RuSan’s Sushi and Seafood

If I could give this restaurant 0 stars I wouldn’t hesitate for a millisecond. I just finished eating at Ru San’s with 3 other people. One of the people in my party didn’t even receive their food until we were sitting at the hostess stand waiting TO LEAVE! Granted the waitress continually reminded us that it was only her 3^rd shift, but every mistake was inexcusable. We walked into the restaurant at 8:30 pm, during the time we were there our order was messed up several times, random food was brought to us many times and we were constantly asked if we had ordered it or not. We had to remind our waitress several times what our order was, additionally when we stopped her to remind her that we had been waiting 30+ minutes for certain items she argued with us by saying that she had already brought it. If she had actually brought it then it would have probably been in the pile of dishes that littered our table, which another waitress came by to clear AT THE END OF THE MEAL. Of course, the one dish missing from the dirty junk on our table was the plate that should have been the trash for the shells of TWO orders of edamame we had. Even though we waited one hour and a half for ONE sushi roll all we got was a simple «sorry.» Never once did we ever see a manager even to ask if we needed anything or to apologize for the completely ridiculous amount of time we spent at our table. Having been in the restaurant industry since I was 16, I did feel bad that our waitress’ colleagues simply let her drown. Unacceptable. When we left it was 10:20. The cherry on top, one of our guests had to smash a bug crawling up the wall of our booth. DO NOT EAT AT RU SAN’S.

A great place to eat. At lunch it’s a
Very fast meal as its quality buffet sushi. Their buffet also includes, miso, salad, noodles, rice, a veggie and something sweet. The staff is nice and responsive. I find it a really nice place to escape for an hour or so. Long sushi bar, good sushi, fast staff, and cost effective. 12 bucks for all you can eat fresh sushi with a ton of other options. Love it. Check it out.

This place left us HAPPY. Never been more satisfied with my meal anywhere else. We got the old school sushi roll and the fish cheek appetizer and the noodles with beef. Everything was amazing!’ The taste was out of this world. Definitely recommend

A solid pick for sushi! I wasn’t especially blown away by their vegetarian roll options, but they do have some interesting choices — for example, a roll filled with dried cranberries (surprisingly good, by the way!). A safe bet!

I love this place. Great atmosphere and friendly staff. The food is great! The plates are very large. I’m not a fan of sushi, but there are various selections of other foods.

I live in the gulch so I wanted this place to be good very badly. It is so convenient. I have tried it 5 times with always the same results. Fish is warm, rolls are covered with sauces and mayo to hide the not so fresh fish. It is just all around disappointing.

So I had a sushi craving and was desperate to find a place still open for lunch! My husband and I arrived at 2:15, 15 minutes before their lunch closing time. They stop putting food out at the buffet at 2, but thankfully they still had plenty left for the two of us. The buffet had definitely dwindled and they were out of a few types of rolls, so I wouldn’t recommend getting there 15 min before close, but we had no problem with it. Along with sushi, they also had soup, salad, noodles, rice, and chicken available.
Was it the best sushi I’ve ever had? By no means. But we enjoyed it and it satisfied that craving;) Our waitress was very kind, friendly, and helpful despite the fact that we came in so late, and I appreciated that.

I was so excited to eat here after seeing some Unilocal pics but I should have contained myself and went to samurai or virago instead. The cucumber wrapped roll was decent, Bermuda roll was also mediocre… The Napoleon sashimi was literally off tasting — may get food poisoning later tonight (not kidding, worried). At first the waitress was not apologetic for the foul fish but eventually she came around with some free sake probably to help kill off deadly bacteria we just ate. Table also ordered a noodle and fried rice dish and really just found the flavors to be disappointing. Thank goodness the bill was inexpensive but I will never step in here ever again. Worst sushi but probably shouldn’t have chose that cuisine for Tennessee. I’ll stick to fried chicken and cheese grits for sure.

