Ai Japansk Restaurang - Uppsala

As always. it is a beautiful restaurant. in the inner city of uppsala. more cozy place where they can eat after walking around in the inner city.

A delicious Japanese restaurant in the heart of Uppsala. The food were great and well presented, the staff was very helpful and friendly. Highly recommended!

Well, You will not hear me complain about the bill, if what I received for it has been leaving an impression on me that don 't needs any fuzz about the price. I ate here with some expectations slightly above average, as it was a Japanese restaurant rather than a sushi restaurant. Being a new Uppsala citizen, I try to find my way here, as well as my kids: they were the ones that asked for Sushi, and off course I could agree with the idea: I namely had the pleasure to visit Tokyo some months ago, and am in love with Japanese cooking. To me, the key of Japanese food could have the following description: First, in the Japanese kitchen, the recipes of proper basic dishes cannot be touched; essential ingredients need to taste as they should. The taste balance as well as the textures cannot be touched. Second, the presentation allows for a personal touch: when additional attention is given to it, you know you are good. The experience starts by the refinement of the presentation, which will give you a first smile. Then, the satisfaction comes from enjoying basic simplicity combined with refined excellence. To deliver this experience is the ambition of a cook in a Japanese kitchen, however small the business may be, and at whatever time of the day. At Ai 's I see very little of that. To not sound too naive, I can tell you that there are places in my previous home town, Stockholm, where you surprisingly will find a good hint of this extra attention for your enjoyment. Also, the previous 'elite ' review from a Stockholmer, sounded so positive. Believe me, his bargain review does not stand at all. First of all, on Ai 's menu, the dish compositions were mostly not fully named by their Japanese name, also dishes were presented with pictures. This is in general not a good sign, and it gave my first frown. For the three of us, I first of all ordered a Hiyashi Wakame, then 15 pcs sushi for my two kids to share, and a Yaki Soba with chicken for me. To be brief, the Wakame sallad (55kr) wasn 't any different from the frozen ready made at the Japanese store, where it also is equally priced for a nearly equal amount of it. No additional attention was given to it with perhaps some fresh sesame on top of it. The sushi was okay, but not wow. It looked like ordinary sushi, and it tasted no different. No additional touch to the different pieces, but that wasn 't a surprise any more. The rolls were well made and tasted good. The rice was actually okay, though not luke warm. The fish was,.. I dunno, not what I expected. All in all: normal price (165kr) without any taste surprise, that puts it in the lower ranking for me. Then to the Yaki Soba: this one actually tasted good at the beginning, had some raw spring onion on top, but that was it. It appeared to be ok on the longer run, and was not more wow than the sushi. Even more than the sushi, this is certainly a modest dish that simply is over priced (139kr). Honestly, the chicken was not juicy as it could have been, and even had hard pieces in it, that I needed to pick out of my mouth. Off course, we drink all our bubble water to that (30kr/pc) The experience lead to a bill of as good as 450kr. Off course, I can add up the price when I choose what to order, but it was more of a negative surprise. I can eat a really lovely sushi and even more loved shirashi with bubble water for 500kr in Stockholm, where we all three would have been smiling afterwards.

Let me preface this by saying I 'm a huge cleanliness freak. Hygiene in the kitchen it top priority for me as I 've been stung way too many times to take it lightly. I found Ai pretty much by accident on Google. It 's tucked away and can be pretty easy to miss in the most lively part of Uppsala, but I wandered in here with a friend one day because I was badly craving some Katsu. Finding Katsu in Sweden can definitely prove to be a challenge in Sweden and I was so happy to have Ai offering it and was excited to try their Katsu out. This place is run by the same guys that run the Amazing Thai chains and some Asian food variety stores around the city. The restaurant is quite small and boasts an open kitchen (which as I mentioned earlier, is a huge deal for me. I love being able to see how my food is prepared). We ordered a big assortment of food: fried mashed potato (amazing), dumplings (they were fine), and the sashimi starter. All of them were definitely good and the value for money was awesome. For the main, we went for what turned out to be the hero of the meal: the Katsu. I had almost zero expectations for the Katsu, but was pleasantly surprised to find it being flavorful and authentic. The best part about this place is that it 's quite inexpensive but offers quite tasty food, so it definitely gets a high mark in my book when looking for dining options in Uppsala. Service remained attentive throughout.

Eating here is a bit more authentic than many Asian restaurants in uppsala, but the aromen are not yet 100% the tempura is really recommended. beautiful thin crispy layer as it should be. the dinner has a very nice price. combined chairs, but a little confusing atmosphere.