RA Sushi Bar Restaurant

Happy hour is the best! ! The sushi and wings are so good and in a greater price !
Is a good place to go for sushi after hours !
One of the best place for sushi at downtown! !
Grate service and good food!
The music is good;)

I’m not expecting authentic Japanese cuisine at a place like this, but the Americanized hybrid can be pretty delicious. Unfortunately, it isn’t here. Things that should be hot are cold, the rice isn’t fresh, the fish is tough and lower quality, and the dishes are wildly over-​sauced.
But despite this, I keep coming back. Why? The big tip: sign up for their mailing list and they’ll email you a $ 20 coupon for your half birthday. Yup, your half birthday. Lots of places will give you something for your birthday, but this is the only place I know that does half birthday specials. And there’s no minimum purchase, so if your order comes out to under $ 20, all you pay is tip.

For a last minute dinner this place was decent and they did accommodate our large group last minute too, but really it was overpriced mediocre sushi. I guess the fact that they had room for our group last minute should have been a sign?
I know, I know the gaslamp area is always pricey and known for overcharging for food, but I was hoping this place would be better than that.
The vibe is almost like a lame club and then the server didn’t quite seem to be on top of things with getting us everything we ordered and the food came out really randomly, there was just no order at all to this dining experience! And then the food I did get, the fish didn’t taste fresh enough and there was just not much flavor overall in anything anyone got I felt. No really seemed that excited to be dining there except for after our giant beers, and it is hard to mess that up.
So really, there are other sushi places in the area, so I would check those out.

After a week of being responsible it’s nice to go to a place where you can let loose with a jamming DJ to help with bring in the weekend
One love SD

Service was on punto!!! This 5 star review is mainly for the good experience & the service we got from Chris this past Thursday night (³⁄₁₀).
We were in San Diego only for a night (we’re from Los Angeles) and we were totally bummed that our original dinner reservations did not work out and we ended up going here instead. We haven’t had RA before but we figured we’d try it out since it’s right in Gaslamp (where we were planning to go afterwards).
We arrived at 10pm, and to our luck, it was happy hour! The hostess gave us a sweet smile and welcomed us in. Our server was Chris, and he was super upbeat, friendly, and personable. He helped us with ordering drinks and food since we did notice that a lot of their rolls had cream cheese, and I, myself, am not too big of a fan of that combination, but his recommendations were great! Even the rolls with cream cheese! Lol
The lighting was also romantic, so it saved the night for us. We had such a good experience that it cheered us both up, by the time dinner was over, we were able to continue the rest of our night in Gaslamp in a much much better mood.
Thank you, RA Sushi & our favorite server thus far ever, Chris!!! You are awesome!!!

This place had nice lighting…
I mean the sushi was alright, but it just tasted like any other sushi at any other place… For the price, I was expecting something really good.
On top of that, I ordered some stuff along with a shrimp tempura roll and the viva las vegas roll…
The lady comes back with a spicy shrimp roll and forgot or vegas roll… So when she came back I reminded her and she came back with the shrimp tempura roll… But forgot the vegas roll AGAIN –_​–
When the vegas roll came, I was pretty much over it and it didn’t even taste that spectacular.
The brightside was that it was my birthday and I got free tempura ice cream.
Yay

Came for dinner & drinks recently & I really enjoyed the ambiance of this restaurant. The sushi was not the absolute best I’ve had but it was still pretty good. The restaurant is at a very good location as well. It was half a block from where we stayed.
If you do order the warm sake & you plan on sharing, I recommend you order 2. It’s a very small order.

I usually love Ra but the last few visits have been a bit disappointing. Service is ok. Drinks are mediocre — cucumber Margarita is not good and not a recommendation to repeat when someone wants a martini that is not sweet like the mango one.

A little on the pricey side, but great fresh food and a KILLER happy hour!
This place is awesome for a group for happy hour! We ordered what seemed like two of everything on the menu, plus drinks, plus cooked apps and the bill was very reasonable!
I was impressed by the seaweed salad, really liked the teriyaki chicken skewers, and LOVED the sushi!
Overall, highly recommend for the good food, good ambiance, and great service. Four stars because it is a little pricey, but is probably well worth it for most people looking for sushi a little bit higher quality.

Came here at the last minute for Valentine’s Day… It was busy, but not overwhelming. They had vday specials and it happened to be happy hour. We sat in the bar area. Not too loud or anything and great people watching. Our server was so sweet and made great recommendations. Their viva Las Vegas roll was really good! So was their garlic yellowtail and crispy spicy tuna. House sake was good too compared to other places

If you’re in San Diego, I’d definitely make the visit to RA Sushi Bar. In fact, I liked the place so much I went twice.
Yes it’s a little more expensive than Sushi Deli, but the sushi is quite good. The staff is super nice. I talked to 6 of them while I was there. The place just happened to be empty because I came at 3 on a Sunday. Anyway they were great. I spoke to 3 of the sushi chefs on my visit, the manager and my waiter.
They didn’t have a spicy scallop roll on the menu, but they made it for me anyway.
I got my food super fast. The only thing they could really use is Karaōke. That would really put this spot over the top.

