely recommend ordering these if you find yourself at Akira Back. Price: AED 115 for 4 tacos about the size of 2 bites each.
Now this was a dish that made no sense at all. Zero. Nada. Zilch. 5 paper thin slices of duck prosciutto with an alleged (few slivers) of pickled onions, radish sprout and amaze butter. Truth be told, the onions tasted raw, and we couldn’t tell if there as any amazu butter there, or any seasoning at all for that matter. It felt extremely, extremely overpriced at AED 95, especially as there was absolutely no flavor to it whatsoever. Tasted like mere cold cuts, and a little yuzu/ponzu/any kind of sauce or seasoning at all could have at least elevated it just a bit, but I wouldn’t order this again and would hold on to my money.
When the manager asked Zoe (my opinion didn’t matter, I was a mere +1) what we thought of the duck prosciutto and we confessed to being unimpressed, he promised us that the next course (which turned out to be Shabu Shabu) would be packed with flavor. Was it, though? Unfortunately not. It goes to say a lot that the most flavorful and enjoyable parts of the Shabu Shabu were the vegetables and the sesame sauce. The “Dashi” consommé tasted very weak/watered down and lended no flavor to the beef at all. The price point of AED 245 is more reasonable than the Shabu Shabu at BB which costs AED 480, but the latter packs way more flavor.
Akira Back are definitely on to something when it comes to the vegetables though! This baby corn with black garlic butter and parmesan was so ridiculously good that I could have had a whole bucket of these instead of pop corn! Shame it finished so fast, and we do wish that there were 6 pieces instead of 5, as odd-numbered items of food always make for the awkward “no you have the last piece” tango. Price: AED 65. I’d love for the price point to be a little lower, perhaps AED 55, and they could definitely cut down the food cost by using less parmesan as it was a tad excessive and we piles of it leftover on the plate.
The only began sushi on the menu. It tasted a bit too sour, perhaps from the kombucha mayo, but was undoubtedly more delicious than the “Pop Rockin'” roll I had (which we’ll talk about shortly)
Not yet on the menu, but kindly prepared by the kitchen for Zoe as she can’t have seafood, this wagyu and coleslaw roll (to put it crudely) was the best of the 3 rolls we tried, and will be a welcome addition on the menu!
I wanted to try one seafood based roll, and I wanted to try the best one. The manager suggested the “Pop Rockin'”, inspired by Akira Back’s childhood memories was essentially a spicy crab roll with….watermelon pop rocks. Sadly, it was a complete waste of good crab, as the texture was similar to that of pâté, or perhaps cat food, and the pop rocs were too gimmicky to impress me.
Lucky for us, the last dish of the night, paired with the Brussels sprouts (which I forgot to photograph but were absolutely delicious and some of the best Brussels sprouts I’ve had the pleasure of chomping down), was a good one. The Kiwami grade 9 rib-eye, priced at AED 450 was good to share, and absolutely sublime. We couldn’t taste any of the wasabi in the “wasabi butter), but this was way too good to waste so we actually had the leftovers packed to go!
As I write this review, I can vividly recall the textures and caramel-y, eggy flavors of this Butter Mochi Cake and am finding myself longing for it! It was rubbery and chewy, which is characteristic of mochi, but this one was warm! The crunchy caramel popcorn added textural contrast, and the ice cream added contrast of temperature. This was unique and memorable dessert, one I’d go back for, and priced at par with industry averages of AED 45.
This was one weird dessert. The chocolate was delicious, but the “vanilla bean ice cream” was more like watery milk, and the strong flavor of ripe banana was most unpleasant. It was extremely weird and we definitely didn’t know what to make of it, or how to enjoy it.
The service was excellent and my sparkling water remained properly topped up (although it was hard for the servers to tell how full the metallic-looking glasses were), however I found the manager to be most arrogant and annoying. He fully pretended I wasn’t there and wasn’t interested in asking me what I thought of the dishes, perhaps because he felt I’m a nobody/+1? What I’d like to point out here, is that this if this is how he treats the average customer, he needs to realize that it’s those average customers that will keep the business afloat, and while they might not know as much as a seasoned food critic would, they’re paying customers and therefore their opinions should always matter.
While my experience at Akira Back might have been very different from those who tried a more seafood-heavy menu, it should give a fair idea of what the non-seafood eaters can expect. Perhaps I should head back to try a different selection of the menu, for the seafood-loving readers?
