I would recommend NOT buying this. Sticky can't handle servicing on normal nights. Last time I tried to use my Living Social, the service and quality of food drive me to never eat there again. They are dead to me.
@Ess- The service most likely would have been like that even if you didn't use the Living Social deal.
I like Sticky Rice a lot but I learned to only go there at certain times. I've been there on busy nights and the service definitely lacked. "Normal" nights the service is fine. I live extremely close so I do have the option of getting there before the dinner rush. I would still recommend people to purchase this deal but know that this place can get crazy at times.
Oh, Sticky Rice. How I want to love you. Your food is delicious and (realtively) affordable. But your service is terrible. I've been at "normal" times, "busy" times, and "dead" times, and each time I have had varying degrees of bad service. But my wife and I can't resist the draw of tater tots and sushi, so we've gone back a few times - and each time we're at the end of our rope, we have a decent meal with decent service. But that's definitely the exception. I wish Sticky Rice would get its act together, but I guess since it's so crowded all the time, they don't really have an incentive to improve service.
(and yes, I have complained to management via their website - I got no response)
I remember once going to lunch there during the week. It was like I was bothering them coming in. Do they still do lunch?
Last time I went was during the summer for carry out. The hostess was nice and all, but I called ahead, waited 30 mins to arrive, then had to wait another 30 when I got there. It was busy, but damn. Also, I couldn't get a seat so I had to wait at the Red and Black, and went back and forth between two or three drinks until my food was ready. This was on a Thursday.
All that said, I'd go back for half off, but not any other time. Sorry, SR, I tried.
Sometimes I wonder where all the snarky FT commenters come from?
I've always had great service there. (Half the time I sit at the bar where it's kinda tough to get bad service.) And I don't live in the bubble(30rock ref) and I'm not a hipster, and I don't work there.
Also, I couldn't get a seat so I had to wait at the Red and Black, and went back and forth between two or three drinks until my food was ready. This was on a Thursday
Just curious: did you have a cell phone? Every time I've had to wait at R&B or Little Miss Whiskey's, they've called me up to let me know the table was ready.
i've normally had great service. once i went for lunch and it was about 2 hours. the burnout waitress said "sorry" every single time she came to the table. there was no discernable reason, nor was any excuse offered.
also, they now include a 20% tip into you groupon or living social bill.
I told them what I was doing, and there was no mention of leaving a cell phone. But that aside, do you think it reasonable to wait an hour for food?
Maybe it's a new service, that cell phone thing. It would have been very appreciative that night for sure. The problem is, I've given SR more opportunities than I would give other places because I live near it and I want H st to thrive. Out of the ten or so times I've been there, I've yet to have even a halfway good customer service experience there. That last time in the summer I ordered take out because I wanted to avoid their poor service, but SR would not be denied.
But, like a sheep, I plan on using this deal. Maybe they will wow me this time...
I've been there about ten times. The straw that broke the camel's back was when I sat at the sushi bar and watched 4 sushi rollers just watch the orders pour in (literally the tickets were to the ground) and no one moved above a snail's pace. They finally gave me the wrong order after waiting over an hour and a half AT THE BAR. People across the room from me were seated after, ate and then left before I got my food.
Also, it kills me that SR doesn't refill water because they helping to "conserve" water. Or, your waitstaff sucks so bad that they can't keep up with effing water. If you want to save on water, let the yellow mellow. A restaurant of glasses of water is not going to drain the world's resources.
I'd love to love SR. It's one of the few places that my kid sister can eat at. But last time we re-ordered her meal three times before it came out correctly. And then later when we went for a drink at the Fruit Bat we noticed that three of the waiters from SR would jump back-and-forth between SR and the Fruit Bat for shots (admittedly they could have been doing multiple shots of just juice, who knows?). One of them was our waiter, so it explains the lack of attentiveness. I used to booze it up when I waited tables too, but I did it under the same roof as where I worked so if I did like have to do my job...I could.
