All the best from Japan: New restaurant has opened its doors

Written April 25, 2023 kl 12:48 pm by Nathalia Hentze Nielsen

Our readers were very excited when we revealed last Friday that a new Japanese restaurant is opening in Aalborg with sushi, ramen, poké bowls, and much more.

Today is the official opening day for AI Japan, as the restaurant is called, and we have visited Brandstrupsgade 11 to taste the food.

The premises last housed Restaurant Urt, which had a New Nordic interior style. Now, it has been transformed with a focus on Japanese minimalism, featuring beautiful wooden hues.

Of course, it’s the food that matters, and we asked owner Jan Shu to select some favorites from the menu.

We were served both Japanese dishes, but also bibimbap, which has Korean roots.

The menu is generally characterized by a wide selection of Japanese classics, but also Korean and Hawaiian influences such as bibimbap and poké bowls.

Lots of flavor

The food arrived on our table on beautiful ceramic plates and dishes, and it was a good first impression that they also pay attention to the visual presentation.

It looked delicious with the many different colors and fortunately tasted just as good!

As mentioned, we tried bibimbap, but also ramen and sushi – and we got to taste Japanese soda, which is a refreshing alternative to Cola and Pepsi.

Sushi may look simple, but it is an art to hit good taste in just one bite, but we must say that AI Japan does it perfectly.

The ingredients – from vegetables to fish – were fresh, the rice was fluffy but with a good texture, and the different toppings gave an extra dimension of taste without being overpowering.

Bibimbap is not something we have tasted much before, but we can already say that we are fans of the rice dish, which in this case was served with really juicy and crunchy chicken.

The bowl of ramen also deserves praise for being full of flavor and aesthetic enough to deserve its own post on Instagram (especially the round fish cakes that you know from Naruto are a super nice detail).

We were full, very satisfied, and can conclude that Aalborg can easily accommodate another Japanese restaurant – at least if they do it as well as AI Japan.