Amazing service from Alyssa. super fast with food and drinks. Super outgoing. First time here and definitely coming back

This is my favorite place for sushi and fun atmosphere in San Diego. I love love love the Las Vegas roll and the tunacado is delicious. The staff there is always attentive and great, and love it when Emily and Carol Anne are behind the bar. Great drinks and great care. Thanks ladies!!!

You know what? I’ve been a RA fan for years!
I’ve been on dates here, I’ve celebrated my birthday here. And it never disappointed.
This time, I decided to bring my husband since he had never been. We ordered a couple of roles, salmon sashimi and the fried calamari. The roles tasted super fishy, like bad time. The calamari was excellent. The sashimi not bad. Maybe it was a weird day that day when we decided to have dinner there but I definitely did not leave happy and wanting more like passed times. Sorry :/

Dorrell was wonderful in helping me with my gluten allergy and even checked on all of their sauces to make sure I had a great time. Love Ra in Phoenix and was glad to see one here while visiting

My friends and I got 3 karin & saki bombs for happy hour & it was a treat! RA sushi’a happy hour offers a great selection of items at about affordable price! The space was also very trendy and hip! Emily did a wonderful job taking care of us and served us a great presentation and superb food! She was a friendly & personable server and we will definitely be back! :)

Alyssa was awesome, had such a great time with great food and amazing company. Try the crispy rice and spicy tuna, you will die! XOXO

I love coming here! My boyfriend loves that I love this place so much because it’s a no-​brainer when he wants to take me out. On our most recent visit, Janel was our server; and she was wonderful!

Cool spot in downtown for late light happy hour and good music! I had their cucumber margarita, which was refreshing, and didn’t order food but was definitely tempted to try their sushi rolls which I hear are good.
Happy hour for food and drinks:
Mon-​sat 3 – 7, 7-​close
Sun 8-​close.
Good for groups with booths and bar tables, or even couples. But it’s a more lively spot.
DJ Ronge was Killin it… With a real table spinning Michael Jackson, Craig David (?!), and all the good beats you wanna move to. I liked the overall ambience and the service was good so I’ll recommend it plan to be back!

We made reservations for 15 people at 1:30 pm on a Sunday. We were excitingly greeted by Brianna. Brianna has great people skills and was very bright and cheery! The majority of our group showed up 10 min after we did. 2 servers approached our table. One of them was Kate. I wasn’t able to get the other girls name. The other girl seemed nice, she just couldn’t seem to get our drink orders right. Most of us ordered water and ice tea. Kate, couldn’t seem to get anything right. She looked angry and miserable. Not all of our food that was ordered was brought to our table. One person in our group ordered their own sushi roll and Kate walked by the opposite end of the table from where our friend was sitting and tossed the roll on the plate and kept walking. If she was having a bad day, she should have stayed home. Our bill was not a $ 20 bill and we felt like we were treated like we were homeless begging for scraps. I definitely had higher expectations considering this is a downtown location and a chain restaurant. I have had better service in the heart of Santee. On the plus side, the food was fantastic. I had the Asian salad and wanted to lick the bowl clean. I have worked in the service industry for 20 years and must give this review 2 thumbs down from 2 fluffy foodies.

We were here for a conference at a nearby hotel and stopped in for a quick lunch. This is a chain and the place was similar to others, but you know what you are getting. They have a good lunch menu (sushi, bento boxes, bowls, etc) in the $ 9-​$ 12 dollar range. The service was great. I had the salmon teriyaki which was fine (not outstanding) and a goo value. The food came quickly. I can’t speak to the freshness of the sushi since I had the salmon dish. I’d go back but would go out of my way to find it. The friend I was with eats a RA sushi more regularly. She likes their punch card for a free meal.

3.5 stars, rounding up since the service was very good. Overall I don’t think I’d go back to fulfill a legitimate sushi craving, but nothing was bad enough to warrant 3 or fewer stars.
Pros: service was good; we sat at the sushi bar in the back and had very attentive service from both our server and the sushi chefs. Granted, it was a bit slow during happy hour due to weather. The happy hour has some decent deals on food and bottled beer — you can find domestic bottles for under $ 4, which is great for a downtown «scene”-type establishment. Also the ambiance was «cool» — they went bold with lots of dark reds and black everywhere, and suggestive geisha-​esque paintings. I think it works pretty well for what they’re trying to accomplish.
Cons: quality of the happy hour food. The regular menu may very well be fine, but I feel like everything we ordered from the HH menu missed the mark. We typically LOVE crispy rice tuna, but theirs had a strange texture and the sauce didn’t really work. Also the spicy tuna roll was bland; even blander than you typically expect from a pretty bland roll in general… The salmon nigiri was good, not great. After we finished, we looked at each other and uttered a simultaneous «meh».