Had a similarly bad experience a few weeks ago. My wife and I, who have been about 5 or 6 times before, sat at the sushi bar, even though the dining room was about 3/4 full. We ordered drinks, and asked for water on the side. Our drinks came out in about 10 minutes. Not to long, but still a bit longer than most places not being full. We didn't make a big deal of it at the time, except that we still hadn't even ordered our food, and we were going to a show at the Atlas. ( ( keep in mind, we gave ourselves 1 1/2 hours to eat and walk across the street)
So our drinks come out, and we're ready to order, but our waitress says she'll be right back after she delivers more drinks to a table that came in well after us. While she's at their table, she takes their order and is chatting them up for about 2 - 3 minutes or so (clearly people she knew) and then gets back to us for our order. So this is at least 15 - 20 minutes into being there, and we're just ordering. After we order, we ask for water again, because we never got it the first time.
By this time we're just sitting there waiting and watching the sushi guys do their thing. Seeing how long it took for us just to get drinks and order, we scrapped a few things that we would have gotten, because we didn't want to be there forever.
So we're waiting and watching, waiting and watching, waiting and watching some more. I'm seeing orders come through, but it's as if they had a different system all together because the order tickets were just accumulating. As we're waiting, and this is now at least 25 - 30 minutes after being there, we hear one of the staff people talking to the sushi guys about sunny California, and how she misses the warm weather and everything. At that point, production gets even slower, as I see this one dude with cut off shorts (in the winter) going downstairs. So now we're thinking, what gives ? We wait some more, and we're totally done our drinks, still with no water. and no offers of drink refills. The cut off shorts dude comes back a few minutes later with a big cup of soda or something for himself, and we're just sitting there. Meanwhile, California girl is still standing there chatting up the guys as if there was nothing she could be doing. Tables were full by now, and she's standing there being Ms. Chatty. Shorts dude is moving slow as molasses, and orders are still coming in.
I realize this is longer than it needs to be, but we were just blown away with the ineptitude and lackadaisical attitude of the staff there. I'll just get to the end at this point. We get our food 45 -50 minutes after being there ( mind you, it's two sushi rolls and two bowls of soup ). Our waitress finally got us water after 35 -40 minutes of being there. Cali girl is partly working, and mostly talking. The sushi guys were still moving as if time stood still, with the shorts dude moving like there were 7 people in the place, instead of 70. The table that our waitress was chatting up, that came in after us, left about 20 minutes before us, and they had at least 5 things on their table.
Our time for two drinks (would have had more), two sushi rolls, and two bowls of soup.... 1 hour and 15 minutes.
In the end, we're not going back for a long long time, if at all. There are to many new places that are opening, or are about to open, and we don't have the patience for places that clearly don't place any degree of emphasis on customer service or efficiency.
yeah, an hour to pick up food sucks. I haven't been there in probably six months, but it sounds like the service is as bad or worse as it's ever been.
My theory? Up until just recently, it's been one of three places to eat on H Street, so SR has been SLAMMED, continuously for, what, two years now? I think the staff is just shell-shocked. They probably need to just go on paid disability, and management needs to bring in a whole new gang.
It's tough to be a SR customer, but I can't even *imagine* working there. Hopefully with the number of new places opening up, SR will retrench and get its act together.
I've eaten at sticky rice or ordered take out a handful of times and each and every time I experience some of the same things the other commentors have described. I image the owners aren't reading or don't care because I feel like this post is deja vu and other then adding a reservation system nothing has changed.
If a developer is reading this PLEASE OPEN A SUSHI Restaurant on H Street you will have lots of dine in and take out orders!
I used to really, really like Sticky Rice, but the food quality has gone down over time. Service was always a crapshoot there- if you sit at the bar you'll get good service most every time, If you sit at a table you may get good service depending on who your server is and how busy they are, if you order takeout you have a 50/50 chance of it being ready on time when you get there or it being over 30 minutes late; there's no middle ground. You could really tell the difference when Eric left the kitchen. It isn't bad, but I see it more as a going out spot that also serves food rather than a restaurant first.
