Kuma Sushi-Noodles & Bar

I ordered via OrderUp. Sushi did not taste fresh. The rice was dry and the soup was cold. I would not recommend this place and will never order from them again. Waste of money.

The worst sushi I have ever had. The moment my wife and I walked in and smelled the rancid fryer oil we should have left… Our clothes still reek.
The sushi was tough, not fresh, and hastily assembled. Give me a dull knife and a cat fish and I could make better sushi than these guys. The shrimp dumplings were actually pretty good, but everything else was regrettable.
Had a stomach ache for the rest of the day. Steer clear of this place.

Kuma is a very good tiny place with quiet ambience and their customer service is amazing! My friend and I shared some sushi rolls and salmon nigiri. They were more fulfilling than we thought they would be!
It was a cold winter day when we entered; the guy immediately offered some hot tea. We had a wonderful experience so far. I would definitely return for some of their noodles, green tea mochi, tonkatsu and sashimi. :)
Keep up the good work, guys!
And keep supplying fresh seafood.

Interesting mix of Japanese sushi dishes and Korean traditional dishes like Katsu and Bibimbap. Saw that they had phở but I figured I’d stay away from that unless I knew the owners were Viet. Had the bento box and bibimbap here in the past, and they’re comparable to those in Northern Virginia.

The owner is very kind and nice, but the prices are higher than what I’m willing to pay for the food. Ramen was weirdly tasted, and the pork in it was too hard to bite.

This is a great little place. My fiancé and I have dined in here several times, and while the service is ok and the restaurant itself shows its age, the food is really good and rather cheap. We have had everything from sushi, ramen, bulgogi, to fried rice and other gems on the menu.
This particular review comes after we used Order Up to get delivery on a busy Saturday UVA Home game night. It took a total of about 45 minutes from ordering online to delivery from Order Up. Most of the time ordering delivery gets you less than perfect food, which is understandable as most stuff should be served fresh and table side. Our food from Kuma was every bit as good as if we had eaten it in the restaurant. Heck, it was even just as good for leftovers the next day.

Came here for a dinner date with a friend. This was my 3^rd time after the restaurant changed from Sushi Love to Kuma. I ordered Seafood Udon and my friend ordered Soon Tofu Jjigae. Seafood Udon was on point as it had lots of mixed seafood and Udon noodle was super chewy and yummy. I will try the spicy seafod udon (jjambbong)next time. The server offered us Kimchi as a complimentary side dish and it was pretty good!
Pros:
Decent prices (most are $ 12 for dinner)
Good service
Has decent Korean dishes (I’m Korean and I miss Korean food at UVa so it’s a plus)
Cons:
I could taste MSG
I would come again and I recommend to people who like Korean food or wants to give it a try.

I love Korean food but sadly there is no authentic Korean food in the Charlottesville. Sometimes if u are craving abt Korean food you can have a visit. But certainly just mediocre food.

Ramen. Tonkatsu. Sushi rolls. Bento boxes. Mochi. Sojutinis. Sake bombs. Everything here is yummy beyond words. Steve is awesome too. Also, I drove back here from Maryland just because I wanted tonkatsu. Yes, 240 miles round trip for tonkatsu. If that doesn’t say love, then I don’t know what does.

Ordered the rainbow roll, the Alex roll, and the tuna roll. None were good — all ended up in the trash. My boyfriend actually had to spit a piece of his out it was so bad tasting. Too bad — we really wanted to like this place, getting sushi delivered sounded great!

There are many things I like and dislike about Kuma.
Pros: super friendly owner, nice location on the Corner, decent Asian food, they have takoyaki (BIG plus! Pretty difficult to find in general) and ramen
Cons: price is above average than what I expect to pay for quality/​amount, ramen can be a bit strange (not really authentic Japanese ramen)
They have karaōke here as well that you can book for large groups. It’s usually not very busy, and they have seating in the back of the restaurant as well. In general the food is just alright, nothing special about it. My biggest problem with Kuma are the prices. Takoyaki, although a rarity, is something like $ 7 here for 5 – 6 pieces, which I think is ridiculous. Other entrees are well above $ 10. I think they have a lunch special with bentos but I’m not sure, I’ve never gone here for lunch. I’d only come back when I’m really craving Asian food and can’t get it anywhere else.