I partially blame El Niño for the lack of freshness, probably a result of the relentless monsooning scaring away yesterday’s costumers and preventing them from consuming the expiring catches that found a home in my stomach today. I remember it being better last time. My waitress, Camille, probably knew better. She very kindly offered me four sauces without me asking. A+ for damage control training their servers.
Interior décor is nice, lots of red. Get the Chili Ponzu Yellowtail. Skip the hand rolls, or at least 86 the obnoxious lettuce they stick in them.
4 stars represents what I would’ve given my first visit. Probably deserves 3.5. Maybe less if my first visit was an anomaly. Now that I think of it those sauces weren’t even that great. Hmmmm…

This visit was excellent, although I’m averaging my rating with the last time. Service was good. Plenty of wasabi and ginger.
The seaweed salad was good. The sushi was excellent. Some of the best hamachi I’ve ever had. Sake nigiri and the California roll were very good.

Drinks were awesome. Had the Peach Pear Mule! Very tasty!
But the food was just okay. Nothing special.
For the price that we pay I expect more.
Chicken Wings were a bit dry. Had the Spicy Chicken Ponzu! OVERRATED!
Also had the Shrimp Temprua Roll was just usual. No favor! Nothing special.
Okay now for the famous Las Vegas Roll…
There were some good things to say about this.
The Lotus Chip was a highlight. Tasted like a potato chip. Very crispy and crunchy.
The sushi was a whole was just to big to fit in your mouth. Sushi was a bit soggy. Favor was there but for the price was just not worth it.
Will not come back again. Only for drinks.

It’s my last day in San Diego and I wanted to eat something good. I saw RA and everything was really good. Bar tender was friendly and helpful too. Definitely would come back here again. It wasn’t too crowded either and got to watch the football game.

Caught the end of happy hour before 7pm. Great prices on rolls and drinks, especially for downtown. High quality sushi but the service left a lot to be desired.
Some of our party showed up a few minutes late and it took at least 10 – 15 minutes for them to get served, despite our table being right in front by the bar. The waitress seemed to disappear whenever we needed drink refills and forgot to bring waters a few times. Quality food but not the best overall dining experience.

Cool vibe ! Japanese fusion cuisine in San Diego. They have the best signature sushi and rolls. Pretty red ambience, good service, good music! I feel so alive here! Very upbeat atmosphere. My fave Japanese restaurant ever!!! My faves are hot n spicy miso, Las Vegas roll, shrimp tempura, garlic edamame, tuna hand rolls etc Great menu food& drinks. They open lunch n dinner. Also happy hour 3 – 7, 10pm-​close. Fri-​Sat 11:00 — 1:00am check them out guys! Highly recommended! Friendly staff! They’re next to T-​Mobile free wifi. Love RA!

MORPHEUS: I am an ox, snake-​crushing, heavy-​footed.
CHORONZON: I am an anthrax, butcher bacterium, warm-​life destroying.
MORPHEUS: I am a world, space-​floating, life-​nurturing.
CHORONZON: I am a nova, all-​exploding… planet-​cremating.
MORPHEUS: I am the Universe — all things encompassing, all life embracing.
CHORONZON: I am Anti-​Life, the Beast of Judgement. I am the dark at the end of everything. The end of universes, gods, worlds… of everything. Sss. And what will you be then, Dreamlord?
MORPHEUS: I am hope.
Neil Gaiman — The Sandman
The first time I walked down this street I was 4. It was night. It was cold. I was tired. It was dirty and people were sleeping in the alcoves. The family wanted to ring in the New Year at Horton Plaza by the fountain. I think I had a good time before I fell asleep…
Daytime. It’s a bit cleaner now and the streets are filled with attractive women in skirts and shorts. Huge lunch crowd slowly trickles out as I sit and wait for my lunch.
I started with the chicken yakisoba. Very good flavors from the sauce and the egg noodles. Liked the texture of the egg noodles. A bit like lo mein only not as soft. The chicken breast was a little dry.
Pork gyoza had a crunchy skin and delicious pork filling. Among the best I’ve had.
On previous trips I also tried:
Shrimp tempura — The shrimp were large and the light crunchy batter created a delicious flavor.
beef shorts ribs — Tender beef with excellent flavor a bit like the kalbi ribs at Homestyle Hawaiian.
Outside. I watch them build a new fountain at Horton Plaza. It’s nice. I was here in the old days when the old fountain sent forth streams of water into the sky. Makes me think of hope…

Talk about poor service — 11 close friends stepped in the establishment and was denied service due to a few of us were too drunk? (according to Jim The general manager). Please note — Not one of us were in fact drunk.
He kindly came over and said — how are you folks doing. After conversing with him for a few minutes he stated he could not serve us, due to a fact a few people «were tripping and crawling on the floor»
This time the service/​waitress was amazing, just the GM was horrible. If you hate your job, please relocate to a new place. No wonder this place is dead at all times.

