Sticky Rice, 12th and H Streets NE, Atlas District - Sushi, Pan-Asian, and American also in Baltimore and Richmond

[wdcbrucefan]

Sticky Rice will be the 2nd new sit down place on H St., after Granville Moore's, and tonight there's a free sushi tasting at Rock & Roll Hotel.

[wdcbrucefan]

They were giving out menus at the H St. Festival this weekend and saying the opening is now planned for December.

[JoeHoya]

Needless to say, the opening has been pushed back again.

But I'm happy to say they've got a lot more of their hardware in place now (peeking through the windows from time to time), so they may be serious about their April-May opening plan.

I'll believe it when I see it, but I'm eagerly awaiting it.

[wdcbrucefan]

Heard or saw recently that Sticky Rice will be coming soon.... hopefully for real this time.

[ol_ironstomach]

*bump*

Did anybody make it to their grand opening today? (Which hypothetically should be going on for another two hours if their hours of operation are correct...)

[New Foodie]

Made it to Sticky Rice last night for the first time. It's a pretty small space, and we must've come just as a bunch of people got seated cause it took about 45 minutes to wait for table for 2 (and we were next to the top of the list). But we were able to grab a couple seats at the bar to pass the time.

One thing we found out as the massive thunderstorm raged outside (we were lucky enough to come into the restaurant before the storm and leave after it was over) is that Sticky Rice offers $1 cans of PBR when it's raining! Unfortunately we were more in the mood for wine.

Our server was a very nice and enthusiastic, but somewhat flaky girl. We ordered 6 things off the sushi menu, but ended up only getting 4 of them. I was actually somewhat grateful for the snafu though since we couldn't even finish the 4 we got. It also took a while to get our check once we were done, but we weren't in a hurry, and I'll give them some slack since they are so new.

We started with edamame which was good, but nothing out of the ordinary. Next came out an order of Sticky Balls (Tuna, crab, siracha, rice in an inari pocket deep fried w/ scallions, wasabi dressing and eel sauce). These were basically two oblong balls that were each cut into 3 pieces. Very large bites, but really good with a nice kick to them.

Our 3 rolls that came out later were a Rainbow Roll (An inside-out roll with lump-crab meat, avocado, cucumbers, tobiko topped with tuna, yellowtail, salmon and red snapper sashimi), a Snap, Crackle, Pop Roll (Large spicy roll with fresh salmon, cucumbers, jalapenos, tobiko and tempura crunchies) and a Spicy Tuna Roll. My favorite was probably the Snap, Crackle, Pop since it was different than the usual. Nice bite from fresh jalapenos and a good crunch from the tempura. Spicy Tuna is typically my favorite sushi and this was a good version, although a bit loosely packed (fell apart a bit on transport). I'm not as enamored with Rainbow Rolls usually, and although this was good, it was my least favorite of the 3.

Overall, I'd definitely head back. It's nice to have a decent sushi option on the Hill!

[samsonsizzler]

I live in right around the corner from sticky rice and was excited to eat at a local place that is walkable... My girlfriend and I went to eat there and had..... Hands down the worst dining experience/meal I have ever had in my life...

We sat at the bar this is a Sunday at 8:30. Ordered a first course of fried tofu, 1 bottle of unfiltered sake later... nothing... we asked the bartender about the appetizer she said 10-15 minutes, but then brought some of the nigri sushi that I ordered and a bowl of mongolian beef(our entrees)... the sushi rice was basically raw-crunchy and the fish slimy... My girlfriend on the other hand had the mongolian beef it included Snow peas, that had black spots over all of them... Im an executive chef of a restaurant and my girlfriend has cooked in 3-michelin restaurants in Paris and Burgundy, we know what an old diseased snow pea looks like.

The manager/owner came and talked to us to see if everything was ok, we told him of the rotten food that was served to us, his explaination, "Oh yeah, that's black pepper. It's charred into the snow peas" This after he asked if the snow peas were edamame.

So the guy lied to my face and didn't even know what the damn vegetable was.

Lindsay one of the servers that apparently came up from the richmond location to "fix things up" tried to help and was very excellent, if you eat there ask for her section.

So if you go to Sticky Rice ask for the owner and if you can see his face past the blindingly florescent polo shirt he's more than likely wearing, throw your drink in his lying face.

60 bucks later with no compensation...

absolutely ridiculous,

we should have gone with our original choice "Horace and Dickies Fried Seafood" at least I know they care about the food they serve to the paying customers, and it's damn good.

extremely frustrated...

