I was there on Thursday last week with a group of nine and though it was clear things were not firing on all cylinders, it was more like 6 of 8 were firing instead of the Washingtonian's disaster scenario. And to counter the comments on an earlier post, the people were all friendly and accomodating to us. I wouldn't know good sushi if somebody hit me over the head with a roll of it so I won't comment on my GI Jane roll, but the tater tots were tasty. My pork sandwich came on a really nice bun but the pork was pretty tough.
great product, but it will take some time to get up to speed (which is to be expected), especially when the place is packed to capacity every single night. unbelievable! who would have thought a place like that opening on h street would need to be twice the size with twice the kitchen/staff/etc. it's a great restaurant and i know it's really going to shine once all the kinks are ironed out!
I've been to Sticky Rice twice since they opened and I will give them a break to get themselves together before returning. The sushi was yummy but the service was bad both times. I have waited at least 1 hr after ordering to get my food. And to be clear I only ordered sushi once. I understand they hand roll the sushi which takes long but i am not sure if that should really be an excuse to wait an hr for food. The staff is nice but they don't seem to know what is going on exactly. I will definately return but I am afraid of getting an extra sour taste so i will give it a break for a while and let them get it together.
Last night my husband and I went to Sticky Rice and waited about 45 minutes for food. We asked the waiter if he could check on our sushi order because it was taking so long, and his response was "sushi takes a long time here." That should not have been his reply. While I know they are still working out kinks, and I know sushi does take a while to roll out, and I know their prep area is tiny.... it didn't make the fact that I had to wait almost an hour anymore tolerable. But, I do love their food, and will return soon.
I agree with the previous posters -- I've been to Sticky twice and both times the staff definitely had that "deer in the headlights" look.
That being said, both times I went the place was completely packed and you could tell the staff was a little overwhelmed with drink orders, food orders, people coming in off the street just to ask questions, people ordering take out, etc. etc.
In my view, these poor guys are still getting their feet wet while trying to serve the pent up, overwhelming demand this neighborhood has for decent, well-priced, walking distance restaurants in this area.
I give these guys huge slack and I'm glad to see that the neighborhood is demonstrating how under-served we are (as far as restaurants) by going out and hitting these places...hard. :-)
Similar to everyone's responses, I loved the food, hated the service. But I think the service will get better with time. The owners (I think it was mentioned that one of them is a guy with black hair and tattoos) were very nice and sort of helpful, but the server kept f'ing up our order, and they ran out of Sapporo. She (the server) did have that deer in headlights kind of look about her too, but I was with friends, and we had a good time overall. I'll be back when things quiet down a bit, but if it goes the same way the other places have in the neighborhood, I don't think it will slow down anytime soon. Maybe it's better to say, "settled in."
i'm sure the sticky rice people are already thinking about this, but they will probably need to expand into the adjacent storefront using the downstairs for additional kitchen space and to-go orders while the upstairs is used for more seating. tough to take that kind of risk though and capitol is hard to come by these days.
I love Sticky Rice! I know they are overwhelmed right now. But, it's just because we all got so excited. Its like a toddler seeing a cute puppy and wanting to squeeze it too hard! Well get used to it, it will get used to us. I am sooo happy to have it in the neighborhood.
We tried Sticky Rice for the first time last night. The food was okay, the tuna bites appetizer being the best thing we tasted. The service was kind of scattershot, as has been reported before. I got my crab cake sandwich about 15 minutes before anyone else at the table got their food. The sushi was poorly rolled and fell apart. Our server was enthusiastic, tho.
One major issue: the heat. It was downright hot upstairs (and not much better downstairs). I realize that with the heatwave their AC might be getting overwhelmed. Or perhaps it was broken. In any case, we were almost sweating into our meals.
Actually, I had the same experience at Sonoma this weekend. I think this heat wave just overwhelmed many local a/c's.
Haven't tried Sticky Rice yet, but I do remember all the same problems at Argonaut when they first opened. Now they run fairly smoothly most of the time. They'll get it together.
Here's another enthusiastic thumbs up for Sticky Rice. I've been twice and have been very happy both times. Neither time was perfect, but none of the problems will keep me from going back. I'm beyond happy to have sushi on H. St.
I desperately want Sticky Rice and XII to prosper in our neighborhood, but both seem to be offering good food, reasonable prices, and downright bad service. Both times we've been to XII, there was a major snafu in the kitchen, including ice cold entrees that we waited over 30 minutes for.