It's D.C.'s main destination for yuppies who get off on being treated like crap by hipsters! I myself prefer to pay young RAF corpsmen to beat me with a birch cane in the privacy of my own home, but to each their own!
Who is the manager/owner at Sticky Rice? I know who the manager is at pretty much every other H Street place, like Anne at Red Palace, Tony T at Pug, the guys from Taylor, etc. Whenever these negative threads come out about Sticky Rice you never see any of their people jump in to apologize or defend themselves, which leads me to believe they really don't care about the negative feedback.
seine the anacostia, cut it thin, wank onto it, kick a 35 year old white dude pushing a pram in the balls, slap his wife, put that on a menu, wait for said same to order off the SR menu, never deliver that, and, voila, you're gold! PRINT MONEY.
I always tell everyone to get there before 7pm or prepare to hate it.
When I'm there and it's NOT crazy packed, I still LOVE it.
I was surprised they did the living social thing again- they do NOT need more business! If they had made it for m-w only, it could have made more sense.
They sold something like 3000 coupons yesterday, so expect it to be more slammed than usual for the next several weeks!
I love going to Sticky Rice, the food is decent, honestly I wouldn't expect much coming from such a young atmosphere.
I always get the same waitress for a weekly lunch after work, she's charming and accomodating.
Reading about the craze of food taking longer when it is packed - Use your common sense. There's one kitchen and one sushi bar. If you have about 30 tables or so full then it is going to take longer for your food.
29 comments:
I would recommend NOT buying this. Sticky can't handle servicing on normal nights. Last time I tried to use my Living Social, the service and quality of food drive me to never eat there again. They are dead to me.
@Ess- The service most likely would have been like that even if you didn't use the Living Social deal.
I like Sticky Rice a lot but I learned to only go there at certain times. I've been there on busy nights and the service definitely lacked. "Normal" nights the service is fine. I live extremely close so I do have the option of getting there before the dinner rush. I would still recommend people to purchase this deal but know that this place can get crazy at times.
Oh, Sticky Rice. How I want to love you. Your food is delicious and (realtively) affordable. But your service is terrible. I've been at "normal" times, "busy" times, and "dead" times, and each time I have had varying degrees of bad service. But my wife and I can't resist the draw of tater tots and sushi, so we've gone back a few times - and each time we're at the end of our rope, we have a decent meal with decent service. But that's definitely the exception. I wish Sticky Rice would get its act together, but I guess since it's so crowded all the time, they don't really have an incentive to improve service.
(and yes, I have complained to management via their website - I got no response)
I remember once going to lunch there during the week. It was like I was bothering them coming in. Do they still do lunch?
Last time I went was during the summer for carry out. The hostess was nice and all, but I called ahead, waited 30 mins to arrive, then had to wait another 30 when I got there. It was busy, but damn. Also, I couldn't get a seat so I had to wait at the Red and Black, and went back and forth between two or three drinks until my food was ready. This was on a Thursday.
All that said, I'd go back for half off, but not any other time. Sorry, SR, I tried.
dearest sticky rice
how much i want to love you
but your food is average
toasted sesame oil
tater tots from sisco food
no shortage of salt
with a side of indifferent service
Sometimes I wonder where all the snarky FT commenters come from?
I've always had great service there. (Half the time I sit at the bar where it's kinda tough to get bad service.) And I don't live in the bubble(30rock ref) and I'm not a hipster, and I don't work there.
mediocre food at prices just a few dollars above reasonable with slow and indifferent service -- welcome to the District!
snarky FT commenters come from?
the same place as you, my brotha
Also, I couldn't get a seat so I had to wait at the Red and Black, and went back and forth between two or three drinks until my food was ready. This was on a Thursday
Just curious: did you have a cell phone? Every time I've had to wait at R&B or Little Miss Whiskey's, they've called me up to let me know the table was ready.
Like you're not even waiting...
i've normally had great service. once i went for lunch and it was about 2 hours. the burnout waitress said "sorry" every single time she came to the table.
there was no discernable reason, nor was any excuse offered.
also, they now include a 20% tip into you groupon or living social bill.
