Akco Lounge

i went Akco Lounge with my co-​workers. Lunch time was busy but waiting time wasnt long. Price was reasonable, place was clean and unique. I had sushi combo and a spicy salmon tempura roll which was recommended by my server.
Service was excellent. My server was friendly and caring. She also offered us complimentary soup and salad.
Food was really fast and delicious.
There are reasons for busy restaurants. Akco is one of my best sushi places in downtown.

This place has some pretty surprisingly fresh sashimi. The price is pretty decent too for the quality of food you are getting.
Although it’s still not my #1 pick for Japanese food, but it’s still up there amongst my favourite. Will definitely be back if I’m craving for Jap in the area

Came here for lunch with a few coworkers and it was super busy. We waited at least 15 minutes before the server even asked us for for a drink or what we wanted to order. Of course being in an asian restaurant you can’t expect good service. Our server was rude and not attentive. We each ordered our own dishes and that took another 30 mins so by the time we got our food we had to rush our meal since we were on our lunch break. I ordered the spicy salmon tempura roll and let me just say that this was the worse roll I’ve ever had. The presentation was terrible and the salmon inside the roll was cold, lacked flavour and wasn’t even spicy at all. I was very disappointed.
Lastly, when when we asked for separate bills they said that wasn’t allowed for a reservation for 5 or more (please note). Only restaurants that make up this rule are just not efficient. Wish we could have left no tip but of course a 15% gratuity was automatically charged. That just means I won’t be coming back.

Going to have to give this place a big fat one star.
We came here for a lunch date for the girls. The servers were disorganized and rude. They were dealing with a busy lunch crowd, especially being in the path that’s always a given. I ordered the bibimbap and shortly after my stomach did not agree with what I ate =/​
The servers refused to split our bills up because we had made reservations. Never thought that was a rule, when we settled with one bill but different payments she gave us attitude and told us «no» walked away and came back with the machine demanding us to pay for the bill. Not only that but she added 15% gratuity in PEN on the receipt after she had printed it. Another rule that was made up.
The food was mediocre as expected in the path, over priced and undelivering but I guess someone has to pay for the rent.
I will not be returning even if my meal is free.

Love the 18pc maki combo and the tempura spicy salmon /​tuna rolls. If you go during the happy hour it is totally worth it. Best sushi in the downtown core. Nothing compares.

I’ve been Akco’s customer for years due to its convenient location, food quality and reasonable price. However, I had diarrhea last couple of times having dinner there. Last night was especially quiet (we were the only people dining and couple more people at the bar), maybe because they’ve shortened happy hour to only 5pm (used to be until 7pm). It is principle No. 1 to use fresh and clean ingredients to prepare raw food and seems like Akco doesn’t understand that anymore. Will never go back again!

Located in First Canadian Place, this is a good option for lunch if you want to go to a nicer kind of sit-​down restaurant in the PATH. I was lucky to get a table during the lunch time rush with a group of 5 coworkers, considering we didn’t make a reservation. The service is quite efficient here, probably because they are accustomed to dealing with Financial District employees who are pressed for time. They have a fairly large variety of options on their lunch menu — individual sushi rolls, salads, bento boxes, and they have a mix of Japanese and Korean food (i.e. bibimbap, etc.) For a nicer sit-​down restaurant, the prices are pretty reasonable, mostly ranging from $ 10-​$ 15 for a lunch item. One of my coworkers ordered a bento box/​set lunch, and it came with a LOT of food — sushi rolls, teriyaki chicken, glass noodles, tempura, etc. My other coworkers ordered salads (not just your typical salads, one was a calamari salad and I forget what the others were), and they were presented very nicely and looked delicious. I got chirashi don for $ 15.99 and was pleased and satisfied with my choice. It came in a decent sized portion with lots of sashimi on it. There were about 7 pieces of salmon, 3 pieces of white tuna (?), 3 pieces of red tuna (?) and lots of fish roe. All of the sashimi tasted fresh and delicious. I would definitely come again!