-Logan

[DonRocks]

The sushi bar at Sticky Rice is a joke, with ugly-looking seafood being manipulated by second-rate amateurs. I waited for my Salmon Sushi ($5.00 for two pieces) this evening, and saw one of three distressingly skeevy-looking dudes pick up the salmon, pick a large black fleck off of it, and proceed to make my order. In its defense, I've had worse sushi rice before, and this at least had some ill-applied vinegar and wasn't completely turned into porridge, but the salmon itself was painful. There was a second, smaller black fleck that made it onto my (carryout) order, and I examined it, praying it wasn't what I thought it might be. It smelled like sesame, so I'm assuming it was an errant seed.

Children should not be making and serving sushi.

[lion]

I ate there before a dance performance nearby. While the decor was interesting and beer decent, the sushi was not sushi grade quality.

At the time, my remark was the place would be great if they just made it a yaki-tori place like the ones at St. Mark Place in NYC. Owners of Sticky Rice please visit yakitoritaisho.com

[tentimesodds]

The sushi bar at Sticky Rice is a joke, with ugly-looking seafood being manipulated by second-rate amateurs. I waited for my Salmon Sushi ($5.00 for two pieces) this evening, and saw one of three distressingly skeevy-looking dudes pick up the salmon, pick a black fleck off of it, and proceed to make my order. In its defense, I've had worse sushi rice before, and this at least had some ill-applied vinegar and wasn't completely turned into porridge, but the salmon itself was painful. There was a second black fleck that made it onto my (carryout) order, and I examined it, praying it wasn't what I thought it might be. It smelled like sesame, so I'm assuming it was an errant seed.

Children should not be making and serving sushi.

Though I am not a sushi guy, the food and service I've had at Sticky Rice in Richmond has been terrible. I don't know why so many people were excited when this place opened in NE. The tater tots thing is so overdone at this point that they should really just move on to some other hipster-friendly fried item.

[cgarden]

I wish I'd seen this thread before trying Sticky Rice a couple nights ago. I think its the first time I've been angry about a restaurant meal the next morning. On the upside, our waitress was friendly enough, though the service was incredibly slow (I got the impression this was mostly the fault of the kitchen). As others have mentioned, food came out in a haphazard order, with some people getting food long after others for no apparent reason. A spicy tuna roll and a couple vegetarian rolls were basically inoffensive; yellowtail sashimi was bland. Rice and/or noodle dishes: were cooked within an inch of their lives; the noodles they call "soba" definitely aren't; the sauce was gloppy and too sweet; and the shrimp and vegetable add-ins clearly came frozen out of a bag -- I think we would have been better off with $1.99 frozen noodle bowls from Trader Joe's. Also, another table ordered sake bombs that were delivered with a loud bang of a gong, which pretty much made us jump out of our skins. I cannot imagine this place gets repeat business.

[monsterriffs]

I cannot imagine this place gets repeat business.

The wait last night at around 8 PM was an hour and fifteen minutes. So, we packed up and went to Granville's instead where we got seats at the bar and better food.

[FunnyJohn]

My daughter, who attends VCU in Richmond and has a close friend working at the Sticky Rice there (in the kitchen, I believe) says:

"I mean, you don't go to Sticky Rice for the food, that's for sure. You go for the drinking and the tots and the people."

[ktmoomau]

My daughter, who attends VCU in Richmond and has a close friend working at the Sticky Rice there (in the kitchen, I believe) says:

"I mean, you don't go to Sticky Rice for the food, that's for sure. You go for the drinking and the tots and the people."

And I think the Richmond location has better food... I don't know what that means for the DC one. There is a very lively bar scene at the Richmond location

[PigglyWiggly]

This has a lively bar scene, just don't expect to carry on a conversation with your date.

[synaesthesia]

Note that this place should be recategorized under multiple locations. (There's another in B-more, aside from Richmond, though you'd never be able to tell from the website until you check out the logo.)

Even with the additional restaurants that are now on H Street, the wait at Sticky Rice around 7pm is 1.5 hours on a Saturday night. I've heard it's not any better on a Thursday. The EXCESSIVELY loud music forced all the surrounding tables to shout, while my friend and I (there on a Groupon) finished our food in about half an hour due to our unwillingness to strain to hear each other. The sushi was mediocre; one of the rolls a friend ordered with fish and cream cheese tasted like rice + cream cheese. I would have been happier eating at Popeye's, and am happy that at least during our wait we ordered some of good sweet potato fries at Fruit Bat and I nabbed a carnitas taco from Tacos Impala.

If every night were as hopping at the big party nights on H Street, some restaurants could really be raking it with the current lack of good sit down eating options aside from Granville's (though I've heard positive things about Smith Commons). What a waste.