So how does this work? The coupon is only good on one day and everyone that bought it has to use it that day?
oboe,
I told them what I was doing, and there was no mention of leaving a cell phone. But that aside, do you think it reasonable to wait an hour for food?
Maybe it's a new service, that cell phone thing. It would have been very appreciative that night for sure. The problem is, I've given SR more opportunities than I would give other places because I live near it and I want H st to thrive. Out of the ten or so times I've been there, I've yet to have even a halfway good customer service experience there. That last time in the summer I ordered take out because I wanted to avoid their poor service, but SR would not be denied.
But, like a sheep, I plan on using this deal. Maybe they will wow me this time...
SR adds an automatic 20% tip to your bill with Living Social coupon? No wonder their service sucks.
@odd -
I've been there about ten times. The straw that broke the camel's back was when I sat at the sushi bar and watched 4 sushi rollers just watch the orders pour in (literally the tickets were to the ground) and no one moved above a snail's pace. They finally gave me the wrong order after waiting over an hour and a half AT THE BAR. People across the room from me were seated after, ate and then left before I got my food.
Also, it kills me that SR doesn't refill water because they helping to "conserve" water. Or, your waitstaff sucks so bad that they can't keep up with effing water. If you want to save on water, let the yellow mellow. A restaurant of glasses of water is not going to drain the world's resources.
Sorry. Apparently, SR gets me worked up.
I've been there once, about a month ago. Busy Sunday night. We made reservations for two at open table.
We were seated in 5 minutes, had a delicious meal, and were out in an hour. Our waitress was great.
We also used a living social or groupon or whatever, and they didn't tack on the 20%, so that must be really new.
I'd love to love SR. It's one of the few places that my kid sister can eat at. But last time we re-ordered her meal three times before it came out correctly. And then later when we went for a drink at the Fruit Bat we noticed that three of the waiters from SR would jump back-and-forth between SR and the Fruit Bat for shots (admittedly they could have been doing multiple shots of just juice, who knows?). One of them was our waiter, so it explains the lack of attentiveness. I used to booze it up when I waited tables too, but I did it under the same roof as where I worked so if I did like have to do my job...I could.
Had a similarly bad experience a few weeks ago. My wife and I, who have been about 5 or 6 times before, sat at the sushi bar, even though the dining room was about 3/4 full. We ordered drinks, and asked for water on the side. Our drinks came out in about 10 minutes. Not to long, but still a bit longer than most places not being full. We didn't make a big deal of it at the time, except that we still hadn't even ordered our food, and we were going to a show at the Atlas. ( ( keep in mind, we gave ourselves 1 1/2 hours to eat and walk across the street)
So our drinks come out, and we're ready to order, but our waitress says she'll be right back after she delivers more drinks to a table that came in well after us. While she's at their table, she takes their order and is chatting them up for about 2 - 3 minutes or so (clearly people she knew) and then gets back to us for our order. So this is at least 15 - 20 minutes into being there, and we're just ordering. After we order, we ask for water again, because we never got it the first time.
By this time we're just sitting there waiting and watching the sushi guys do their thing. Seeing how long it took for us just to get drinks and order, we scrapped a few things that we would have gotten, because we didn't want to be there forever.
So we're waiting and watching, waiting and watching, waiting and watching some more. I'm seeing orders come through, but it's as if they had a different system all together because the order tickets were just accumulating. As we're waiting, and this is now at least 25 - 30 minutes after being there, we hear one of the staff people talking to the sushi guys about sunny California, and how she misses the warm weather and everything. At that point, production gets even slower, as I see this one dude with cut off shorts (in the winter) going downstairs. So now we're thinking, what gives ? We wait some more, and we're totally done our drinks, still with no water. and no offers of drink refills. The cut off shorts dude comes back a few minutes later with a big cup of soda or something for himself, and we're just sitting there. Meanwhile, California girl is still standing there chatting up the guys as if there was nothing she could be doing. Tables were full by now, and she's standing there being Ms. Chatty. Shorts dude is moving slow as molasses, and orders are still coming in.
