Rawbar

Their menu is not terribly clear. Ordered the spider roll, came spicy and fried when it definitely didn’t say that on the menu. I personally hate spicy food, and didn’t want fried soft shelled crab, so I didn’t enjoy this roll one bit. Seriously, make your menus accurate!

I love the Rawbar my boyfriend and I go often when we want a sushi night. One thing I’ve noticed though is my drinks aren’t filled as much as I’d like and I almost always have to ask for sugar for my tea, and they forget to give you wasabi sometimes. Really like the miso soup and the rolls are delicious! Just wish the waiters were a little more attentive with just coming by and filling up your drinks. I don’t want to be asked for a refill unless it’s beer or another alcohol beverage. Give me my tea!

Great atmosphere and great service, but I found the sushi to be very overpriced and not very tasty.

I met my spouse here for lunch. We ordered one roll each at the same time. He had a half hour before he had to leave. His roll came 15 minutes before mine, and he was finished before mine arrived. We didn’t say anything. He had to leave to get back to work as my roll came.
I asked a heavy-​set server for the check as she was wiping down a table. She looked at me and said «just as soon as I’m done.» This seemed to oddly sound like I was inconveniencing her. I said, «I didn’t expect it instantly!»
She asked, «Is there a problem?» I told her, «yes, my partner got his food, ate it and had to leave me here.» She replied, «Well he was here waiting for you…»
Seriously?
Aside from Jumbo’s odd behavior, the prices seemed too high, the portions too small, and the acoustics too loud and tinny. This was not someplace I’ll come back to.

This is not a traditional sushi restaurant.
Having said that, the quality of the food was fantastic. You pay for quality because the portion sizes are small for the price. The sushi was fresh and the ambiance in the restaurant was nice.

Service was awful. Waited for my order to be taken for more than 20 minutes, while people who had been seated long after I had got to order before I did. The server was not friendly. The sushi wasn’t bad but the experience was horrid. I will not be returning any time soon.

Excellent food! Wow, great flavors and fun desserts. Good service and nice atmosphere. We will go back!

Came here by myself on my last day in town. This place is very modern and stylish, unfortunately the space is rather small and so it filled up very quickly. I sat at the bar so it wasn’t too bad, but at about 4:00 PM, the restaurant was almost at capacity. The wait staff (and a woman who was out of uniform, so I assume she was a manager) was very attentive and polite, and my drink was never empty.
If you are a fan of deep-​fried, saucy, complex rolls, you might be satisfied by one of the tempura rolls. I got the North County roll, which was delicately fried and delicious. But generally, Rawbar is known for trendy, fusion-​style rolls with simple ingredients, and stylish preparation. For example, the Sake Sunrise roll, which is a specialty nigiri. I wasn’t a fan of the calamari salad, nor the thickness of the cut of fish. The specialty nigiri is only two pieces, but they are HUGE!
A little on the expensive side, I’d recommend coming during happy hour (Monday-​Friday 3 – 5 PM) and ordering drinks and small plates. Otherwise, it’s not too exciting or flavorful for the price.

Me and my friend went there, and the service wasn’t bad, but the food was awful. 4 pieces of sushi for $ 7? and it was flavorless. The miso soup wasn’t that good and the veggie tempura was soggy. After eating me and my friend both got sick and puked. Won’t be going there again.

Smelled a little fishy when we walked in, but I was soon nose-​blind to it. Fresh fish should never smell fishy. The restaurant doesn’t seat many people and we were between a family with a screaming toddler and a table of loud and drunk businessmen. Service seemed slow but we weren’t in a hurry.
With that said, the food was decent. We had a couple of rolls and calamari. The calamari was not the best I’ve had, but it was good enough to order again. The breading was good and not too heavy. It came with a creamy dipping sauce that is a good complement to it, since the breading is sort of bland.
I had a sip of my husband’s beer when it came out and it was warmer than I like. I guess the glass was warm when it was poured.
The rolls were good but nothing that absolutely stands out. I would try this place again and choose a different time other than an evening dinner rush and try some different rolls.

Some of the best sushi in Chico! If you can make it in time for happy hour you have to try the Korean tacos!

came up here to see ducks & geese and swans in a hurry with G from Berkeley onTuesday 1/18/16.saw «Raw Bar» from across Broadway & thought it was a vegan raw food joint. passed it by… looking for a late lunch around 4pm nothing much open except Burgers & Brew across from Raw Bar. thought to myself love some sushi. so on a whim crossed over and saw whoa! it was a Japanese sushi & etc spot. no Japanese guys at the sushi bar but WTH gave it a shot. Happy Hour specials till 5; nigiri of the day was shrimp. pretty terrible dry tasteless. Things improved with the tekkamaki with tuna & salmon but the seaweed was untoasted & chewy rather than crispy. The salmon skin hand roll though was great seaweed toasted and crispy as was the oyster shooter and the kalbi beef tacos .with a bit of care they could be a class act… if you guys at Raw Bar read this take heed. you could easily improve!