Both times we've been to Sticky Rice, we've gotten some orders rapidly, and some orders have been intolerably slow. I realize that hand-rolled sushi is labor-intensive, but if sushi is the cornerstone of your menu, then you need to figure out a way to get it to the customers in a reasonable amount of time. Simply telling diners that "sushi takes a long time here" is entirely unacceptable.
I intend to go back to both restaurants soon, because their food is tasty, and their success benefits all of us in the neighborhood. But I really hope they iron their kinks out soon.
I'll vouch for just about everything everyone else has said. Friendly staff. Very long waits for food. Food was overall quite good.
One pet peeve, though (oh, come now, it wouldn't be an online review if there wasn't something to bitch about.....)...
They advertise the shrimp tempura appetizer as being jumbo shrimp. They aren't. They are tiny. For $7 you get six very tiny shrimp, about the size of popcorn shrimp.
This is a recurring problem in DC (true, not a problem on the scale of, say, global warming). All shrimp are not jumbo shrimp. Some are just regular shrimp. And some are popcorn shrimp.
If they are popcorn shrimp, say so. Don't mislead people, especially since there's a good chance they'll be waiting an hour before they see these tiny shrimp anyway.
I've been to Sticky Rice twice. What stands out most to me is that the restaurant just isn't server friendly and they haven't hired servers with enough experience to cope with crowds and ackward layout. First, last week during the rain there were servers slipping and sliding all over the wooden floors. Management needs to invest in a cheap mat w/a sticky (hah-hah) bottom to place in front of the door. Second, get a darned soda gun upstairs. It's entirely unacceptable for the servers to run downstairs to the bar for all beverages, especially ones the servers can pour themselves. Third, the bartenders need some teamwork training. One wripped a server's head after she used one of his beer glasses becuase the servers weren't stocked w/water glasses. After a few months the bartenders can cop a 'tude, but for now they need to just make sure that all customers are happy and coming in regularly. That means working with the silly server girl. Finally, hire a food runner (probably only one is necessary) to take hot food from downstairs upstairs and sushi from upstairs downstairs. If half the complaints on this site are due to timing of food service, having a food runner would solve that problem. That' just my four cents.
We had dinner on Sunday evening. Considering the early hour (6) it was quite packed! I thought the server was knowledgeable, friendly, and relatively efficient. We ordered two apps (bucket o' tots, ooohhhh) which gave us plenty to eat before our entrees came. The sushi and noodles arrived in an appropriate time span.
Just curious: with all the helpful suggestions posted here, has anyone actually talked to the managers? How can they address these issues if they're not brought up?
Went last night -- the upstairs was 90 degrees, and we sat for 20 minutes, and no one came by our table, so we left. The good news: we then went to Granville Moores and had great food and service.
(And for the record, we're white, gay, and not that hip.)
My gf and I had a great time there on opening night. The only problems I've had, oddly enough, have been with carry-out.
The first time I tried to get carry-out, at about 5:30pm, about a half-week after they opened, they told me they were out of carry-out containers. Well, it was very early in their existence; maybe they just underestimated how many containers they'd need. No big deal.
A week and a half later, I tried again. I'd previously been told by someone at SR that carryout went til 11pm -- I got there at 10:45pm, and was told they had just ended carryout for the night. Well, it was just a whim to stop by, not a big deal. Phil (I think it was) suggested phoning in my carryout order in the future -- if I'd phoned it in at 10:15pm, I woulda made it.
So, last night, I phoned my order in at 7:45pm. After phoning it in, I remained at my number (at work) for about another 20-25 minutes, then did the 20 minute drive to Sticky Rice on the way home. When I got there, my order was ready and bagged -- yay! But, when going through the bags to make sure everything was there before giving it to me, they noticed that one item was missing. Looking into it, it turned out that one of the items I'd ordered hadn't been prepared because they were out of a sauce needed for it. When I ordered, they'd taken my phone number "in case we need to get ahold of you", but then didn't use it to ask me if I wanted to amend the order when it turned out that they couldn't actually make the order I'd placed. Instead, they just skipped over that item as if I'd never ordered it. That was bizarre.
Then, the man taking care of me told me that "they should have told you they were done taking carry-out for the night." Huh? At 7:45pm, when I called? "Some nights are worse than others." On the least-busy night I've yet seen them have, at least at 8:30pm when I was there?
Then, when I got home, the sashimi collection had the wrong fish in it -- in particular, no yellowtail at all, even though that's what we ordered.