I came here for dinner after I got out of work late on a Friday night. Pleasantly surprised!
Not sure if it is usually busy, but at 10pm on a Friday night, it was rather empty! A table for 2 was not hard to find, but the middle tables felt out of place for some reason. No order nor rhyme to the table arrangements, but hey, a seat is a seat!
The service was very good. and I think they understood we were taking our time with the menu and just talking. I didn’t feel rushed to order food, but they made sure to be available when we were ready.
We ordered three different rolls: the Rainbow Roll, Ultimate Shrimp Tempura Roll, and the Spicy Salmon Roll. They were all very good! My favorite was the shrimp tempura roll, but that’s only because I absolutely love anything tempura. The Rainbow Roll was delicious, and the avocado had a very fresh taste. Avocado never tasted better, and it had an explosive flavor to it. I would definitely order that one again. The spicy roll was nothing special, just a basic spicy roll. It wasn’t very spicy, either.
I would definitely come here again, and I’m pretty happy they made sure my friend and I were comfortable and enjoying our food. I am actually very happy to report that they know when to give people space ;) might have helped they weren’t very busy though lol

«Sushi? Ohh hell yeah. We better get some!» This is what we think when we see a sushi sign.
Décor (4): The tables, glasses, plates and cups ann came out clean. The floors didn’t feel sticky like a lot of places that serve alcohol. The restaurant was very trendy with it’s low red tinted lights and large photographs hung up on the walls. The bar was just as much a focus as the sushi part of the restaurant and had its own section. It was very loud here. I tried to have a conversation and when we realized that we were yelling, we decided to just use body language instead.
Service (5): We were seated quickly, the sushi came out quickly and COLD which means that it wasn’t sitting for long after the chef prepared it. Our trash and empty plates were picked up immediately. At one point, even the manager came onto the floor and grabbed empty plates from our table.
Food (4.5): We ordered the las vegas roll, rainbow roll, gojira roll, edamame, and seaweed salad. For drinks we got the strawberry mojito and strawberry saketini. They did NOT skimp on the alcohol in either drink. It was strong. The las vegas roll was amazeballs. It was crunchy because of the tempura and the combination of crab/​cream cheese tasted the way I imagine paying off your student loans feels. The seaweed salad was sweet and not so soft that chewing wasn’t an option. We asked for the Gojira roll with cooked shrimp instead of shrimp tempura and they were very accommodating! The roll was packed full of flavor The edamame wasn’t dry, but it was very lightly salted.
Price (4): Our meal cost $ 57.47, but keep in mind that we made most of our purchases during happy hour.

Me encantó! La atención muy buena, la comida muy rica. Y el lugar muy agradable, definitivamente de mis favoritos en san Diego.

Given that this is a big chain, I didn’t have big expectations for this place but I’ve been wanting to try it out since I love sushi and this place seems pretty unique and offbeat.
The chirashi bowl, one of their signature items, SURE isn’t your momma’s chirashi bowl, as I learned earlier this week. At first I was a bit horrified when I received it. Normally chirashi bowls have a few sashimi slices atop sushi rice and are quite plain, giving you the full flavor of the fish alone. But RA’s version is all chopped up with squares of fish, cucumber and avocado, then tossed in a spicy ponzu-​sesame sauce, along with san tsai (Japanese mountain veggies). RA’s looks nothing like a traditional chirashi bowl… but it was delicious!
What made me love the bowl was the freshness of the tuna. I’ve been underwhelmed by sushi in San Diego lately, ever since a few months ago when I first tasted tuna hours after it was caught from a fishing boat. The tuna in my RA chirashi bowl just melted in my mouth, and was MUCH more fresh than the tuna I had in a chirashi bowl earlier this week at a much more esteemed San Diego sushi restaurant. Surprise!
Incredibly, the chirashi bowl was only $ 12.35 despite its hearty portion size even at lunch, and that’s also the dinner price! I didn’t love how the spiciness accumulated in my mouth, distracting me from the freshness of the tuna. I wonder if I can request less or no sauce next time. I would definitely get this again, plus there are lots of other non-​traditional rolls I want to try.
Service was top notch, very friendly and relaxed!
TIP: There’s currently a 2 people for $ 25 ALL-​DAY Sunday deal where you can order four items plus edamame off a select menu of rolls, sashimi and apps (gyoza, tempura, yakitori, tofu). Wow!