It’s always nice to see some additional ethnic food offerings in the financial district. So in that regard, this place does OK. But apart from the location, there is really nothing spectacular about this place.
I came here for a work-​related lunch. We had reservations, so we were seated promptly. Otherwise, it does get rather busy here. Service was generally courteous, quick, and attentive. No complaints there.
The menu offers up a number of standard Korean and Japanese offerings, ranging from sushi to bibimbap. My colleagues had some sushi while I opted for a more simple bibimbap. The sushi was laid out nicely, fairly fresh, and rice-​fish ratios were reasonable. Nothing special, just decent. My bibimbap was much the same. Edible, albeit a bit less flavourful than the ones I’ve had at any of the mainstay Korean restaurants uptown.
Price is a touch on the higher end, which is to be expected given the location.

Food was ok except for sushi — sub-​par but expected.
I had the Squash Soup which was nice slightly creamy pureed soup. I liked the salad — spring mix with one piece of avocado, mango, cherry tomatoes and spicy ginger-​citrus dressing. The miso glazed black cod was cooked perfectly, however the broccoli and cauliflower were hard, and the rice was cold. Dessert was apple crumble with green tea icecream — a hard, granola type crumble with soft apples at the bottom. Fried banana was okay too.

Modest sushi restaurant in the PATH. Does the job. Efficient and quick service.

The menu is actually a mix of Japanese and Korean food. I was going to go for some sashimi, but based I other mixed menu places I have been, I decided yo go for something else.
I ordered the beef teriyaki bento box, which came with a coleslaw (not kimchi), clear noodles, and vegetable tempura. The serving size was very good for the price and I found the quality of the ingredients to be good.
The service was polite and quick. I would go back for a quick lunch here!

clam chowder cannot be called chowder — super thin, pretty tasteless
stirfry chicken — cold, gross pieces of chicken, noodles were ok but not much of it, broccoli was unexpectedly cold — yes, cold. What do I expect for $ 5 though?
only saving grace was the hotsauce — a nice alternative to sriachia (sp?) in the rooster bottle that you usually find.
Saw they had sushi and sashimi too. looked ok, but I’m leery to try it after my experience today.

This is a great place in the financial district for a «nice lunch» without breaking the bank. They serve up japanese and korean food so you can get a sushi/​sashimi combo, a bento box, bimbimbap, etc.
Service is decent and relatively fast so you can be in and out within an hour. Reservations are recommended, especially in December when lots of people splurge for the holidays and get together with friend/​coworkers when things aren’t quite so busy at the office.
I come here every time I have a craving for hwe dup bop (Akco’s version is rice topped with arugula/​field greens, and sashimi with korean spicy sauce). This seems to be the only place in the downtown core where you can find it (or at least so I could find).
It’s a pretty solid choice for when food court sushi won’t cut it, but you don’t want to spend the $$$$ to go to a place like Ki.

My colleague and I decided to lunch at Akco Lounge after a last minute lunch reservation snafu at another restaurant. Luckily, it wasn’t terribly busy and we were seated right away.
Our server was friendly and efficient, though there was a bit of a «situation» near the end, but more on that later.
We ordered endamame, California rolls and a grilled scallop with mango salad. All three dishes were delicious, though the portion size for the California roll was a bit small. The scallops (2 large scallops) were perfectly grilled and the mango salad, which wasn’t really a mango salad, but rather a few slivers of mango and cucumber thrown onto a small bed of mixed greens, was perfectly dressed with just a drizzle of a sweet citrus dressing.
Our total bill for the 2 appetizers and California roll was $ 33 including tip.
Of note, we were in a bit of a hurry to pay our bill as my colleague had a 1pm meeting, so we handed our server a credit card and asked her to process our bill. She came back to our area with a large platter of food for the table behind us, along with our bill. However, after having served the table their food, our server opened up the billfold to check before handing us our bill, only to discover that the credit card was gone… after a few frantic minutes of servers racing around the restaurant looking under tables and plates to try and locate the missing credit card, the table behind us announced to our server that they had located the credit card under their table. It must have fallen out of the billfold while she was dropping off their food.
Anyway, crisis averted. All in all a good experience. Food was ok, price was a little on the high side, but it is lunch downtown.
**I would like to note that I do order take-​out from them quite often… best to call well in advance of pick up, and make sure you check your order before leaving, as they’ve forgotten to include items on more than one occasion.