Similar as most the bunch. Good food, mediocre service. We sat at the bar and got our bucket-o-tots right away, but my sushi came about 45 minutes before my dates. By the time his showed up he was full from the tots. Bartender was apologetic but I guess I'm used to getting something comp'ed ($2 soda off my bill woulda been nice) when I have to wait that long for my food. I thought maybe that was just a lucrative chain thing but I was at a locally owned joint in SW last night and my pizza was messed up so they took it off the bill. I've been a server before and a little bit off the bill goes a looong way.
I think management is really trying to address the service issues. I went last night and our waitress very friendly and attentive (filling and refilling our water glasses regularly), the food came out in 20 minutes (I timed it) and was delicious. To top iot all off, the GM stopped by our table to make sure we were happy with our service. It was, however, pretty early (6 pm) so for those of you who want to try the restaurant, I recommend you go early at least for now. Anyway, it makes sense that they have been overwhelmed but it is obvious that they are listening and trying to respond to complaints as those posted here, which means a lot.
Good service can make and break an establishment. For example, Granville & Moore has some really good staff. Especially Larissa who is genuinely friendly and an excellent bartender. It just adds a very warm vibe to the restaurant. One of the pre-requisites for being a hipster is the better-than-thou not very friendly vibe which over the long run doesn't payout. I do think that owners of Sticky rice are very friendly and welcoming it's just their staff who may need a personality makeover. Agreed that I not as smart, sauve, intelligent, attractive, wealthy and super talented as they are since I am only a below average joe barely able to pay my bills but I still deserve a smile. Just saying.
Boo! 20min. late on a takeout order that was only supposed to take 30min. to be ready with no offer to compensate for the delay; wrong type of noodles than were ordered; the food was 3 on a scale of 1-10...max.
26 comments:
I was there on Thursday last week with a group of nine and though it was clear things were not firing on all cylinders, it was more like 6 of 8 were firing instead of the Washingtonian's disaster scenario. And to counter the comments on an earlier post, the people were all friendly and accomodating to us.
I wouldn't know good sushi if somebody hit me over the head with a roll of it so I won't comment on my GI Jane roll, but the tater tots were tasty. My pork sandwich came on a really nice bun but the pork was pretty tough.
i love everything about sticky rice. nice people, good food, good times!
great product, but it will take some time to get up to speed (which is to be expected), especially when the place is packed to capacity every single night. unbelievable! who would have thought a place like that opening on h street would need to be twice the size with twice the kitchen/staff/etc. it's a great restaurant and i know it's really going to shine once all the kinks are ironed out!
I've been to Sticky Rice twice since they opened and I will give them a break to get themselves together before returning. The sushi was yummy but the service was bad both times. I have waited at least 1 hr after ordering to get my food. And to be clear I only ordered sushi once. I understand they hand roll the sushi which takes long but i am not sure if that should really be an excuse to wait an hr for food. The staff is nice but they don't seem to know what is going on exactly. I will definately return but I am afraid of getting an extra sour taste so i will give it a break for a while and let them get it together.
Last night my husband and I went to Sticky Rice and waited about 45 minutes for food. We asked the waiter if he could check on our sushi order because it was taking so long, and his response was "sushi takes a long time here." That should not have been his reply. While I know they are still working out kinks, and I know sushi does take a while to roll out, and I know their prep area is tiny.... it didn't make the fact that I had to wait almost an hour anymore tolerable. But, I do love their food, and will return soon.
I agree with the previous posters -- I've been to Sticky twice and both times the staff definitely had that "deer in the headlights" look.
That being said, both times I went the place was completely packed and you could tell the staff was a little overwhelmed with drink orders, food orders, people coming in off the street just to ask questions, people ordering take out, etc. etc.
In my view, these poor guys are still getting their feet wet while trying to serve the pent up, overwhelming demand this neighborhood has for decent, well-priced, walking distance restaurants in this area.
I give these guys huge slack and I'm glad to see that the neighborhood is demonstrating how under-served we are (as far as restaurants) by going out and hitting these places...hard. :-)
Give us minigolf!!!
