Ru San's — Restaurant in Charlotte

So, I've been a customer of Ru Sans for about 2 years, and this used to be a 5 or 4.9 stars kind of restaurant. I mean, it used to be great.

But things have started to become unacceptable The first bad occurrence was few months ago when whilst visiting the restaurant with my family. We had to fight over soups and sides, that the server didn't bring because according to that person, that wasn't part of our order. We were arguing over something that WAS WRITTEN as included in the menu, that was F* nuts. Then the server refused to give us napkins and tried to charge a higher price than what the menu said and at that point the situation was boiling, the manager jumped in, fixed the price and offered a 50% discount and endless apologies from the team and the manager after we explained the situation.

Luckily that server doesn't work there anymore and I just letted that go and didn't write anything at the time. I took their apologies and moved on.

But since then, going to Ru Sans feels like a damn lottery, sometimes you'll encounter great food and great service... sometimes... oh well...

Some weeks ago, they brought me something completely unrelated to what I ordered, but they offered to replace it for my actual order, no issues, just that it took quite some time. But I said okay, errors happen, no worries.

On a different day, I went for a fried rice, it was SOAKING oil, the taste was still okay, but I had the concept that this placed (and Japanese overall) served healthy food, but again, feels like a lottery, sometimes you'll get it, sometimes not really...

But the last thing that motivated me to write this review is this week I had to wait like 30 or 35 minutes to be served just one dish... one dish that's in the lunch menu. And we're not talking about a fully crowded restaurant... it seemed to me that in the kitchen they just thought it was a duplicate order or something because the table next to me had the same thing. I was hallucinating. I usually tip, but I'm giving no tip when I can't even eat in the restaurant... I get 1 hour lunches. I can't wait 35 minutes just for the food to be served. It'd be okay at dinner but I can't recommend the place to my coworkers no more since they're on a time schedule.

I'm writing this review so they realise they need to go back to their previous high standards and improve.

But lately every month I visit Ru Sans is worse and more likely for you to get this random encounters. I'll give it a considerably long time for my next visit and thats if I decide to go, just in the hopes to get a better experience, cause if this situation goes on, I ain't going back...

So we decided to try this place with 2 other friends last night. One of our friends has been frequenting this establishment for 20 years. The atmosphere was very noisy, but it was a Saturday night, so this is to be expected. The menu was extensive, and if you are unfamiliar with it, it takes a while to make your selection. What I did notice was the selection of fish on the menu was limited in comparison to other places in Charlotte. Unfortunately, most Sushi restaurants these days are attempting to create rolls that are fussy, over worked, and over sauced, often drowning out the flavors of the beautiful fish. Initially when we arrived our server did have 4 waters on the table . She took our other drink order and those were quickly delivered. We placed our appetizer order to share - a total of 4 (calamari, Tofu, Tuna Collar and Edamame) which 2 were delivered fairly quickly. The other 2 we had to remind our server that they were not delivered at all. Our friend's edamame took 1 hour to receive, and their 2 miso soups again took over 45 minutes to receive. As for refilling our water glasses and removing dirty dishes ---this was not handled at all until another server - Not our own, delivered one dish of udon that was part of our dinner order. There was no silverware or additional napkins provided or ramekins for our soy sauce when our sushi would arrive. My husband received his sashimi plate first --- and the remaining 3 dishes -- Sushi rolls - did not arrive until 40 minutes later. Of the rolls, there were ingredients missing on each of them that we had to remind the server about. We had spoken to the manager about the poor service from our server. Our server then proceeded to stop by our table and ask if everything was okay. We reminded her about the remaining food that was not received as of yet. Again, our food was delivered by another server -- which does happen at times. Yet again, we did not see our server for many minutes thereafter. The 2 sushi rolls I ordered were overly sauced and too sweet. Maybe I did not understand the ingredients. The fish was fresh and rice cooked perfectly. My husband enjoyed his selections as well as our other friends. I am not saying I would not try this place again, but definitely will look at the menu prior to going to find rolls that are more traditional. Considering our bill was over $250.00---We thought the service would have been much better.

Again, when I think of sushi, the fish is the star of the dish, not all of the sauces and toppings.

I would like to give a better rating, but again for me it was just...

This was a hard place for me to rate for two main reasons: it was not what I was expecting the place to be and the type of food is not what I normally tend to get.

Let me start by saying, if you are looking for a restaurant with an "authentic" Japanese vibe and a "traditional" Japanese menu, this place is not it. Not saying that it is bad, but it's better that you walk in with the right expectations.

The place has the vibe of a local college bar. It is comfortable, loud, and it "feels" energetic. As soon as you walk in you are greeted by the bustle of conversations and moving of plates. The hostess that greeted us was super friendly. Special thanks to her for making the experience a great one.

The biggest difference you'll spot first is in the size of the menu. There is a large variety to choose from. A lot of the menu is filled with different sushi rolls, you'll find some more familiar items like tonkatsu, and there are some new, enticing items like pork belly fried rice. When I was first told we were going to a Japanese restaurant, I thought of something more traditional. This is more modern with some interesting takes on Japanese food. I tried the dancing eel sushi roll and the pork belly friend rice. I just want to say that both were very good. They were tasty and the portion was generous. But, while I did enjoy them, they are not the kind of food that I want from a Japanese place. What I mean to say is that both dishes relied heavily on sauces and when it comes to Japanese dishes, I don't want to taste sauces, I want to taste the blending of individual flavors. This is where the restaurant loses points for me. It is good, you should go there and I'm sure I'll be back to try other dishes, but I hope I can find something that relies less on sauce and more on each individual ingredient.

As for the server, I was not impressed. I asked him what he liked and/or recommended and he began to explain the menu to me. I had to ask him several times before I finally got the name of one dish (the pork belly fried rice, if you are curious). Then, he forgot to put the order in for a ramen that was ordered so we had a person waiting an extra 15 minutes to get his food. To top it off, we asked him to split the sake into two different checks. He came back a few minutes later and said that the sake had been put on one check and there was nothing he could do to split it...Yet, he was able to split the bill just fine for the other items.

Overall, give it a shot, but just know what kind of place you are going to, so that you don't walk in with incorrect...