Arrived here like a stray lamb for lunch with some co-​workers. We were quickly seated in two nearby tables as we were a large party.
They have attractive names in their menu, grass fed cow. Makes them sound more delicious. I ordered the bulgogi bibimbap. It was yummm. their gochuyang is more sweet than usual, but I enjoyed the taste and it tasted great especially for the PATH.
I sampled their meatballs from my nice coworker, and they taste really nice. italian! A pleasant experience despite secretly craving the kalbi, but I happily settled for the bulgogi for the lower price. lalala~~

The price is right, or fair at least.
I went with two others, and immediately two of us noticed the Daily Drink specials. We went there on a Thursday evening, and the crantini’s were $ 3.99. They tasted watered down. Maybe try going on a Monday, when they have sake martinis — if you want a full (?) shot of alcohol, I guess.
I ordered their vegetarian bento ($ 12.99), vegetarian dragon roll ($ 8.99?), and Akco fries ($ 5?) with a specially requested wasabi mayo.
The dragon roll was good, with their tempura yam inside…
Thing is, I guess I’m particular about tempura batter. Whenever I eat tempura. Ugh! The batter here was so thick, I could have attached a pencil to the bottom of one deep fried slice of potato or yam, and cheaply replaced a ping pong paddle. They were so thick and hard, children/​dolls/​little dogs, could use them as fake frisbees. No, these tempura’d veggies, were battered up — to an extreme.
At first, I ate and ate (I had an appetite going into the place), but after a while I had a small epiphany — the battered veggies stood out as being too thick and too hard. I suggest they consider changing their batter to a lighter one. Perhaps the average person wouldn’t mind their existing batter, however.
Worth one shot; maybe or maybe not… two visits.
~
aside: From the corner that we were in, we seemed privy to some interesting behaviours displayed by two of their 20-​something bartender and server (both female). They were chummy with their male clients at the bar. I suggest that if you’re a single heterosexual male Unilocaler, with a penchant for the act of karaōke (which they have), drinking alcohol, and having ready company of two cute enough females, go there, and sit at the bar. No promises, but you may find yourself basking in the glow of some decidedly focused staff attention…
We saw one of them, in particular, walk her clients out, hug some of them, kiss one of them on the side of his face, lots of touchy touchy feel goodness going on.

I work on Bay Street and often go to Akco for lunch dates. The service is quick, efficient and friendly, and the sushi is consistently good. I always order the salmon and tuna maki, and have never had a bad piece of fish here. I like that they don’t use too much rice in the rolls (not a fan of huge rolls that you can barely fit in your mouth), and that they have options for non-​sushi eaters. I also highly recommend the gyoza– delicious!
I (along with the rest of my office) often get take-​out from Akco for lunch. We’ve never had a bad experience, and it’s usually a very quick turn-​around.
My only warning is that it seems like the quality is better at lunch than dinner. I recently went for happy hour (30% off between 3−7pm) for the first time, and can understand why other reviewers may have been disappointed if that was their only experience with Akco. I’m not sure what it was, but some of the rolls were not in keeping with the quality that i’ve come to expect from them. For example, the fish was a bit too cold and the rice tasted like it had been in the fridge. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great.
Overall, it’s one of the better options in the financial district for sushi and I’ll definitely be back.

4 star for atmosphere.
4 star for service after 3pm.
3 star for food…
The standout here is the 30% off food from 3pm-​7pm during weekdays. It’s a really great deal! The décor and atmosphere here is dark and classy, and after the lunch hour rush has dissipated, obtaining service is not an issue. The daily drink specials are a bargain. On a Friday evening, glasses of sangria is $ 3.48 each.
The food unfortunately downgrades the rating for this restaurant. I had the 18 maki set where the rice was just a bit too thick, and the nori just a bit soggy. It really wasn’t anything special and the quality didn’t meet my expectations. A previous visit provided slightly better, but similar results.
Though I didn’t try any, the restaurant is now all about organic beef purchased from local farmers. You can even order large cuts of beef from them sourced directly from the farmers!
Uninspired food, but an interesting, quiet place to people watch for after-​hour Bay St-​ers ogling and chatting up the bartender.