Akasha: Culver City's new green restaurant

Culver City's getting a spacious new green spot to eat, drink and party. Akasha -- a new restaurant, bar and bakery opening in Culver City -- held a preview party last night with organic wine and beer in recycled glasses, fair trade coffee, organic and sustainable eats, and vegan desserts.

The space is beautiful -- but mainly, I was surprised at how huge it is. Akasha takes up an entire corner of its block, with a bakery, a spacious bar, a big outdoor patio and lots of dining space.

And the turnout was huge too. Everyone from Chris Paine, director of "Who Killed the Electric Car" (left), to Andy Lipkis of TreePeople (right), to a guy giving out biodegradable guitar picks showed up to the swank, Silk-sponsored preview party.

Unfortunately, Akasha isn't going to open until the end of the month. But when it does, maybe West Side Green Drinks will move to this spot?

Akasha. 9543 Culver Blvd., Culver City.

Photos by Siel

Comments

[Jamez]

This is the most over-priced, over-rated, and over-hyped restaurant I've been to lately. My steak was fatty and my wife's pork chop was very fatty and flavorless. For $28 and $24 respectively, we were both surprised by the poor quality of the meat. This is my second time there, and the first time was mediocre as well. I've also tried two of their house cocktails and they were both awful. One was a cucumber drink that tasted like hair conditioner, and the other was a basil-lime-gin concoction with way too much basil. The masala shrimp appetizer is superb, but it can't make up for the overall disappointment we had both times we ate there.

[Jeffrey Ellis]

Four of us are going there tonight, and I'll report back.

However, I have reviewed the wine list and am stunned at the extremely high mark up -- a wine you can easily purchase retail for under $18 is priced at $45.00. The corkage is $25, also outrageous. But I'd rather bring my own wine and know what I'm drinking as well as denying Akasha the pleasure of price gouging (plus tax and tip).

I recently returned from Portland, Oregon. Paley's -- arguably the best restaurant in the city -- marks up it's wine about 1.5x retail. Akasha is close to 3x.

While I hope to enjoy a fine meal tonight, it will have to be spectacular to bring me back for a second visit.