Rock N Roll Sushi — Restaurant in Glendale

This is the weirdest review I've ever written. The one shiny gold star is reserved for the nice server with the cool hair, as well as the clean and impressive interior. This would be a super fun place to have a drink and that's it.

If you look at my historical reviews about restaurants, I'm very easily impressed. I'm someone who uses the same bowl for ground beef and rice, then fills it with chocolate ice cream to avoid washing a dish. I've had egg salad sandwiches from sketchy gas stations and thought they were "alright." What I'm trying to say, is, I'll pretty much eat anything.

Except sushi from Rock n Roll.

I'm honestly shocked at how many 5 star reviews there are, but you can buy anything these days. Or maybe I came on a bad day. Who knows. I don't even usually write reviews, but I'm bored at work and still thinking about how comically bad my food was last Sunday.

Anyway, the rolls taste disgusting. I'm not going to compare these bastardized rolls to something a traditional Japanese izakaya would put out, that would be ridiculous. I knew what to expect coming to a place called "Rock n Roll Sushi." I don't even know if it's just me and the chef not "vibing" because upon realizing that this is a franchise means that the owners might not have any liberties to change the menu at all. Some corporate bootlicker who lost their tastebuds years ago probably set it up and now everyone must suffer. If this is a corporate location, ew BOLD... Just ew.

Things we ordered: Appetizer Sampler - Tastes like "nothing." Thought I had COVID. The "egg rolls" (it's one egg roll cut in half) just had this rotten, frozen ground mystery meat taste. Wontons and jalapeno poppers just loaded with cream, (which is usually the best part, ha!) was like biting into a fried eclair with no flavor. Just flavorless cream squirting at you. Sorry, I'll stop.

2 Rolls I took pictures of but can't match the the pics on the menu? - I think the first one was the Thriller Roll? Immediately crumbled apart when I picked it up with chopsticks. I don't know how, but it tasted like Kraft cheese and ketchup dumped on rice. A thousand tiny, bad cheeseburgers in your mouth. If only I had pickles. The second one I believe was the Electric Roll. Drowning in so much "mayo." Just sour aftertaste weirdness with chunks of... fish?

Fried rice with beef dish I also can't seem to find on the online menu - My partner said he kind of liked this. Granted, he was starving and a little hungover. I had a taste and was weirded out by how the beef tasted like it had been cooked, but then left out for a while. Possibly stored and reheated? Leftover beef taste. I wish I had a broader vocabulary for this. Bad.

Obviously, this is just one bad review from someone who they couldn't care existed. There will be plenty of more people, somehow leaving good reviews. And to be fair, the inside is super cool.

I committed the greatest of sins - Went to a McDonald's because I was still hungry but couldn't finish their food. Also to make sure I didn't have COVID and my tastebuds just weren't working right. Fortunately (maybe unfortunately for others) I did not. The McDouble did what I assume the Thriller Roll was trying to achieve.

A message to the franchise owners. Go try other sushi. Realistically compare it to yours and ask yourselves, "Why Is mine so gross?" You don't even have to find a traditional Japanese place, feel free to go to one of the wonderful Mexican fusion places in the area. It IS possible to make awesome food while not forgetting the basics of sushi arrangement and flavor. Start with, "Why isn't my rice even sticking together?" You are probably stuck with the franchise, which super sucks as I used to work for a company that owned dozens of them, so you may not have control over... anything, except the staff. But surely you can do something to save your customers from bad food?

Anyway, this is long enough.

Tldr; Stop in here for a drink and awesome atmosphere. Say "no, thank you :)," to the food menu, tip, and leave to go eat...