Arrived at the restaurant at 10:30 pm after arriving in Nashville late this evening. I had to pay $ 10.00 for parking but when I asked to sit at the bar, the red haired girl told me they closed at 10:30 pm. You advertise that you’re open until 11:00 tonight. Now I’m going to have to go somewhere else and pay to park again. You lost me as a customer tonight. Bar Louie gained a customer instead.

The calamari was so-​so and the food was just average. I got the chicken fried rice and it wasn’t anything to write home about. The sushi was OK.

I wouldn’t recommend sushi so far from the ocean, but if you’re craving it, this isn’t a bad venue. Decent food and service in a cutesy setting.
Calamari — we had a HUGE plate! Great for sharing amongst a group of 7! Unfortunately, it wasn’t freshly cooked. It tasted old and chewy.
Edamame — free order of edamame with Unilocal check-​in. The size was generous and lightly salted. Can’t go wrong.
Bacon wrapped scallop — the bacon overpowered the scallop on flavor and grease. Although the idea sounds good, in reality, it’s not a great concept at all.
7 color rainbow roll — pretty fresh fish. Tasted good overall.
Spicy salmon with avocado roll — my husband had requested this roll and they honored his request. I was pretty impressed they’d put together a made up roll.

We absolutely love this place. Toto treats us like VIPs and takes incredible care to make sure we get what we want. A perfect end to any Nashville night.

RuSan’s offers adequate food with reasonable prices. I have been there twice in the past three years and found the food & service to be consistent each time. The buffet is filling with an assortment of fried & seafood sushi rolls, noodles, fried rice, calamari, four other selected dishes of the day, Vegetarian Inaka Miso Udon soup, salad, & lightly fried banana rolls. If you do not care for the buffet there is an extensive menu of your favorite Japanese cuisine (s).
Very Important Tip #1: Please note to NOT waste food from the buffet or you will be charged for what you do not eat. There is a sign posted on the buffet & the server was kind enough to inform us as well.
Tip #2: The weekday Buffet is best to get there before 1:00 pm.
Tip #3: The parking meters in front of RuSan only allows 1 hour intervals for a maximum amount of $ 1.00. Bottom line save your change as the meter will only count up to $ 1.00 & anything more it will just take it.
Now to the physical condition of the restaurant. The restaurant is as clean as it gets as I witnessed them disinfecting, sweeping, & mopping. However in all honesty this restaurant could use a makeover/​renovation/​upgrade. The plates and silverware are scratched, the floor is scuffed, the green tea kettle appeared dingy, the female restroom has two stalls with one missing a door, and the buffet equipment is worn & outdated.
Take some comfort that RuSan’s has a 97 health rating as of September 2015 that is visible in the front of the restaurant.
The ambience, décor, cleanliness, quality of the food, & service are very important to me and that can make or break my overall dining experience. They did change their music (thank goodness) to more pop & classic rock genres.
Four generous stars as this restaurant has the potential of being a five restaurant however; needs major improvements in the areas mentioned above sooner than later.

First time here, and the fire alarm went off for a long time before anyone knew how to stop it.
I love the sake blossom and the cute sake glasses. They also have a great à la carte menu of sushi and sashimi options. Definitely a trendy spot for sushi.
There are only about a few tables that are good for large groups. Parking can be a bit of a pain in the Gulch area, but fun if you’re bar-​hopping.

I was told to come here for the unlimited sushi buffet. Knowing it was a sushi buffet for 11 dollars I didn’t expect much and had tempered my expectations. Yet they still underwhelmed. It was like all the sushi they had was yesterday’s sushi that other restaurants threw out. I tried every roll and none of them made me want more. Even the spicy mayo was subpar.
Their fried calamari was oily and not cruchy. I didn’t even try the fried rice. They don’t refill the food on the buffet often at all so it looks like it has been picked over. Do yourself a favor and stay away from this place.

