Sticky Rice

My friend and I stumbled upon this place because we got hungry late night and let me tell you, thank god we did! They had many sushi options for vegans too. I definitely recommend the Garden Balls to anyone who enjoys a sweet/​mild spice taste. The blonde bartender who took care of us was very helpful and attentive as well. The best part about this place is the projector that plays old Disney and superhero clips while you eat.

Went to sticky rice for half off sushi. But beware dont fall for th trap. Three of us sat at the bar ordered 3 rolls each. The bartender charged us 18% gratuity !!! That pays for the other half of the sushi. Noy impressed with self tipping… I understand if it was a table for 6. Never coming back again

First time here, and the experience was ok. As a party of 3, they sat us downstairs in this uncomfortable barstool /​table area. It took about 15 – 20 minutes for the waitress to come and get our drink orders. I got the coconut-​lemongrass unfiltered sake, which I did enjoy. Ordered the Philly roll w/​non-​smoked salmon and a Maryland roll, which came with drawn butter (nice touch). Definitely not impressed with the selection of sushi and would not recommend coming here if you are looking for high quality sushi. This is more of a casual Japanese restaurant with rice bowl and noodle options.

This place has gone downhill fast. It used to be a cool place to go because it held onto a dive bar atmosphere and played music videos, yet the food was good.
Now I find the service pathetic and the food even more so.
The fish is never fresh and the product you get is wildly inconsistent and gross.
Bottom line, the sushi now sucks at this place and the drinks aren’t even good either.
The prices here are also outrageous for what you get.

The food was pretty great. We had a Godzirra!!, Maryland Crab Roll with black rice, and a Yum Yum! roll. All were really good, with the Godzirra roll offering the best flavor profile. The Maryland roll was good but the butter provided was a bit weird.
Service was so amazing. We never had to ask for anything! I will definitely return and try to wear my best hipster attire.

A mixed impression. We came here on Saturday afternoon after a long walk. I liked the menu posted outside which had 2 things we were craving — sushi and ramen, However, the insides looked dark and uninviting, and the place was full of shady-​looking individuals, so if I weren’t starving I probably wouldn’t have ventured into the dimly lit insides of this place. On the inside, it looked a little dirty. The huge screen was showing Wheel of Fortune with no sound, which felt oddly out of place. My companion had shrimp coconut noodles, which he loved. I wasn’t so lucky — I ordered California roll with crab meat, which was dry and lacked flavour. We ate our food quickly and left. It wasn’t by any means a horrible experience, the staff was nice and at least some of the food appears to be good, but I have no intention of going back.

They have a roll called the Godzirra. Godzirra?! Wtf kind of lame ass shit is that! Insulting at best.
Also, bad service, and an inattentive server. You can get coffee with Jameson OR Baileys. Both will cost extra!

I came to Sticky Rice because I heard they had great vegan options, and it turned out to be better than I expected. I got several vegan rolls with tempura (ask for the Vegan Godzirra, even if it’s not on the menu) — they even use vegan products like veg cream cheese and mayonnaise. I love the creativity. The noodle and rice bowls are to die for, and the miso soup is vegan too. To top it all off, they had some of my favorite craft beers.
If you want to make sure to have a table when you get there, just make a reservation. I have only gone on weekdays and have never needed a reservation, but I can see that it’s a pretty popular place.

I used to go to Sticky Rice down in Richmond when I was in college all the time, so I was really looking forward to trying the new DC location. It’s kind of a hipster, trendy sort of place; showing old kung-​fu movies and featuring whimsical menu items and décor pieces. My bf had never been, so I knew we had to try the sticky balls. They were, of course, wonderful and not enough! We also tried the YellowBasil, which was my personal favorite: kind of a ceviche salad mix of very fresh Hamachi, scallions, and fresh basil leaves. So fresh and bursting with flavor.
They have an interesting cocktail list. My bf opted for their jalapeño margarita while I tried the lychee martini (one of my faves), which had a balled lychee at the bottom. Very good, very strong. They also had a nice, selective wine list.
For entrees I chose the ChiliRoll and my bf selected one of the value rolls on special that night; something simple and tempura’d (he didn’t know that meant fried, so he didn’t particularly enjoy this roll but that is his fault). Mine, however, was delicious. One of the biggest indicators of an excellent sushi restaurant to me is how fresh their fish is and I must say, I could really taste the difference. The only other place that I have tasted such a tangible freshness in fish is the incredible sushi restaurant Mizuno in Virginia Beach, rivaled for the freshness of the fish and creativity of rolls and cocktail list. I am not going to rank Sticky Rice as high as Mizuno, but it’s a close second.
Service was friendly and informative and ambiance was chill and romantic, with great music. I will say one thing that I found particularly obnoxious is that the lone restroom in the entire restaurant was 2 pocket doors that didn’t close all the way and was locked by nothing more than a rectangle block from the inside. You can actually SEE inside the restroom through a narrow slit, making it difficult to determine if someone is inside or not unless they stand RIGHT IN FRONT OF the door, making it very awkward and uncomfortable when they exit and you are standing in their face. They’re going for the indifferent, hipster vibe with it but I just found it to be incredibly annoying, especially for the prices we are paying to dine here. Get a normal restroom.
Other than that, I am giving this place a solid 3.5 stars. The freshness of the sushi is amazing and the cocktails and sushi rolls are pretty creative, as well as their signature tot items. Drinks are fun and service is cool, making this probably the best option for sushi on H street for a fun night out.