This place is so sad, the ramen was so bad that you’re better off getting a cup of noodles from Kroger’s. Tonkatsu is suppose to be breaded pork. Well, I got two pieces of half dollar size of slice pork. The price was real high too, for and small amount of noodles and bean sprouts. I had to let the people know you’re better off at a Phở’s noodle place.

We came here as a group of four on a weekday night, and were seated immediately.
Food: We ordered Three Amigo sushi roll, bento box with bulgogi, spicy chicken hibachi, and spicy dukbokki. Everything was really yummy — definitely recommend. For dessert, we ordered monaka, which is like a waffle ice cream.
Service: Everyone was really attentive and friendly!
¹⁰⁄₁₀ would recommend for date night or groups!

Ate here this afternoon with my boyfriend and had a pretty decent lunch.
He ordered the Spicy Seafood Udon and I had the lunch special bento box with Tonkatsu. The Tonkatsu (breaded fried pork) was OK, the meat was flavorful but a bit on the dry side. I wouldn’t necessarily order that item again. The side items such as the shumai were pretty typical, and again, nothing out of the ordinary.
On the other hand the Spicy Seafood Udon was awesome. The broth was extremely flavorful and they didn’t hold back on the portion size. He was given an ample serving of noodles, as well as mussels in the bowl. I liked my boyfriend’s dish so much I ended up trading bites in the end.
Overall, I’d say this place is good for a bite between classes or work. For the price, you get a pretty good serving size for the soups. Depending on what you order will determine how you feel about the food. I would recommend checking out the Udon dishes. I will happily try their soups the next time I come back.
I gave them an initial rating of 3 stars because while I enjoyed my boyfriend’s dish, I felt my own could have had some improvement. While I factored in additional elements such as the service (good), and the atmosphere (decent), the food is what I base the majority of my review on.

4 dining experiences at Kuma later, this place is decidedly mediocre.
The first time I ordered delivery — split a couple «special» rolls, which were ironically nothing special, and the chicken teriyaki, which was decent but wouldn’t order again.
Spicy miso ramen — not sure it lives up to the hype but definitely exactly what you want out of a bowl of ramen. Very warm and comforting, not for the faint-​hearted — this one’s spicy! The price is steep for what it is, but that’s Charlottesville corner dining for you.
Vegetable udon — most solid menu item I’ve had to date. On a rainy day when you’re stuck in bed, impeded by mounds of tissues, this and a spork is all you need. Great broth that actually tastes like they make it in house.
Spicy salmon roll — measly measly portions of the rolled contents (salmon, cucumber, requested avocado). Felt like this should have been renamed to rice roll with small sliver of salmon and greens. Tasted fresh, but then again, who am I to say — I could barely even tell the salmon was there.

I regularly visit Kuma to satisfy my Korean food and sushi cravings! It’s about time that I write a review for them. First off, the family owned restaurant has a great manager, Steve. Every time that I visit the restaurant, he remembers me by name and we have a great conversation. He always makes sure that the food coming out of the kitchen is as good as always. The waitresses are also very friendly and promptly provide free hot tea, which is so nice during the winter time!
I’ve had multiple items on the Kuma menu. Their takoyaki is one of my favorites! It’s crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside, with plenty of octopus. Also, the kimchi fried rice is a classic Korean dish that never disappoints. The chef makes fresh kimchi and I can definitely tell! It doesn’t taste odd like the kimchi you can buy at American grocery stores. I really enjoy the bibimbop and dolsot bimbimbop. I prefer the dolsot though, because the hot stone bowl makes the rice crispy and it keeps the food warm while I’m eating! If you want soups, their soontofu soup, spicy seafood udon, and tonkatsu ramen (which isn’t advertised) are delectable! Go for the ramen if you’re not into spicy food or ask for the others to be mild.
But my absolute favorite are the rolls at Kuma! I love the Yellowstone and pink lady rolls. The Yellowstone has salmon, whereas the pink lady has tuna. They both have shrimp tempura, spicy fish, cucumber, and masago! Mmm I’m craving the rolls right now. The rainbow roll is also great! It’s very colorful, as you would expect, and it’s fresh and a great option for warmer weather. Get a seaweed salad on the side too and it’ll be such a clean and delicious meal!
Definitely go to Kuma if you’re in the neighborhood!