This place is just wrong in so many ways.
1. They are always blasting some ridiculous techno music that just completely ruins the experience…
2. The sushi is just slightly above store bought sushi (especially the buffet sushi).
3. The interior decorating is beyond schizo
4. The servers can improve with kemptness
5. Parking — good luck…
I can’t believe this is in the gulch of all places…

Who knew that you could find a sushi buffet in the downtown area?!
Someone recommended and we check out Crafts and Hops … but when we got there, we learned that the food options were few and far between. So… we headed out on foot for lunch with no particular place in mind. We literally stumbled into this place.
When I walked in, I was overwhelmed by the fish smell, but we were hungry and it seemed like a pretty legit spot.
There were so many choices of sushi, that I wonder how long that each sat out before being consumed. I can totally see food poisoning in the future of anyone who intakes too much of this stuff. Here was my way around it. I figured out the one kind of sushi that wasn’t on the buffet and I asked when and if it would be available, and voila… a few minutes later, as I was partaking in my miso soup and ginger dressed salad, appeared the California roll sushi. The host mentioned that it was ready, but I was going to wait and finish my soup and salad, instead he brought me a plate of if directly to the table. Wow, that was nice gesture and that main reason that I’ll push my 3.5 review into a 4 ;)

Kinda hidden between 2 other restaurants and some shops, Rusan’s is a great place for sushi, as well as other Asian dishes. A girl at Urban Outfitters recommended going and told us to get the rice balls, but even though they are only $ 2, they are large enough for a meal. My coworker and I each ordered one, as we were intrigued. We both also ordered a few skewers, and I ordered some sashimi while he ordered ramen for our main dishes. HOLY RICE BALLS! They were HUGE! And also awesome… crispy on the outside, warm, sticky rice on the inside. Covered in teriyaki sauce. SO GOOD! I was disappointed that the skewers were also covered in sauce. But the sashimi was fresh and large pieces, and my coworker really liked his seafood ramen. Spicy but not overpowering. I will be back!

Like Virago, but fun.
Ru Sans has become my go-​to spot for great food, cold sake and good times. Like many reviewers, my Ru Sans experience had been limited to the lunch buffet — which, as I stated in my previous review, is as good as it gets in Nashville. A few months ago I was in the Gulch and stopped by for a beer and some sushi. My attentive waitress suggested one of the «cooked» entrees (there are many to choose from), and I tried it, the lime salmon. Wow. Very good! The presentation was excellent, the salmon was fresh, and the portion was more than generous. The sushi roll that I tried was clearly a cut above the normal buffet fare, and the spicy edamame was delightful. Perhaps the most pleasant surprise was the crowd — good folks hang out at Ru Sans! If you haven’t been to Ru Sans in a while, I suggest stopping by. I’m glad I did.
If they are busy, sit at the bar. The bartenders can tour guide the menu, and the drinks are quick, wet, and fairly priced.
And, free valet makes parking a breeze!

I stopped in to have sushi with a friend before the Avett Brothers concert downtown. I was excited to try this place but my first impression was quickly dampened upon arrival. The place felt dirty and looked worn. We were greeted at our table by a less than cheerful server who attempted to answer our questions about the 16 page menu that appeared to be in Japanese. I felt she was put out by our questions and seemed annoyed that we were asking although she did admit the menu was one of her biggest complaints.
We ordered some sushi and finally received our drink order. I asked for a straw for my water and again felt she was annoyed she had to make another stop at our table.
The sushi rolls came out and mine looked, ehhh, nothing fancy, but I guess I had great expectations with a name like Tokunago or something like that. #boring
After dinner I made my way to the ladies room. I’m not sure what was more disturbing; the alley way open door access, which seemed unsafe, especially at night, or the way my shoes stuck to the bathroom floors. #ew.
All in all, it wasn’t the best or worst sushi place I’ve ever been to but I won’t miss it next time around.
I recall the 95 prominently posted in the window and joking about what year they received that grade. This place needs a makeover and fast.