I’m not a huge fan of food courts in shopping malls. I find them a little too impersonal and often far too rushed. I also always seem to spend far too much time in Canal Walk Mall, and I always seem to be at one end of the mall when I realise that what I need is on the other end. I was having one of those days when I walked past Akiya Sushi. It’s a small and slightly hidden and when you go inside you feel like you are not in a shopping mall anymore. It was only 11.30am and the lunch crowd hadn’t arrived yet so we had the whole place to ourselves.

The décor is beautiful and clean, and a lot of attention has been given to the smaller elements which I really enjoyed. Our waitress was very attentive and friendly and informed us that we had arrived on their buy-one- get-one-free day on most of the sushi. Apparently this happens every Tuesday, which was very lucky for us.

I must say, the menu is certainly not cheap, so I’m not sure if I would eat here on a normal day, but the special definitely made it worth our while. I found the sushi to be excellent, and I watched them prepare it for us as we waited, so at least I know that what we got was fresh. We decided to cap the lunch off with some vegetable spring rolls which in my opinion were so good I could’ve had literally just eaten a plate of them. They were not deep fried as so many spring rolls often are, and it was a fantastic way to end our lunch.

A lovely little serene retreat from a very busy shopping mall. Highly recommended.