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I was out and about earlier this month when a couple approached me with a burning question: “Should we go eat at Akira Back?”
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Their curiosity is understandable. When Akira Back Ottawa opened two months ago inside the Fairmont Château Laurier, it made for a dramatic change at Ottawa’s 114-year-old, grande-dame hotel.
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The space that is now Akira Back Ottawa was previously Wilfrid’s, the Château’s main dining room that opened in the early 1990s. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Wilfrid’s closed. When it eventually reopened, it was underutilized.
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Last year, the Château announced on its social media a “complete transformation” for Wilfrid’s. The result, which debuted in mid-March, was Akira Back Ottawa, one of more than two dozen restaurants in the global Akira Back restaurant group.
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There are Akira Back restaurants in upscale hotels in some of the world’s great cities, from Paris to Dubai to Istanbul to Singapore to Hong Kong. Toronto’s W Hotel and the Montcalm Mayfair in London both have Akira Back restaurants, which I mention because they are owned by the immensely wealthy, Vancouver-based Lalji family, which also owns the Château in Ottawa.
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However Akira Back’s arrival in Ottawa came to happen, the Château’s pride and excitement about being in such posh company — joining the empire, you might say — makes sense.
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Given the sheer novelty of Akira Back Ottawa, I could have told the inquisitive couple to try it, just to see what the fuss was about. But that would have been ducking the question. The Château’s bold decision aside, what really matters are whether Akira Back’s dark, deluxe ambience appeals to you, and, above all, whether its pretty dishes justify their high prices.
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To quote Back himself, who I met at the restaurant’s mid-March gala opening, Akira Back Ottawa has a “vibe.” He didn’t really elaborate, but I think he’s referring to the Ottawa restaurant’s projection of overtly moneyed comfort manifested in dark, serious tables and oversized seating. Akira Back Ottawa may remind some of Med Supper Club in Lansdowne Park, only more sombre.
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It may also recall a slick, well-funded restaurant in a Las Vegas resort, which makes sense given that the DNA for Back’s various restaurants can be on the Las Vegas strip. Back, who was born in Korea and moved to America, now lives in Las Vegas, where he launched his first restaurant, Yellowtail Japanese Restaurant & Lounge, in the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in 2008.
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Also notable about the restaurant’s ambience is how much it smacks you in the face with the Akira Back brand. Before you enter, you see Back’s likeness on the wall in an image somewhere between a caricature and abstract art. Back’s signature is on the restaurant’s artful plates, on the ball caps of sushi-counter chefs and even on the paper bands around disposable chopsticks before you snap them apart.
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If one presumes to be a global culinary mogul, there’s apparently no point being low-key about it. Mind you, the Las Vegas restaurants of Martha Stewart and Gordon Ramsay similarly hypes up their celebrity figureheads, and to be honest, I enjoyed eating at them.
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I did not enjoy eating at Akira Back Ottawa nearly as much.
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The Chateau’s website describes the food at Akira Back Ottawa as “modern Japanese dining at its most inventive and unexpected,” which spins the truth pretty hard. It strikes me as a broader mishmash of influences — exhibit A would be “Cajun tuna” in one dish — more crowd-pleasing and contemporary than strictly Japanese. Also, the menu alludes simultaneously to luxury (the beef is always Wagyu and supplemental caviar, fresh truffle or uni are available), to fast food (“AB signature” pizzas and tacos) and even to Pop Rocks.
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Akira puts that fleetingly amusing candy in one of its sushi rolls ($26), along with spicy tuna and crab mix. I’ll try not to be a complete curmudgeon and say it was better than expected, but not something I want to eat again.
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I ate three times at Akira Back Ottawa, including at its fully packed gala opening. Usually I skip such events, but I made an exception, rightly thinking it would give me my only chance to meet Back. I will sum up my gala meal and leave it you to decide whether it’s tainted because its food and drinks were comped for all its guests.
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So-called “AB signature” pizzas were simple but effective concoctions made of toasted tortillas topped with either thinly sliced tuna ($32) or eryngii mushroom ($32), bolstered with truffle oil and an umami-ish aioli that worked for me. Slices of these “pizzas” made for tasty snacks.
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Salmon tataki ($28) was a straightforward raw fish dish with a meaningful mustard-miso sauce. But a dish of Hokkaido scallop and kiwi ($28) registered as bland. More underwhelming still was a cucumber salad ($18) with a forgettable sweet vinegar dressing. It seemed like garnishes masquerading as a dish.
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Wagyu picanha ($89) was a high-priced, enjoyable beefy treat, although I didn’t love its wasabi butter. While rock shrimp are supposed to taste lobster-y, the fried specimens ($25) I had, served with a gochujang aioli, were unremarkable, tasting mostly of batter and sauce.
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Of two desserts — miso caramel ice cream with cocoa nibs ($18), and a deep-fried apple spring roll of sorts ($17) — the former held our interest longer than the latter.
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For my second visit, we sat in the dining room’s lower level, which we preferred, and delved into some of the menu’s other main courses.
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But first, we tried sea bream sashimi ($26) with a sweetened gochujang sauce. A Las Vegas Weekly in 2016 called this dish “one of the best raw fish bites in all of Las Vegas, a seemingly minimalist plate that explodes with sharp, clean flavours.” What I had in Ottawa lacked oomph and finesse.
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A crisply breaded chicken breast roulade ($46) showed good technique, but it needed its balsamic teriyaki sauce. Wagyu beef short rib ($61), cooked sous-vide for 48 hours, was not as tender or flavourful as an old-school braise.
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The meal’s highlight was our side dish of well-seasoned, well-made king crab fried rice ($25). We skipped dessert, and were in and out in less than an hour.
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Our last visit, began with an OK cocktail (Summer of Love, $24, tequila plus mezcal plus passionfruit) but a tepid Jade Punch mocktail ($20).
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Then came three well-executed sushi rolls. Best was the protein roll, made of tuna, yellowtail, salmon, whitefish and crab mix ($34). “Real” California roll ($26) swapped crab for the ersatz crab of lesser rolls. You know my thoughts about Pop Rockin’ ($26).