This is one of my favorite Asian restaurants in Charlottesville. Their lunch and dinner is the same menu but they do have awesome lunch specials that change M-​F. The first time I came here, I got the spicy pork which was pretty on point. Most people love the bibimbap which is one of the best I’ve had. What I usually come here for is the Spicy Seafood Udon WHICH EVERYONE HAS TO TRY. I order it extra spicy but normal spicy is probably enough for most people. It has so much seafood like mussels, scallops and octopus. I typically don’t like udon or ramen but both dishes are superb here. I crave their udon at least once or twice a month. I usually hate ramen in general but the Korean ramen is so so good!!!
My friends have tried the spider roll sushi (soft shell crab), UVA roll and bulgogi and said those were also great. That’s probably the next things on my list to try.
Oh and night time: definitely get the sake bombs. It’s a fun time.
The staff is also very cool. The waitresses are very friendly and quick in bringing out food. The managers are cool and have been the server a few times. Steve is a really funny and nice guy. Overall great energy from the staff and quality food for the price.

My group and I were celebrating a friend’s birthday and so we decided to come here for her birthday dinner. We had made a reservation and when we came in it seemed there was a miscommunication about the reservation but it was easily settled out and we were seated in nearly no time.
If anything, the service here is pretty awesome, considering the fact that the owner is a really chill and funny guy. At the end of our meal we even received free mochi since it was our friend’s birthday. Free stuff is much appreciated.
As for the food, pretty good! Nothing was bad although there were some items that weren’t the BEST but still pretty good nonetheless.

Let me preface this by stating the following:
*My friend and I ate during a busy lunch hour within the first month of it opening.
*I’ve pretty picky about sushi because of what I’ve experienced in recent travels to Hawaii, Cali and Vancouver where fish is fresh.
*I’m always wary of Asian restaurants that claim to do more than one type of Asian food well (e.g.Korean and Japanese).
Our service was inconsistent as we started with one server and then got another mid-​way through the meal. My friend and I were seated, received water and menus in a timely fashion, but the food took awhile (along with the lemon I asked for my water), we didn’t get separate small plates so that we could easily portion out our shared sushi rolls, and we had trouble getting a server’s attention during the meal — when my friend found a fly in her soy sauce.
The server was shocked but didn’t have a prepared reaction. After what felt like a long moment of silence, he took the bottle of soy sauce and the little bowls of it away from the table and apologized with an explanation that we were sitting near the open windows where the fly must have entered. He did also eventually offer my friend a new dish at her choosing (chicken teriyaki) on the house. Although, it would have probably been better just to comp her first meal.
The sushi we had was decent (went with the suggested Treasure Island, along with a Spicy Tuna Roll and a Caterpillar Roll). The Treasure Island was the most unique combo of texture and flavor out of the three with the crispy sweet potato on top.

Service:
For seeming understaffed, this place had quality service – the manager himself took care of us from getting us seated to taking our orders and getting the check. In addition, he was a genuinely nice guy. The owner of the restaurant was also nice, and pretty funny too.
Food:
Pretty good. Not just the fresh taste, but the presentation was well done too!
Price:
This place is expensive – $ 17.95 for the dragon roll – most places in NYC don’t even charge that much for the same dish.
Overall good experience!