My husband and I came in one time for lunch about a month ago. The service wasn't great. We ordered Miso Soup which we never received. We also ordered 3 different types of Nigiri which were good except that the rice was very heavy & dense & not the usual texture of good sushi rice. Knowing that they're pretty new, we decided to give them another try this afternoon. We walked in, there were 2 customers at one of booths & one gentleman sitting at the bar talking with the bartender. The bartender told us to sit where we would like so we chose a booth which was set with menus & chopsticks, but no napkins. After 5-7 minutes, the bartender came to our table, I asked her if they had Miso soup and she said "yeah, I think it's ready" so we ordered 2 bowls & drinks. While we were waiting for our soup & drinks, I noticed a gentleman come from the back to deliver food to the gentleman sitting at the bar, the server had his thumb in the plate. After setting down the food, he walked into the back again, hitching up his pants, tugging at his shirt & on his cell phone. We almost left then, we should have. The bartender then brought us our drinks and we also ordered the Crowd Surfer roll. While she was at our table, she asked if we wanted the seaweed in our Miso soup or on the side. Being a bit confused ( We have never been asked of that question before) she explained to us that some customers complain that sometimes the seaweed overflows the bowl so the servers now put it on the side (?!?!) We said we would like it in the soup. A little later, she brought us our roll & we asked about the status of our Miso soup. She said "it's almost ready, they're warming it up" (huh?!?!) By the way, still no napkins

A few minutes later, she brought our Miso soup. The first thing that I noticed was that there was no tofu in the soup. Just seaweed sitting on the bottom of the bowl of broth (see picture). We then asked for napkins which she brought. I tasted the soup & it was beyond vile. Not even close to being edible. My husband said it tasted like microwaved cleaning fluid of some sort. We were both very glad that we had each only taken a tiny little sip. God knows what was in that bowl. I will say that the Crowd Surfer roll was quite good. We were ready to leave, and had to wave down the bartender to pay. When she asked how everything was, my husband said that the roll was good but the Miso soup is inedible and needs to not be served to anyone. Her response was verbatim "Hahaha, I told you it was bad! I told you the seaweed overflows the bowl!" My husband and I were appalled. I told her that it was appalling that Instead of apologizing or any other type of appropriate response, the only thing she said "I told you it was bad". She then stormed away without a response. She came back with our receipt & my husband's card, she slammed them down on the edge of the table & walked away without a word. As my husband and I walked out the door she yelled to us from behind the bar "have a nice day!" We will absolutely never return to Rock n Roll Sushi, and we will make sure that we spread the word. We heard someone (bartender maybe) say they've been open about a month and a half. We understand that new places have growing pains but our experience today was inexcusable and has nothing to do with being new. At this rate, they won't be open 2 months from now which will be a blessing. Please be warned...

Not sure why this place is rated so highly. Never in my life have I had a worse sushi experience. For starters, whoever thought Rock N Roll and sushi should be combined should be institutionalized and never allowed to work in the restaurant business ever again. I am very curious to know how that conversation at the bank to open such an establishment went. Not only is it an incredibly weird atmosphere, but this takes the cultural appropriation cake. I wouldn't mind it too much if the food was good. It isn't.

For some reason, half the rolls offered have crayfish listed as an ingredient. I have never in my life seen crayfish on sushi. Is the theme supposed to be southern? I'm guessing they have them because crayfish is cheap, and they can pass those savings to the customers, right? WRONG. The rolls are like $15 each and even then they skimp on the fillings. It was bland and the FRIED vegas roll I got was somehow cold to the touch. Speaking of cold, the ramen was no better. The entire dish screamed Maruchan Instant Noodles. To top it off, they added a HARD BOILED egg, that was freezing cold. We even added an extra one thinking it would be soft boiled, because who in their right mind wluld put a hard boiled egg in ramen? And a cold one at that.

This place wasn't busy at all either. I think we saw one or two other people while we were there (which wasn't long, we wanted out) on a friday night, which makes me wonder, again, WHO IS RATING THIS PLACE 5 STARS?? The drinks were good, and helped me forget that I just spent $80 on two rolls and a bowl of frozen soup.

The service was...fine? We sat at the bar and the bartender would routinely leave quite often, resulting in us having to wave him down for the check. He also wasn't super pleasant, but our food came out decently quick, which I would expect considering how dead it was.

Spend your money elsewhere. There are a ton of good options just around the corner, and they don't play Sweet...