Sticky Rice is good and a nice place to stop by if you can’t get into a nearby spot (*cough* Tokyo Underground) but still crave an Asian dish (and can forget about having ramen). Places like Sticky Rice are great to see on H Street — it’ll certainly give it competition with U Street and other places in NW.
Items tried: Sticky Balls, curry fried rice, a lunch special bento box, dumplings, and a Godzirra roll.
The first and the last are my favorite. The bento box offers a good lunch bite for price and variety of items. Our hipster waiter (awesome beard!) was extremely helpful in honest suggestions and was attentive throughout the meal. They seemed understaffed. I don’t know if this is common, if lunch tends to be slow, or if we caught them on an «off» day.
I have long sought a good sushi spot in DC. I wouldn’t mind coming back to try more but I am still on the lookout.

Came here for late night sushi on Saturday night and really enjoyed my experience.
To start we had the bucket of tater tots with the heavenly ranch style dipping sauce. These were awesome. Super crispy and the sauce was addicting.
For my main meal I enjoyed the chile roll (really good), the pretty roll (tuna and avocado), and the hippy roll (probably my least favorite, but it was still solid).
I thought the sushi was done well. They have a lot of speciality rolls and a good number of vegetarian and vegan options.
The service was super friendly. Our server even helped us tape out overflowing to-​go container of tots closed.
Great spot to check out if you’re near h street and craving sushi.

I hate writing negative reviews. 2.5 stars for food. 0 stars for the HORRIBLE service.
Food: we ordered three makis. Fish did not taste fresh, especially the tuna. Avocado was tasty and creamy. We also ordered the mock chicken noodles. Lots of vegetables and love Gardein chicken. But the dish was soaked in oil and didn’t taste fresh.
Service: our server was so rude that at one point I asked my companion if we did something to anger him. Took about 10 mins to get water — I gave up and went to the bar to get some. He ignored our table as we sat ready for a check for 15 minutes and then proceeded to pass over our table and not pick up our payment. We waited an additional 5 minutes before I gave up and handed my card to another employee.
Unfortunately, I can’t recommend this restaurant and will not be back. There are several other restaurants worth supporting.

3.75-Stars
Sticky Rice seems to have a bit of a sushi problem much in evidence to all the overly sensitive sushi-​enthusiasts who cannot say bad enough things about the apparently offensive sushi that is produced here. Personally, I think it’s just fine — yes much of it screams inauthenticity but I don’t think they ever tried to be an authentic sushi establishment. In fact, nothing about Sticky Rice suggest that it tried to masquerade as a sushi house. They’ve just taken the essence and idea of sushi and added some twists to it. One of the rolls they are known for is the Maryland Blue Crab roll with lump crab meat, drawn butter, and a slight bit of old bay. What could possibly be wrong with that? I think it’s absolutely delicious. But the principal reason to come to Sticky Rice is the tater tots with the special house-​made sauce — they easily some of the most addicting things I’ve ever tried. I am pretty confident that I downed two buckets in my last outing. The tots are indeed a must, and I think all of the food at Sticky Rice is decent — albeit innovative and even gimmicky to say the least.
Now just under a decade old and having withstood the test of time and even outlasted some of the «unsinkable» sushi institutions (Re: Kushi), Sticky Rice looks well positioned to stay on as a pilar of the rapidly evolving H Street food scene. And like most establishments on H Street, this too has a divey hipster feel to it — very dark accent paint colors with splashes of red here and there. The banquettes on the 2^nd floor are excruciatingly uncomfortable. I had to suck in my stomach the entire time which was hard to do while inhaling two buckets of tater tots. I guess I’ll just have to come in a little thinner next time.
I think they also need to tone it down with the loud music — sometimes it is so loud it hurts and it borders inappropriate.

