Sticky Rice

Loved loved loved this place! Funky sushi dive bar, good music, movies playing, good service, priced decently. Thanks for being so awesome Ryan the bartender! (From the girl with the good joke. ;) Met your friend Hunter over at Gwar Nar as well. :D) I’ll be back to Sticky Rice when I travel to Richmond again!

Great place for sushi AND you can get tater tots! My wife is vegan and I try to eat vegetarian when I can. Sticky Rice has options for everyone including our daughter who orders the grilled cheese with tater tots. The edemame is always good and there are quite a few vegan roll options.
The atmosphere is very casual and always lively.

It’s been years since I’ve been to Sticky Rice. I had the dirty vegan with udon noodles, the dish was delicious, had great flavor. With the restaurant being crowded and busy service was still excellent. Will definitely dine at Sticky Rice again.

After a long day of mentoring, the other mentors and I wanted to let our hair down and enjoy a cold beer. We went up the street to Sticky Rice, because we knew it was a nice chill spot on a Thursday at 7. I like that they have Hardwood (local Beer) on tap. It’s also great that they let you sample other beers, or like that night, get a free shot of Scotch. We were sitting at the bar, which is always a good move if you want any specials. We got a round of tater tots to share between 7 women. A great appetizer if you are stretched for cash. I was starving so I also ordered their Sticky Balls. I love those little suckers. Crunchy on the outside and sticky on the inside. You get your sushi fix without having to get a roll. Johnathan at the bar was fun and attentive to our group. Shout out from Black Beauty. I need to go back soon to actually try the sushi.

I like this spot– very divey and RVA-​ish. My bestie and my partner and I had no trouble getting a table for three here on New Year’s Eve for an early dinner which was great. We got tater tots, tofu bites, sushi, and I had one of their noodle bowls, which was SO much food. All tasty and enjoyable atmosphere with great throwback music too.

Great Wings, warm fast service, great fresh Sushi Roll, definitely a repeat. Delicious

Stopped by after the John Cleese — Eric Idle performance at the Carpenter. On the outside, it looked like a chain but inside, it had a fabulous and unique ambiance.
We really enjoyed the taste and happy hour prices of the sticky balls. I highly recommend if you ever dine here. I had the Thai bowl which was good but not awesome. My wife had sushi (I forget which kind) which she thoroughly enjoyed.
I would have given a 5 star but before we left, we went downstairs to the bathroom. Not only was it disgustingly dirty but it was right next the kitchen which wasn’t that tidy. Guess the dirt adds to the ambiance and flavor?

This is the worst restaurant I’ve ever been to in my entire life, and it’s so bad on so, so many levels…
1. Their restroom will give me nightmares for years to come. Some person peed all over the floor and all over the toilet paper and the toilet paper holder. Toilet paper all over the floor. The smell… has anyone cleaned that in weeks?
2. It was sticky EVERYTHING. The sushi bar, chairs, anything that I touched. So muck yuck.
3. The entire place in general looked run down and aging. Not a good look.
4. The sushi was the worst I’ve had in my life. It just tasted wrong. I had to force myself to finish it, which never before happened to me in my life in regards to sushi.
5. I left hungry, I could not do it. I had to get food from Uptown market to not starve to death. Way better food and prices too.
6. Service was tolerable, but it was super busy and we did not see our waitress much.
7. Something about being in there in general made me feel sick and light headed. As soon as I left that disappeared. Strange.
Overall — go here if you want to have the worst sushi of your life in the dirtiest restaurant in the city!

I came to try sticky rice’s take on bahn mi, the vietnamese pork sandwich. I also had the purple rain sushi roll and my wife had the mongolian beef. Each dish was disappointing and the customer service was lacking.
When we walked in not a single person greeted us, so after a couple minutes we seated ourselves. Another couple minutes before the waitress showed up. We started with the purple rain sushi which feature cucumber, avocado, and eggplant. The rice was undercooked and falling off the roll, the eggplant had skin so hard I had to spit ot out. I moved onto my bahn mi which came on a potato roll, not the traditional french baguette, at first I liked the soft bread but it didnt really compliment the other flavors. The pork was dry and I found a small bone mixed in. There wasn’t enough pickled carrot, daikon, or cilantro. The mongolian beef looked great but tasted bland. It was very spicy which I normally like but this was heat without flavor. My wife had a couple bites and lost her appetite.
To be honest the restaurant was beautiful and featured a full bar. My expectations were high which made the shortcomings even harder to swallow. At least they took the mongolian beef off our check.

Were going to a concert at the national and needed something close by… Think this is my new go to before a concert there!
Sat at the bar as tables were all taken (a party of 3), were immediately greeted and got some Hardywood beers on tap (yum!). Decided to splurge and we ordered things to share, the seaweed salad, thai shrimp rolls, two sushi rolls, edamame and a tempura fried burger with tots. Hands down some of the best food we’ve had in a while and service was super speedy.
Opted to get two desserts as well, sticky rice and fried bananas, both great.
Fun atmosphere and great food at reasonable prices.
Looking forward to going back before a concert in Sept!

Every time I go to Sticky Rice, I really can’t wait to come back. Unfortunately, you can never be sure whether there is immediate seating or a 2-​hour wait outside. Just give me tots, sushi, and karaōke night and I’m a happy girl.

If you’re looking for a hangout — a bar with lively atmosphere — then Sticky Rice is your place. It’s a Fan institution. If you’re looking for delicious food with great service, fuggetaboutit. The sushi is just okay.
Noah the bartender is crazy cool and good with the drinks.

