Raw Sushi

Update: We are still frequent flyers, but I owe you a heads-​up. Bring a sweater. Raw is ALWAYS freezing cold. In the winter, there’s an unexplained draft which flows randomly in every section. Then when people leave, they hold the door open for their friends and the place gets even colder. And, of course, the food is cold, so there’s not much comfort there.
Last Thursday, we were freezing; I had a sweater on and ate with my down coat over my legs. As we were leaving we saw that both doors were propped open on a chilly March evening and we’d been in the cross draft! These people like it cold. I even bring a sweater in the summer.

Sushi wasn’t very good. Unfortunately we had to send one roll back because it tasted so off. I must say though that the management for Raw is pretty great. Very professional and polite. Could not have asked for better waitress or management which is why it’s 3 stars not two.

This is half and half sharing space with the Willowcreek, which I haven’t gotten to quite yet (and I think you can even order from the other menu also) and comes highly rated… by now, I fully expect all restaurants in the area to be overrated on Unilocal,by what factor is to be determined, but definitely need both more Unilocalers slogging in reviews and a whole lot more accuracy from everyone else up there not me (for the most part — I know there are exceptions and some of you are doing well… just needs to be more like you and less like those giving 5 star glowjobs to chains).
Anyway, that aside, this one suffers from the Landlocked State Syndrome in that the fish is noticeably stale and fishy. The Calamari was average, maybe even slightly under, the squid salad, something I’m gratified to see on menus up there, was overall excellent. If there is one single dish that sushi places up in the area can be counted on to do well when it is on their menu, it is that salad and this place is no exception. Green tea was pretty decent as well.
This definitely is no competition to Maru, still the best bet in the area and there is no real comparison. A few other random comments… the interior is very tastefully done, though, it is worth noting. Seats aren’t especially comfy and the place is kind of loud. I really wanted to escape the inane conversation of some of the other patrons, but short of leaving, which I eventually did, there was no real escape. Waitress was also kind of surly and rather inattentive, which lent to an overall unpleasantness of the experience. This is definitely a one-​and-​out. I hope Willowcreek proper is better off.

Unfortunately, our date night here was not a great experience. We are not from this area and have not found a good sushi restaurant yet, and were hoping this would be it but were let down. First off, there was only one waiter for the entire sushi portion of the restaurant, which is not enough, he had far to much to do for one employee. This led to us being served the wrong sushi, and never having been there before, didn’t realize we had the wrong rolls. We weren’t told what they were, just told that the rest was coming out soon. Shortly after, we had only eaten one or two pieces as we didn’t like the rolls and realized they were probably wrong and were intending to ask, the waiter came back to say we had received the wrong rolls, and brought the correct ones. We tried a few pieces of the standard rolls we ordered that can be ordered anywhere, like the sunny cali and spicy tuna, however the fish was warm and had an odd taste I had never tasted in sushi. We tried to keep eating and acclimate, however the fish was not even remotely fresh and had a rough texture. We ended up boxing up almost our entire four rolls and then ended up tossing them. We were then asked to pay for the incorrect rolls, which we thought was rude as we only ate a piece each until we realized they were wrong and were going to ask for the correct ones. We had to dispute this, and ended up not having to pay for them. The entire experience was overall a let down and will not be returning as my husband and I both were nauseous all night, presumably from the warm, poor quality fish in each roll.

Overall the sushi was acceptable, I found the experience to be middle-​of-​the-​road. The crab in the California roll did not taste fresh at all, my kid is not a picky sushi eater but she wouldn’t eat it because the crab had a weird texture and flavor. The spicy tuna was probably the worst I have ever had, it was pretty much all cucumber and the tuna was all but missing. The spider roll was good but the crab was very dry and flavorless. The highlight of the meal was the tempura veggies in the appetizer. Overall the dynamite roll was swimming in spicy mayonnaise, it was applied excessively.