Similar to everyone's responses, I loved the food, hated the service. But I think the service will get better with time. The owners (I think it was mentioned that one of them is a guy with black hair and tattoos) were very nice and sort of helpful, but the server kept f'ing up our order, and they ran out of Sapporo. She (the server) did have that deer in headlights kind of look about her too, but I was with friends, and we had a good time overall. I'll be back when things quiet down a bit, but if it goes the same way the other places have in the neighborhood, I don't think it will slow down anytime soon. Maybe it's better to say, "settled in."
i'm sure the sticky rice people are already thinking about this, but they will probably need to expand into the adjacent storefront using the downstairs for additional kitchen space and to-go orders while the upstairs is used for more seating. tough to take that kind of risk though and capitol is hard to come by these days.
I love Sticky Rice! I know they are overwhelmed right now. But, it's just because we all got so excited. Its like a toddler seeing a cute puppy and wanting to squeeze it too hard! Well get used to it, it will get used to us. I am sooo happy to have it in the neighborhood.
We tried Sticky Rice for the first time last night. The food was okay, the tuna bites appetizer being the best thing we tasted. The service was kind of scattershot, as has been reported before. I got my crab cake sandwich about 15 minutes before anyone else at the table got their food. The sushi was poorly rolled and fell apart. Our server was enthusiastic, tho.
One major issue: the heat. It was downright hot upstairs (and not much better downstairs). I realize that with the heatwave their AC might be getting overwhelmed. Or perhaps it was broken. In any case, we were almost sweating into our meals.
Actually, I had the same experience at Sonoma this weekend. I think this heat wave just overwhelmed many local a/c's.
Haven't tried Sticky Rice yet, but I do remember all the same problems at Argonaut when they first opened. Now they run fairly smoothly most of the time. They'll get it together.
Here's another enthusiastic thumbs up for Sticky Rice. I've been twice and have been very happy both times. Neither time was perfect, but none of the problems will keep me from going back. I'm beyond happy to have sushi on H. St.
I desperately want Sticky Rice and XII to prosper in our neighborhood, but both seem to be offering good food, reasonable prices, and downright bad service. Both times we've been to XII, there was a major snafu in the kitchen, including ice cold entrees that we waited over 30 minutes for.
Both times we've been to Sticky Rice, we've gotten some orders rapidly, and some orders have been intolerably slow. I realize that hand-rolled sushi is labor-intensive, but if sushi is the cornerstone of your menu, then you need to figure out a way to get it to the customers in a reasonable amount of time. Simply telling diners that "sushi takes a long time here" is entirely unacceptable.
I intend to go back to both restaurants soon, because their food is tasty, and their success benefits all of us in the neighborhood. But I really hope they iron their kinks out soon.
I went last Tuesday. The sushi was real good! The service needs a lot of improvement, but the staff is super friendly.
I'll vouch for just about everything everyone else has said. Friendly staff. Very long waits for food. Food was overall quite good.
One pet peeve, though (oh, come now, it wouldn't be an online review if there wasn't something to bitch about.....)...
They advertise the shrimp tempura appetizer as being jumbo shrimp. They aren't. They are tiny. For $7 you get six very tiny shrimp, about the size of popcorn shrimp.
This is a recurring problem in DC (true, not a problem on the scale of, say, global warming). All shrimp are not jumbo shrimp. Some are just regular shrimp. And some are popcorn shrimp.
If they are popcorn shrimp, say so. Don't mislead people, especially since there's a good chance they'll be waiting an hour before they see these tiny shrimp anyway.
I've been to Sticky Rice twice. What stands out most to me is that the restaurant just isn't server friendly and they haven't hired servers with enough experience to cope with crowds and ackward layout. First, last week during the rain there were servers slipping and sliding all over the wooden floors. Management needs to invest in a cheap mat w/a sticky (hah-hah) bottom to place in front of the door. Second, get a darned soda gun upstairs. It's entirely unacceptable for the servers to run downstairs to the bar for all beverages, especially ones the servers can pour themselves. Third, the bartenders need some teamwork training. One wripped a server's head after she used one of his beer glasses becuase the servers weren't stocked w/water glasses. After a few months the bartenders can cop a 'tude, but for now they need to just make sure that all customers are happy and coming in regularly. That means working with the silly server girl. Finally, hire a food runner (probably only one is necessary) to take hot food from downstairs upstairs and sushi from upstairs downstairs. If half the complaints on this site are due to timing of food service, having a food runner would solve that problem. That' just my four cents.
We had dinner on Sunday evening. Considering the early hour (6) it was quite packed! I thought the server was knowledgeable, friendly, and relatively efficient. We ordered two apps (bucket o' tots, ooohhhh) which gave us plenty to eat before our entrees came. The sushi and noodles arrived in an appropriate time span.