[wlohmann]

Sticky Rice - Out of every three meals I have here one is good, one is mediocre at best, and one is terrible. Depending on where we are in the cycle I am either boycotting the place or am willing to give it another shot. Since, for right now, it is the only sushi joint remotely near where I live, that cycle will continue. Once the new sushi place opens up further down the strip, I'm hoping that they'll blow me away and knock Sticky Rice out for good. That, or Sticky Rice starts delivering consistently good food and service. The former is more likely.

Re: Sticky Rice - - couldn't help but second the "better chance at great food than great service" theme....I hadn't read the reviews so had missed the threads here but mostly in Yelp on the theme of indifferent, pretentious, hipster service......so I was a bit surprised to encounter it in person. Called just before noon on a whim to order noodles for a brown bag lunch....lingered in office (15th and G NW) for a bit then drop over with a friend at 12:15 or so with thought he'd run in and grab the goods and we'd get back in time for 12:30 meeting.....we drove, he ran in....and disappeared from face of earth...i sat in front of hydrant with flashers on wondering whether perhaps he'd been kidnapped and dragged out the kitchen exit...waited till 12:35 or so and ran in to the sight of my friend standing alone by the bar...no other customers in sight and a brown paper bag with a receipt on it (paid as I had paid over the phone) that simply said "0/4 items delivered"....and that told the story.....our food had, inexplicably, not been started, 35 minutes after having phone-ordered for takeout....we were able to capture the sympathy of a young tattoo'ed server who...after I ran back to rescue my car, apparently hovered over the cooks while they prepared our noodles and delivered them just after 12:45...i'll leave it to others whether you think 45 minutes (and only after complaining) to fill a noodle takeout order is excessive...it sure SEEMED so...and the utter cluelessness (and, frankly, unsanitary-seeming conditions) I encountered when I ran in there...vacant stares....i must admit....exacerbated it....anyhow, now that I've vented, my "Dirty Vegan" noodles and Tofu Bites were delicious and my friends enjoyed the sesame chicken noodles and Singapore Noodles....so...that's a long way of saying...."me too" on the food vs. service issue for Sticky Rice- -will post in a bit on the contrast, service-wise, I encounted at the new Pho Factory in Alexandria which was an absolute delight both Pho-wise and service-wise.....

[dcs]

As reported by the Washington Business Journal: Sticky Rice co-owner Joey Belcher found dead

[ktmoomau]

I couldn't find a topic on Sticky Rice under the DC Dining Guide or Multiple Locations.  And since even Applebee's has it's own thread, I thought Sticky Rice should have one too.  I think the Richmond location is better than the DC location.  I went here with SIL who was in the mood for tater tots.  Their tater tots are addictive, but greasy, I don't prefer their dipping sauce and rather have ketchup.  They mainly have kind of weird sushi with their special rolls being just absolutely huge.  I got their tuna roll, avocado roll and a Snap Crackle and Pop roll which had cucumber, jalapeno and salmon.  I also got a house salad.  The salad was fine.  The sushi was just really big, it had a lot of rice, and I thought the rice could have been a little softer.  The special roll just had so many pieces and it had rice on the inside and outside of the roll.  Nothing was bad, but it wasn't the greatest sushi either.  I got the lemonade with sweet tea vodka and it was just overwhelmingly sweet, you could tell no one actually cares about making a balanced good cocktail.  I switched to sake afterwards.  

[Mark Dedrick]

I find, at the DC location, that about a third of the time I enjoy myself and the food, a third of the time my experience is pretty mediocre, and a third of the time the experience is generally terrible. So I go through large stretches where I just won't visit at all. 

[DonRocks]

I couldn't find a topic on Sticky Rice under the DC Dining Guide or Multiple Locations.

Sorry, it's under Pan-Asian.

Was Erik Bruner-Yang associated with Sticky Rice somehow? I could have sworn that before Toki Underground opened, he was doing something with Sticky Rice. Well anyway, I haven't been here in years because of one bum experience, long ago. Sort of like with Momiji - I'm not going back until I hear something that draws me back.

[Kev29]

Was Erik Bruner-Yang associated with Sticky Rice somehow? I could have sworn that before Toki Underground opened, he was doing something with Sticky Rice.

Yep, he was GM of the H St location when they opened (Carman).

[clchurch]

Sorry, it's under Pan-Asian.

Was Erik Bruner-Yang associated with Sticky Rice somehow? I could have sworn that before Toki Underground opened, he was doing something with Sticky Rice. Well anyway, I haven't been here in years because of one bum experience, long ago. Sort of like with Momiji - I'm not going back until I hear something that draws me back.

I remember having a long talk with him when he was working behind the bar one night circa 2008.