Looking for a sushi spot around the neighborhood, I stumbled upon Sticky Rice. Upon walking in, the ambiance was nice– there are 2 floors. The first floor has a colorful bar and music, the second floor is for dining and there is an outside patio.
Decided to go for the patio since it was a nice summer day. It doesn’t have much of a view but it was still nice.
The boyfriend is a bit picky and definitely not adventurous with his sushi so he had the California roll. Had I known their California rolls are made with real crab I would have ordered one too! It was delicious.
I went for the Godzirra roll (crunchy shrimp, avocado, cream cheese and tempura crispies) and it was amazing. The portion they served was very generous.
Last but definitely not least– their cocktails are quite tasty too. I had a lychee martini that was strong and very well made. Our waitress was kind and attentive. We were very pleased.
Overall, a good experience and I’d definitely come back.

I went here for dinner last night, and my experience was average at best. Full disclosure, I tried sticky rice out because I had a livingsocial deal. The deal got us two flights of sake and a maki roll (we got a California roll with fresh crab, which I enjoyed, girlfriend did not), which was pretty cool and good.
But then when we wanted to order more food and drinks, everything was really expensive for what we were getting. Another thing that was really annoying, was that the happy hour specials are only available if you sit at the bar. We started with two saporros ($ 9 each), and some warm sake. The sake selection and flavor was really good!
Then we had hot and sour soup, which tasted like chili. It was good, but not what we thought we were ordering. We also had poki with sticky rice, which was tasty and fresh, and a 2000 leagues maki roll, which I would not recommend.
All in all, I got the vibe of this place trying to be really hip by combing things like sushi and tater tots, but for how much you are going to end up paying, I wouldn’t recommend it.

HIP, MODERNIZED JAPANESE FOOD SHACK
Red-​ish lights, lots of wood décor, yet quirky and approachable. Just waltz in here and you know you’re in for a fun, food treat.
FOOD PORN LOOKS
Yeah– everything here is plated sexy-​ly and makes you want to devour instantly. My Cupcake Trio (from their special menu) REALLY looked like Sushi Cupcakes however ²⁄₃ of the pieces were devoid of any flavor yet somehow still retained a great raw fish texture. The Poki fared better with its subtle Tuna taste pairing well with the Asian sauces and a great crunch from the accompanying Wonton Chips. I wasn’t a bit fan of the Sticky Balls – very cool looking and great idea – except it was DROWNING in Eel Sauce. It seemed almost pointless to contain Tuna and Crab because you couldn’t taste either.
PRICES A TAD HIGH
One meal won’t put you into poverty, but a few of the dishes seemed abnormally expensive. Sure the quality was great, but not enough to justify. Consider mostly the same ingredients in our Poki or Cupcake Trio can be used to make Sushi Rolls… same amount but considerably cheaper.

Sticky Rice where have you been all my life! Every dish I tried was better than the previous one.
In full disclosure I am trying a no meat diet for a few days (maybe weeks) so I didn’t try any of the meat options and still everything blew me away.
The lettuce wraps were a beautiful balance of flavor and crunchiness and a touch of Sriracha just made then even better.
The Garden Balls were perfectly fried and the spicy rice should be a stand alone item on the menu!
The Gardens on Fire roll was delicious and a great way to end my meal.
Now I have a full five stars down but need to take ½ a star away because the service was a bit slow to start even though the place was pretty much empty when I arrived, however it did pick-​up as the meal went on.

Who doesn’t love sushi? In my friend circles, the two winning food suggestions are always sushi or anything spicy.
The Good — ALL of the sashimi salads (hamachi, tako, and poke). so fresh and thoughtfully presented. Each dish was accompanied by the right herbs & sauces. My only complaint is that the portions are small and I wanted more, more & more!
The Meh — The tuna bites seemed like a great idea at the time (we were starving), but wasn’t served to us until much later into the meal (they forgot to enter the order. #woof). By the time it arrived, we had already received & fallen in love with the sashimi salads. The tuna bites were good but not a dish that I would crave again like the 3 salads. Also, I am now remembering that our waitress never apologized for missing one of our orders … womp womp.
The Ugly — Skip the Kani roll. seriously. It’s supposed to be lump crab in a roll … which I guess it is, but there’s nothing else — just crab wrapped terribly in seaweed that literally fell apart at the first attempt to pick it up. #dobetter
All in all, not a bad place to check out should you have a hankering for sushi in the H street area.

This place is great. Way smaller than I imagined, especially the upstairs where we were seated.
The service was really great though, and there was a ton of cool art on the wall.
The best part is the tater tots. Such an unexpected thing to find on the menu, so naturally we had to order them. They come in a huge bucket (literally a bucket) and with this amazing spice mayo type sauce on the side. Probably not the best thing to order with only two people however, because you end up eating all the tots and having no room for the sushi (or maybe that was just me).
Anyway definitely recommend coming here, but keep in mind there might be a wait! Oh, and the sushi was good too!

The food here is great! The sauce for the tots is worth a try as an appetizer and the rice rolls are fantastic!
They have a good selection of drinks too. They can get busy so I recommend making a reservation.