Asian Fusion
This rainy Saturday was brightened with family sharing lunch for the second weekend in a row. We were in search of a culinary-passport lunch to prepare us for some Dave & Busters later and the Akahana Bistro looked like a good option.
They are located in Baxter Village in Fort Mill just off the interstate. Fortunately for us we found a couple of parking spots on the street close to the restaurant so we didn’t get too wet on the way in. There weren’t very many people there when we arrived and I think the employees outnumbered the patrons most of the time we were there. There is a bar, some sort of outside seating, as well as a standard seating area with heavy wooden tables and plenty of room.
The menu is a mix of Asian cuisines including; Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai, and Chinese. There are quite a number of options and deciding took us a while so we ordered some salt & pepper calamari to help us through.
I really enjoyed the simplicity of the light salt and pepper coating that was complimented by the plum sauce. The plum sauce was thinner that any other I’ve had but that was quite alright because it didn’t overpower the rest of the flavors. My nephew and I pretty well destroyed that plate. They were served on a bed of light crispy noodles, cilantro, scallions & shallots.
For an entree I chose salt & pepper soft shell crab with fried rice. Good thing I liked the salt & pepper coating from the calamari because that seemed to be the same as they used on the crab.
It may not be obvious but there was a fair amount of crab on the plate and soft shell was right. Again I appreciated the relative simplicity of the coating that allowed the crab taste to come through. I felt like I was taking a chance with this because I’ve had some soft shell crab that was a little more shelly than I would have preferred but this was great. The crab was served with the same noodles as the calamari had been with the addition of some jalapenos to keep you one your toes. I chose fried rice as my rice option and it was just ok but I enjoyed the crab enough to not care.
My nephew got sesame chicken that he put a good dent in but couldn’t finish due to quantity.
My brother-in-law got the sushi deluxe lunch platter and it looked amazing and based on the clean plate and satisfied comments he made I believe he enjoyed it. We did all agree his was the nicest presentation of the lot and it was a good value too.
My sister did apps for lunch selecting spring rolls, Asian summer rolls and fried dumplings that she freely shared. All were deemed tasty especially the dumplings. Visually the Asian summer rolls with the see through rice noodles were the most interesting and I did have a bite and can vouch they were not bad at all.
The service was good and aside from an issue with the first try at sweet tea being light on the sugar we were well taken care of. Based on experience when a restaurant isn’t busy service can be a crap shoot, either too much attention or they get caught in conversations or other distractions because they’re bored. Our server did a good job of keeping an eye on the table without hovering.
Overall I’d recommend the place to anyone, lots of choices and the food was very good. Fueled up we were ready to take on Dave & Busters. I’d like to thank Dee, Chris & Jesse Mays for spending their lunch with me and treating as well. Hard to beat that deal, family and free food.