Bento box was good nothing special. Quality and amount of the food for the price was not worth it.

Another overpriced and overrated sushi place in boise! Very fishy and poor service. Nice décor but that’s about it.

I travel a lot and often look for sushi restaurants. Using other ratings on Unilocal I decided to try. Very pleasant experience with very good sushi. Sushi was fresh, the restaurant was clean and the staff was very pleasant. Would have liked the sushi to have more fish on it… but it was good.

I was really hoping to fall in love with this place, but sadly it’s just not a good sushi spot. Same tired selection of farmed, poor quality fish everyone else has. The food was way overpriced as well, as others have stated. There were a few women servers who looked aggravated and exhausted trying to run 20+ tables and everyone seated seemed to be suffering from poor service (us included).
My friend and I ate 3 rolls and we were still starving, but we’d already spent almost 40 bucks without tip — and we only had water, too. My philly roll had some really chewy salmon which is like, gag-​worthy, but I was so hungry and it was so expensive I horsed it down anyway.
Idaho has no good sushi spots, and this was our last holdout. I should have left after we waited 10 minutes at the door for someone to seat us. Oh well.

We just moved back to Boise from Arizona. A friend turned me onto sushi there but my husband was not a fan.
We drove past RAW and decided to give it a try because Willowcreek was connected and had food for my husband (plus their menu looked flipping yummy too. I’ll review it next)
I’m definitely not a sushi connoisseur. I just like what tastes good. Their sushi was the best I’ve ever had. I loved their menu described what the sauces were. I read them to my husband and he decided to give a roll a try with the Fuji Sauce on the side. He wanted a simple fresh roll, so I got him the Sake roll. He loved it! He even said, «what crap did you feed me before?» So now he likes sushi. (Of course if you’re a sushi connoisseur that tells you my level of expertise in this field. So take this rating as is or leave it ;))
I ordered take out. They were made fast. Will come back again.

Definitely deserve more than 3 stars… this place had great sushi. The wine is marked up a little too much but they have a good selection. Did I mention they have great sushi.
Friendly staff.

I’m far from a sushi snob, but I have had enough sushi to declare this is very good at least. By far my favorite sushi place out of the 20 or so i have visited. I love RAW!

BOISE: Was excited to go to Raw today for lunch.
Ambience (2 stars): It is fine here; nothing special, pretty basic booths and probably a little too much on the boring side.
Service (3 stars): Service was slow but friendly. They offered to refill my glass at the end of the meal right before tip. They were nice though.
Food: I can only comment on what I experienced.
Rattlesnake Roll: (4 stars). This was a solidly executed roll. The rice was moist yet firm and stuck together nicely. The sauces on it were mildly complex, a little spicy with the aoli and a little sweet with the eel, and the meat was good, even a little tempura thrown in their for the Americans. Its a nice presentation (see photo) The price was too high for the roll ($ 15ish), but it was good food and I would order it again.
Salmon Run: This was a good looking salad that three in our group ordered, who had been here often. I didn’t taste it, so I can’t provide a rating, but everyone seemed to enjoy it and it looked good. Take their word for it if you like.
Sorry I can’t help with more menu items!
Summary: a little lacking on ambience and service, but a good roll to be found (and in Boise) if you’ve got a mid-​teens budget.

I’ve been here once and I won’t be back. A friend and I stopped by for lunch one afternoon, and as I wasn’t feeling particularly hungry so I just ordered avocado maki. It inexplicably came out as a fried roll, which was greasy and honestly just gross. I left over half of it on my plate, and when the server came out she asked if I was done rather than attempting to correct the problem. Then she went ahead and brought out the bill where I saw that my 2 pieces (3 if you count the one my friend tried before agreeing it was terrible) of avocado maki cost me $ 8.
To be fair, my friend said her roll was «ok».