Just curious: with all the helpful suggestions posted here, has anyone actually talked to the managers? How can they address these issues if they're not brought up?
Went last night -- the upstairs was 90 degrees, and we sat for 20 minutes, and no one came by our table, so we left. The good news: we then went to Granville Moores and had great food and service.
(And for the record, we're white, gay, and not that hip.)
Nerdy gay guys, sweating in a trendy restaurant, waiting for food that never comes....
I think I could craft a porn video around this....
My gf and I had a great time there on opening night. The only problems I've had, oddly enough, have been with carry-out.
The first time I tried to get carry-out, at about 5:30pm, about a half-week after they opened, they told me they were out of carry-out containers. Well, it was very early in their existence; maybe they just underestimated how many containers they'd need. No big deal.
A week and a half later, I tried again. I'd previously been told by someone at SR that carryout went til 11pm -- I got there at 10:45pm, and was told they had just ended carryout for the night. Well, it was just a whim to stop by, not a big deal. Phil (I think it was) suggested phoning in my carryout order in the future -- if I'd phoned it in at 10:15pm, I woulda made it.
So, last night, I phoned my order in at 7:45pm. After phoning it in, I remained at my number (at work) for about another 20-25 minutes, then did the 20 minute drive to Sticky Rice on the way home. When I got there, my order was ready and bagged -- yay! But, when going through the bags to make sure everything was there before giving it to me, they noticed that one item was missing. Looking into it, it turned out that one of the items I'd ordered hadn't been prepared because they were out of a sauce needed for it. When I ordered, they'd taken my phone number "in case we need to get ahold of you", but then didn't use it to ask me if I wanted to amend the order when it turned out that they couldn't actually make the order I'd placed. Instead, they just skipped over that item as if I'd never ordered it. That was bizarre.
Then, the man taking care of me told me that "they should have told you they were done taking carry-out for the night." Huh? At 7:45pm, when I called? "Some nights are worse than others." On the least-busy night I've yet seen them have, at least at 8:30pm when I was there?
Then, when I got home, the sashimi collection had the wrong fish in it -- in particular, no yellowtail at all, even though that's what we ordered.
What we did get was yummy.
Similar as most the bunch. Good food, mediocre service. We sat at the bar and got our bucket-o-tots right away, but my sushi came about 45 minutes before my dates. By the time his showed up he was full from the tots. Bartender was apologetic but I guess I'm used to getting something comp'ed ($2 soda off my bill woulda been nice) when I have to wait that long for my food. I thought maybe that was just a lucrative chain thing but I was at a locally owned joint in SW last night and my pizza was messed up so they took it off the bill. I've been a server before and a little bit off the bill goes a looong way.
HILLMAN!
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i can offer you a camera for making pictures at your streep club party house, for small fee.
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glad u are making good gay ideas for neighborhood.
maybe we make presentation to sticky rice for movie idea?
i am thinking title can be "sticky, sticky, sticky rice and many chopsticks make a big party on the h street".
you know this is winner!
chinqweh!
we make lots of money with the gays!
I think management is really trying to address the service issues. I went last night and our waitress very friendly and attentive (filling and refilling our water glasses regularly), the food came out in 20 minutes (I timed it) and was delicious. To top iot all off, the GM stopped by our table to make sure we were happy with our service. It was, however, pretty early (6 pm) so for those of you who want to try the restaurant, I recommend you go early at least for now. Anyway, it makes sense that they have been overwhelmed but it is obvious that they are listening and trying to respond to complaints as those posted here, which means a lot.
Good service can make and break an establishment. For example, Granville & Moore has some really good staff. Especially Larissa who is genuinely friendly and an excellent bartender. It just adds a very warm vibe to the restaurant. One of the pre-requisites for being a hipster is the better-than-thou not very friendly vibe which over the long run doesn't payout. I do think that owners of Sticky rice are very friendly and welcoming it's just their staff who may need a personality makeover. Agreed that I not as smart, sauve, intelligent, attractive, wealthy and super talented as they are since I am only a below average joe barely able to pay my bills but I still deserve a smile. Just saying.
I love Sticky Rice. I am poor. I cannot afford the $10 beer at GM. :(
Boo!
20min. late on a takeout order that was only supposed to take 30min. to be ready with no offer to compensate for the delay; wrong type of noodles than were ordered; the food was 3 on a scale of 1-10...max.
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