Sticky Rice is a fun place to come have a few drinks/​pregame before going to another bar, but definitely not the place to have some good sushi. Their food is pretty much dog food when it comes to the Japanese cuisine and the service is horrendous. The waitresses are rude as can be and act as if you owe them something. For drinks, ok. For food/​good service: FORGET IT!

We came here for a Sunday lunch. Very good service. Restaurant itself is a bit run down, but our meal was very good. Dirty vegan tofu bowl is more peanut than we were expecting. The mock schezuan chicken was very tasty, but had a lot of pineapple and a very sweet sauce, so again not what I was expecting. The service was quick. Food hit the spot and I love that they have many vegan options.
Inexpensive.

Pretty decent sushi, cool little place, interesting rolls and cool variations. Not bad prices either. The hot hippy was very good. Very small space so timing is key with the crowds

The epitome of Richmond hipster chic. Stand offish waitresses, 1 dollar PBRs with sticky rice tattoo on your person, sushi titled «Sticky Balls,» oh yeah – and you gotta get the tots. It just wouldn’t be right without the tots! A classic RVA spot, and it’s pretty good too. I’ve sat at the bar many times – just try not to sit close to the hall near the stairs/​bathroom. Not the most pleasant of smells. My favorites: Tofu Bites, Hot Hippy, and Silence of the Yams.
Ask the waiter what the TWP drink stands for.

I thought the food here was good but could not top Wabi Sabi’s sushi. Creative but not as adventurous as I expected sushi to be in RVA.
Our server was great and the venue had a hipster/​grunge metal vibe. Sticky Rice is kid friendly so do not be weary of bringing the kiddos. Meals are around $ 10 – 20 and desserts are no more than $ 5.
The sushi was fresh and veggies cooked very nicely. I would go back in a heartbeat well especially if I did not want to drive to Petersburg, VA.

Sticky Rice reminds me of The Little Engine That Could. Sushi is a tricky thing and to be really good at it… well, it takes a lot practice. Who in Richmond hasn’t been to sticky rice? It’s a landmark in the area. I’ve been here three times and the most recent time was this past Saturday (4÷18÷15). The crowds were big because due to the Game of Thrones Pub Crawl (which I was a part of) we got it without much fuss and ate and drank heartily.
The staff are super cool and the TOTS are epic. Really, this bucket of tots gimmick is fantastic. I always have a good time and I really appreciate actual crab meat. I mean, actual crab meat, imagine that. Anyway, as much as I enjoy the place and the people the food sucks. I’m sorry but it does. It’s ghetto as all hell.
But does it really matter? It’s more about the experience and I don’t think people go here for the food but rather the good time. I don’t think there is a Unilocal review in the world that will cause Sticky Rice to lose business and that’s a good thing. Just keep doing *you* Sticky Rice and thanks for being an RVA team player. Sorry for the low rank but I have to keep it real on the food front.

We went in expecting an explosion of flavor all neatly wrapped in rice but came out feeling like something was missing. On the hipster rating scale this place is pushing a definite 7 as it tries to appeal to a younger crowd. Blushing reds, close-​knit seating, and a Pandora mix playing leads you into a false sense of something more. The menu on the other hand is a horse of a different color. You can read what each roll is (and they all do SOUND appealing) but when we finally got ours, after waiting over 20 minutes, color me unimpressed.
On top of being a little miffed that the lighting was so incredibly dim taking pics of my food was hard I didn’t go ga-​ga over the presentation. Our waitress seemed like she was too busy to really give any interests to our meal even though we were one of only five sets of of people in the place. The meal itself: meh. I’ve had much much better sushi. I’ve also had much much worse sushi. Take that as you will but with a place named «Sticky Rice» I expect to eat rice something just modern tasting as its name, not some bland ball of fish poorly wrapped in said rice. Will I return? Well that’s a «sticky» question…

I’ll preface this review by saying I’m NOT a sushi eater, which is clearly the biggest draw of the restaurant. That being said, I actually really enjoyed my burger and felt the prices were very reasonable.
I came with a group of 6 at around 8 PM on a Saturday. There were not any tables available to accommodate our size, so we waited for about 15 minutes for one to open up. The space quite «intimate» and it doesn’t seem to be suitable for large groups.
So we all ordered drinks at the bar and sort of stood awkwardly in the middle of the restaurant (limited standing space) until a table opened up.
My friend had told me their noodle dishes were great, but I was feeling a burger. And I’m happy I ordered one because it was ended up really hitting the spot. Called the «Tokyo Burger» it was glazed with a teriyaki sauce that gave it a nice sweet flavor and was topped with fried onions (I thought it was supposed to come with pineapple slices, but did not– which was actually fine by me). Despite it being cooked more medium-​well than medium-​rare as I had ordered, it was still juicy and full the smoky flavor from the grill paired nicely with the sweetness from the glaze. I opted for the sticky rice instead of the tater tots (no upcharge), which was a good choice.
I was pleasantly surprised by the house salad that I had as an appetizer. They didn’t skimp of veggies at all. The presentation was lovely and everything was super fresh. Our table also enjoyed the edamame and spring roll apps.
I felt like the oddball pf the group, as everyone else ordered sushi. They all loved what they got (and knew what to expect as they had eaten the sushi here before). I kinda wished we had stayed a bit longer and had a few more drinks. Despite it being kind of small and cramped, the atmosphere is casual and friendly and the patrons are more laid back and chill than in some of the other restaurant/​bars along this stretch of Main. The service was pretty good.