For sushi in Boise (land-​locked area), this place is alright. We tend to visit this place more often than not because the quality is better than most. The only downside to Raw is the prices are OUTRAGOUS!!! We ordered 4 rolls and it cost $ 50+. There are other options in Boise but if you end up here, you won’t be disappointed.

As I sat looking over the high prices in the menu while the waitress ignored me I seriously considered getting up and leaving. I wish I had. The fish was okay, nothing special. Tempura was soggy like it sat for a while. Service was nonexistent. The tastiest part of my meal was the seaweed salad. People at the table behind me were ordering hamburgers– that should have been a sign. TO LEAVE.

I have ate here for a number of years and recently became very ill for a sushi roll. I was with three other friends and they became ill as well.

I like this place, have been there twice. They have a great variety of rolls with lots of different and unique flavors. My only complaint would be that the rolls aren’t rolled as tightly as I’m used to (or I like) so they did fall apart a bit when dipping in soy sauce or moving around my plate.
Overall, good variety, good quality and good prices.

First, I should probably admit that I’m fairly picky about sushi. I’ve lived in Tokyo so I tend to be a bit of a purest – I don’t really like any of that fusion sushi that is so easy to find in Boise. That said, they do serve a lot of fusion sushi here. However, there are definitely things on the menu for purests like myself.
After listening to many people say Blah Blah sushi is the best place in Boise, only to try it myself and totally DISAGREE, I’ve decided (at least in my own opinion) that Raw serves the best sushi in town. They have very fresh fish and their rice isn’t super vinegary like other places here that I’ve eaten.
Their «raw deal» seems to be the way to go because the specialty rolls they make, while expensive, are pretty tasty.
Negatives:
–rolls are on the spendy side
–service isn’t that great. We eat here regularly and the waitress (virtually always the same person) doesn’t even seem to recognize us.
–awkward atmosphere – feels very casual. There are always kids in the restaurant. They would have done better making this feel more like an upscale sushi experience.
I think I would ordinarily give them 3 stars, but the quality of their fish makes up for the shortcomings.
Update (downgrading from 4 to 3 stars):
In a strange turn of events, I ended up at Raw last night right after I wrote my initial review. We were there with a group of 12 or so. Although we had a reservation, it was made the same day so they didn’t really have a chance to prepare for us. They tend to do horribly with big groups. There were so many mistakes with people’s orders I can’t even list them. They told us one couple we were with they were giving them a bottle of sake for free to make up for it, and then charged them for it anyway (and it wasn’t even the correct price for the sake they ordered). If you are going to Raw with a group, make a reservation a few days ahead so they have enough servers and won’t run out of foods (common problem at Raw).

«BLAH RAW» C’mon,
If we were rating an Amerasian sushi feng-​shui contest then I’d hand out the stars like half of the people on here. This is what I rate a sushi bar on:
1. service — which should be hospitable, friendly: food took 70 mins to come out with only 5 tables being served, waitress jib-​jabbed with friends and I literally felt like I had to set myself on fire to get a refill on water.
2. Sashimi — The temperature, thickness, firm-​ness, & flavor. If you can’t get this right I’m not going to waste my time with high expectations for a roll.
3. Authenticity — There’s a fine line about catering to a customers needs and diluting the entire cultural experience… Good Job Raw you’re entire experience was AT BEST luke warm.
SUMMARY:Overpriced, SLOW serving (there was no service, just the delivering of our food), Diluted authenticity, Mediocre food.
Age Dashi– Very bland fried tofu — needed spice or… SOMETHING
Calamari — Tasted very «freezer to fryer» — wasabi mayo tasted like lard.
Rattlesnake roll — The better of the rolls we ordered. Not worth the price
The Raw Roll — Skimpy on sauce and the rice they use isn’t «sticky rice» — it’s like a drier jasmine?!
Over the Rainbow — Looked neat — tasted Blah
Ton Ton Roll — I really loved the scallop however, the tuna tobiko looked like the fatty leftover tuna bits.
Sashimi Sample Platter — 6 out of 10.