I realize this is longer than it needs to be, but we were just blown away with the ineptitude and lackadaisical attitude of the staff there. I'll just get to the end at this point. We get our food 45 -50 minutes after being there ( mind you, it's two sushi rolls and two bowls of soup ). Our waitress finally got us water after 35 -40 minutes of being there. Cali girl is partly working, and mostly talking. The sushi guys were still moving as if time stood still, with the shorts dude moving like there were 7 people in the place, instead of 70. The table that our waitress was chatting up, that came in after us, left about 20 minutes before us, and they had at least 5 things on their table.
Our time for two drinks (would have had more), two sushi rolls, and two bowls of soup.... 1 hour and 15 minutes.
In the end, we're not going back for a long long time, if at all. There are to many new places that are opening, or are about to open, and we don't have the patience for places that clearly don't place any degree of emphasis on customer service or efficiency.
So long SR
8th & El:
yeah, an hour to pick up food sucks. I haven't been there in probably six months, but it sounds like the service is as bad or worse as it's ever been.
My theory? Up until just recently, it's been one of three places to eat on H Street, so SR has been SLAMMED, continuously for, what, two years now? I think the staff is just shell-shocked. They probably need to just go on paid disability, and management needs to bring in a whole new gang.
It's tough to be a SR customer, but I can't even *imagine* working there. Hopefully with the number of new places opening up, SR will retrench and get its act together.
I've eaten at sticky rice or ordered take out a handful of times and each and every time I experience some of the same things the other commentors have described. I image the owners aren't reading or don't care because I feel like this post is deja vu and other then adding a reservation system nothing has changed.
If a developer is reading this PLEASE OPEN A SUSHI Restaurant on H Street you will have lots of dine in and take out orders!
I used to really, really like Sticky Rice, but the food quality has gone down over time. Service was always a crapshoot there- if you sit at the bar you'll get good service most every time, If you sit at a table you may get good service depending on who your server is and how busy they are, if you order takeout you have a 50/50 chance of it being ready on time when you get there or it being over 30 minutes late; there's no middle ground. You could really tell the difference when Eric left the kitchen. It isn't bad, but I see it more as a going out spot that also serves food rather than a restaurant first.
It's D.C.'s main destination for yuppies who get off on being treated like crap by hipsters! I myself prefer to pay young RAF corpsmen to beat me with a birch cane in the privacy of my own home, but to each their own!
Who is the manager/owner at Sticky Rice? I know who the manager is at pretty much every other H Street place, like Anne at Red Palace, Tony T at Pug, the guys from Taylor, etc. Whenever these negative threads come out about Sticky Rice you never see any of their people jump in to apologize or defend themselves, which leads me to believe they really don't care about the negative feedback.
anon 8:23
yes, the 20% thing is relatively new. within the past month.
the waitress told me that they far too often get tipped on the discounted price, not the bill total.
come on, this place is for the kids... why would anyone who actually likes sushi get it here?
thug,
where would you recommend?
seine the anacostia, cut it thin, wank onto it, kick a 35 year old white dude pushing a pram in the balls, slap his wife, put that on a menu, wait for said same to order off the SR menu, never deliver that, and, voila, you're gold! PRINT MONEY.
I always tell everyone to get there before 7pm or prepare to hate it.
When I'm there and it's NOT crazy packed, I still LOVE it.
I was surprised they did the living social thing again- they do NOT need more business! If they had made it for m-w only, it could have made more sense.
They sold something like 3000 coupons yesterday, so expect it to be more slammed than usual for the next several weeks!
I love going to Sticky Rice, the food is decent, honestly I wouldn't expect much coming from such a young atmosphere.
I always get the same waitress for a weekly lunch after work, she's charming and accomodating.
Reading about the craze of food taking longer when it is packed - Use your common sense. There's one kitchen and one sushi bar. If you have about 30 tables or so full then it is going to take longer for your food.
Some people just like to complain.
"Some people just like to complain."
and some business will take those complains and do something useful with them.
i posted one complaint. i felt screwed over one time. piss off if you think that's because i like to complain.
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