A couple blocks from the Fifth Street Public Market, on Mill Street and East Third Alley, a nondescript house blends in with the neighborhood. From the second floor window, a sign sticks out, with the word “Akira.”

“We don’t really advertise ourselves,” Taro Kobayashi, Akira’s owner says. “We are more word of mouth.”

Akira not only has good sushi, but great quality fish, local ingredients, creative menus and, to say the least, a welcoming and fun owner at the counter table.

Being of Japanese descent and having lived in Japan for elementary school, Kobayashi is aware of his culture and heritage. He calls himself “American Japanese,” despite the common way of saying “Japanese American.” “I am much more American than Japanese,” he says. 

Akira opened in 2019, with teamwork especially between Kobayashi and Eric Garcia, chef at Akira. 

“Eric made the coolest meal I have eaten in my life,” Kobayashi says of his visit at a west Eugene restaurant called Rain Northwest, now closed, where Garcia worked as chef. Now, Garcia makes food in Akira’s back kitchen, serving everything Kobayashi does not make.

At Akira, Kobayashi and Garcia use the Japanese ideology of food and cooking; however, it does not serve Japanese food, Kobayashi says. They value serving quality food, whether it is sushi, à la carte or bar menu.

“Quality is everything,” Kobayashi says. “We are anti-fancy.”

Kobayashi grew up eating food made at home by his mother and his grandmother’s cook. He says that they were not fancy but “good food,” which is the concept that he strives to serve at Akira. 

Akira does have a few Japanese foods — miso soup made by Garcia and karaage, Japanese fried chicken, “because I just like fried chicken,” Kobayashi says. 

They focus on getting local vegetables as much as they can, even in times of inflation and a hard economy. 

Moreover, their main investment goes to the fish — importing from around the world for good quality. They will get six to eight types of fish or more, depending on the week, and use it for the menu at omakase, where Kobayashi serves a course of small plates to each guest.

Guests have the option to get an omakase style order, which currently is $150 for the whole course. 

“Why would you want to go and make a decision on your night out?” Garcia asks. “You should be able to just come in and have a good meal.”

A place for a good meal is what has kept Brandon Herring coming back over the past seven years. He says he fell in love with Kobayashi’s menu and Akira’s unique style.

Herring says he visited multiple times during the opening week. He says that he probably has visited Akira 30-plus times over the years. Although he and his fiancée love to cook, Akira is their special go-to restaurant

“I like to get things I have never tried before,” he says.

Despite that hefty $150 price tag for dinner per person, Kobayashi says that the restaurant hasn’t actually made much profit, calling the restaurant a “not-for-profit.” He says that he has not been able to pay himself, but he says he makes enough to pay the bills and staff well.

When you dine in, what captures your eyes might surprise you. Although the outside of the restaurant is simple, it’s almost hard to realize that it is a restaurant. The inside decorations have character: The walls are decorated with different items, most are gifts from friends and people who support them. Akira manga and posters also adorn the walls. 

Kobayashi named the restaurant Akira because of three Akiras behind it. First, there’s the 1988 film Akira. The film was directed by Akira Kurosawa, whom Kobayashi greatly respects as someone bringing Japanese culture to the world. 

The third Akira is Akira Toriyama, who is the creator of Dragon Ball, another popular Japanese anime. 

“Japan brought many Japanese cultures to the U.S., especially anime and food,” Kobayashi says.

Now, Kobayashi serves high-quality sushi alongside Garcia at Akira, but his journey to get here was not a straight line, as Kobayashi himself says that is common for people in the restaurant business. 

Kobayashi says that he was doing drugs, got into trouble, and then decided to work in the kitchen. At the start, he worked at dishwashing, which he did not enjoy. He later got a job at Shoji’s, which was the only Japanese restaurant in Eugene around 30 years ago. 

Shoji’s was a teppanyaki restaurant where food is cooked on a teppan — a  flat iron griddle at the table, however, and later added a sushi bar to the menu.

“I just want to make really good food,” he says.  Akira, 359 Mill Street, is open from 5 pm to 9 pm Thursday through Monday. Find more at Akira-eugene.com or call 458-205-8288.