I’ve eaten at each sushi restaurant here in Chico multiple times and Rawbar has the freshest fish in town by far! I can’t get enough of their sushi. The sushi rice is always cooked to perfection– it’s soft while not being over-​cooked and gummy, and they nail the flavor– mildly sweet, sour and salty– just enough to bring out the flavor in the fish without overpowering it so you can taste the freshness. Every roll here is made to order so during busy times you may experience a wait for sushi but at least you know your roll is fresh and not preassembled and getting soggy like some other places. If it’s busy I make sure to order a small ap or miso from the kitchen (which has an amazing menu as well!) and that usually gets to the table promptly. When I’m really in a hurry I just let the server know and they always direct me to what’s fastest.
The garlic wokked egg noodles are addicting, vegetarian spring rolls are hand rolled in-​house, and they have a true miso (not from a powdered base)! The miso is so satisfying –you get a bit of crunch from thinly chopped pieces of napa cabbage, a bit of soft rich buttery-​ness from shiitake mushrooms, and the garnish of scallions and touch of citrus oil accentuates all the goodness :) It’s the best miso!
Happy hour has killer deals! You can fill up fast on high quality food on a budget. Or just get 5 – 10 $ 2 oyster hot shots, because they’re amazing. $ 2 for a shucked oyster and flavored shot of sake? YES.
Everything on the menu is made in-​house. I haven’t ordered something that did any less than make my senses do a happy little jig. Try the Korean tacos, the shaka tuna, prawn peanut noodle salad, pork shrimp mango rice paper rolls, I could go on and on!!! I’ve eaten here twice in one day with no shame.

Being a traditional trained sushi chef. This is not sushi, seafood or… sent back $ 50.00 of sushi. Old rice, terrible combination of flavors.

I was bummed when my friend and I were refused a table. the restaurant was practically empty and was told they had reservations for every table. The hostess was not very nice about it. We went to the bar and waited more than seven minutes for a waitress to ask our drink order. I would understand if they were busy, but there was hardly anyone there. When we left the tables were still empty.
I like the food, but the service is getting worse and worse

The sushi is stingy but delicious. I like their unique rolls, not just your BASICS. Service was ok, everyone standing around and not attentive. But the restaurant is overall really nice and modern.

I’ve been a loyal customer for many years… So I’m sad to be writing this. Well, this happened to me three times in the row in within 4 months. Their waitress’ and chefs are excellent and friendly but their speed has gone down. I don’t know if they’re under staff or what?
Well, first of all, I’m used to having my rolls come on one plate and I haven’t been able to get them all at once. One time they completely forgot a roll… So I had to cancel it. This time, the rolls came so far apart that the waitress accidentally took my chopstick and plate before my last roll… This happened the last three times I was here.
I love the match made in heaven roll! Today, I noticed the difference of the sauce in it. I want the original back. :(please?
I will come back for the friendly staff and my loyalty to this place. Please work on the speed and accuracy! I don’t want to give up on you guys!
Fresh fish as always… so come here for that.

I had gone to the Raw Bar two other times (last time was nearly 5 years ago) and had bad service. Having my order forgot while a friend kept getting his was ridiculous, being ignored and everything. However, my wife and I decide to give them a try (her first time) so we picked a few rolls.
To be honest the wife really hated it, I didn’t hate it but I do have a few issues with Raw Bar myself.
Location: For us it is a bit out of the way as well as we don’t tend to go downtown very often. Parking and people can be reasons not to attend places downtown. I won’t fault them much in this but I wanted to add it to my insight/​review.
The menu is pretty easy to read, very simple and small which is more than likely helpful, however at a closer glance I realize they don’t have many stand out rolls or all that much to choose from. I know some folks like simple rolls as they might be quicker to make or easier on peoples taste buds. Just was a bit of a letdown reading their menu. However we saw the prices and thought «hey thats really not bad» so we placed an order for 6 rolls, coming to around $ 50 which is good for us and sushi.
However once the rolls finally arrived (took a longer time than expected to receive the first two rolls, however after that the other 4 came pretty quickly) we noticed how small the rolls truly are. We realized they do note that most rolls are 4 pieces so it is noted. But man… two pieces per roll per person was not filling.
I did enjoy that they have a lemon roll as some places do not, as well as using 7 spice, both are favorites of mine. The thing was the rolls still didn’t make my taste buds scream with joy. Add in that the rice seemed a bit harder and less flavorful than other places. Also the wife pointed out the fact that the rice didn’t cover the whole roll which isn’t really negative just odd.
They do look nice for the most part tho!
Over all, I didn’t find myself hating the Raw Bar on my third trip but my wife decided it wasn’t worth it and we won’t be back considering the better options in town even.

I came here for dinner on a Saturday night with no reservation and got right in. However, service was very slow and it took over 10 minutes to get someone to even come to the table to order drinks. The food was very average and we didn’t feel great after eating some of the sushi. I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant.

There’s not a whole lot that we didn’t like about this place. The rolls are small (4 pieces each), so you really have to order multiple small rolls. The wait was a little long (35 minutes on a Friday night), but that’s not so bad for a weekend. It’s also a super small (though modern) space.
After a nice walk down Broadway, we had circled back to Raw Bar to claim our table. Personally, I like my privacy and prefer to sit at a table. Unfortunately for me, the place is small and all they had left was the sushi bar. Luckily, we were seated right in front of the gentlemen in charge of plating all the rolls and received an excellent show because of that. He also answered all of our questions. We found four rolls we wanted — the special, two from the regular menu, and one we saw on Unilocal.
The Firecracker was a little salty, but had a nice kick and was crunchy. I love some nice texture to my rolls. The Red Sea roll with Miso sauce was the one I found on Unilocal but wasn’t on the regular menu. I loved the sweetness of the sauce paired with the crunchiness of the roll. The Lemon Hamachi was my favorite — so fresh. The lemon paired with cilantro sprouts is just so light! Love love love! The special roll (Spring Fling) — had asparagus inside, and was also very fresh. So much good texture! It also had salmon on top. I felt like I could taste lemon zest or something in it, but wasn’t sure.
We will definitely be back. There are so many amazing-​looking rolls. I haven’t tasted this kind of freshness in so long!