Honestly, it had been a while since we’d headed down to JBR at night and wow, there are so many options to choose from and lots of amazing licensed ones too. It only took the temptation of Japanese street food and Tokyo-style Neapolitan pizza to get us there as Akiba Dori opened a new outlet at the beach. Yes, they had us at pizza and wine!
For those not in the know Akiba Dori has been making its mark on the social scene with various outlets opening in locations like D3, Dubai Hills and now JBR The beach. We had heard plenty of good things too. Located in The Pavilion, a licensed space with nice eateries, you can hardly miss Akiba with its fun and yet classy neon lights with a mix of inside and outside seating. Better still there is an Uber drop just outside making it super easy to find and so heels can actually be a realistic option! The traffic didn’t seem as bad as it used to be on JBR either, so we’ll take that win for the night too.
The menu at Akiba Dori is a good size with plenty of options whatever you fancy, blending Japanese Street Food including fries, calamari, chicken katsu sliders, edamame and rock shrimp. There are also sushi options, salads and of course the Tokyo style Pizza which we heard amazing reviews about and was likely a big reason why we came!
We chose to order lots of dishes and share so we could also try a selection, but it can also work traditionally with a starter and main to. One of our table was veggie and there were plenty of options for them too. The drinks menu was also scattered with Japanese inspired drinks, but all the usual favourites were there too.
It was hard to say what our favourite dish was, as we enjoyed it all, but honestly the much raved about Truffle Burrata pizza was insane and we all fought after the last piece and we’ll be thinking about that for a while. The calamari and chicken katsu sliders were also a big hit and the spiced edamame were just right. We didn’t make it to dessert as we were honestly stuffed!
Price wise, it was pretty standard for a licensed outlet on the beach and a good price for food and drinks. In terms of atmosphere, we went early week, so it was pretty quiet on JBR as a whole, but we were having a girls night and as you know it’s all about the company anyhow, so we had a great old time. It would also make a nice date spot, you know early on when you’re still working out if you like each other, and you just want a nice low key night out. It would also work if you needed to entertain for work too.
We’ll definitely be back, even if just for the pizza and a quick glass of wine on the way home from work. Tokyo pizza gets a big hands up!
For more info check out: @akibadori