Rumble Fish

Fresh sushi, friendly efficient waitstaff. Always delicious and prices are fair

One of my favorite sushi bars! Average prices and friendly staff.

Scotts Valley has much better sushi options than Santa Cruz, which is a shame because you’d think it’d be the other way around due to our close proximity to the beach right? Nope :(
1) The service:
This is the main reason they only get 3 stars. My group of 3 walked in with a pre-​existing reservation with 3 groups ahead of us. Thankfully, because of the reservation we were seated first but there was no hostess at the front. One server was able to help seat us after less than a 10 minute wait, but during those 10 minutes no one came to the front at all – we had to stop a waitress and ask her if anyone was coming up.
Our waitress took forever to come to our table. It was Friday night, dinner time, so it kinda makes sense. I understand if you can’t come and check up on us every ten minutes but to never come to our table is sucky. She literally only got our drink orders & brought them to us, after that we were served our food by a gentleman (he looked like a sushi chef) and our check was brought to us by someone completely different – someone we had to randomly flag down.
One thing that was pretty cool was when we walked out all the sushi chefs said «thank you» and «come again.» PLUS a waitress actually thanked up and bowed as we were leaving. Totally didn’t expect that :)
2) The food:
Really fresh food and the presentation is what I’d expect from most sushi places. Nothing super fancy in terms of plating but really, it’s the taste that matters. Overall, good food – Except my potato salad thing that came in the bento box.
Edamame app was a gigantic serving.
3) The location:
Maybe it was my map quest, because it honestly probably was, but this place was a little hard to find. If you can get on the street this restaurant is on, just keep going straight and you’ll find it haha… my mapquest made me turn 4 different times before we got here. Why? No Idea. (Note: I didn’t remove stars for this at all, just something I wanted to mention)
4) Atmosphere:
I think it’s because we came on such a busy night that we didn’t enjoy our first time as much as we should have. It was so busy and that took away from everything – crying babies and no service = meh atmosphere.

Love Rumblefish! Great sushi, great service, reasonable prices. Plus I love the little extra appetizer they give you.

This was pretty bad. Our group of six had reservations, sat down, they brought us beer and sake on the house (we think, more on that later). Things were off to a great start. After about 20 minutes we started wondering where our waiter was. We tried to get everyone’s attention to no avail. Finally our ops manager got up and went to the hostess to ask if someone could take our order. About 10 minutes later someone finally came by. They take orders on an iPad and they are still learning where everything is located on the app.
Food came out fairly quickly after ordering. Food taste was not there. The smores sushi was a hit, can’t go wrong with fried yams. The rolls weren’t good, the Ashley was the only alright one. The salmon nigiri was very smooth. The other nigiri options weren’t great. Getting our bill was another feat, same deal as getting someone to take our order: try to get everyone’s attention and then we finally think we made eye contact only to realize that our bill was never coming. Eventually it came, by this point we all just wanted to leave so we placed a credit card in the plastic tray without looking at the bill and waited for it to come back so we could sign and leave. Party of six for $ 300.

It’s Noon on Sunday and only 1 other table is occupied. I’ve been sitting here almost 30 minutes & nobody has bothered to take my order. I’m outta here! (Been here before & it’s not that great anyhow.) I’ll head to Otturo Sushi next… maybe they’ll serve me!

This is my go-​to as a Scotts Valley resident. Great Sushi and even nicer people. Service is always on point. And I love their Winter Sake special, large for 2 $, I can’t help but order 3

Good rolls! Good soup! Very kind staff! My only request is brown rice please.

Great for lunch when Im in the valley. I’ve been going there for decades! Always great! Recommended.

Came here because it was new and had four stars but were sadly disappointed. The sushi was not good. Plain and simple. The Rumble Fish roll was okay… We ordered two sashimi combos and received nigiri. We didn’t want to make a fuss so we just kept quiet. One combo came with a California roll and the other with spicy tuna, but of which were the worst I have ever had.
The combo was supposed to include a bowl of rice and we hadn’t received it towards the end of dinner. I inquired about the rice and the waitress explained, «oh did you want the rice? A lot of people don’t want it ‘cuz it’s hella food.»
No, no… I’m paying for it, and it’s in the menu description, so please bring it and let me decide if it’s too much food.
Won’t be going back.

There are four sushi/​Japanese restaurants in our small Scotts Valley community. I’ve eaten at all four… Since we’ve moved here 6 years ago, Rumble Fish has the most «consistently» delicious and freshest sushi. Their salmon skin hand roll is the best in town! They are friendly and the price for what you get is spot on… try Rumble Fish… you won’t regret it. it’s a cozy restaurant with great food and wonderful staff.

Delicious sushi! The bento box is a great deal, and their fish tastes very fresh. Had a couple of their rolls and a hamachi hand roll and everything was perfect. Great service too. Love this place

Having dinner here made our weekend. This place had the freshest sushi and vegetable tempura. You know Japanese food is fresh if their wasabi hits your tongue in an instant. I wish i lived here. I had the combo three choice and was so full. I will think of this place when visiting here again. Service was ok, but understandable bcuz its never empty.

I’d say rumble fish is the best japanese restaurant around santa cruz and scotts valley. Their service is very friendly and servers are always customer-​first minded as a lot of other restaurants should be. The atmosphere is very home-​like and comfortable. Fishes are fresh 99% of the times and if something is not that fresh they let you know about it and recommend something else (what can be better than an honest restaurant?). Their udon seafood soup is bomb especially when you are having a hangover (i always use their udon soup as my hangover soup). Only things i wish they have are shellfish nigiris like mirugai, hokkigai, or awabi. But then those are not really common in many japanese restaurants.
If you want a high quality japanese with friendly and family like environment, Rumble fish is definitely the place you should give it a shot

This is more of a 3.25 rating. friendly service, came here for lunch with a friend. Ordered a soft shell crab, a little too much breading, it was more like a crab tempura. Also had the sushi rum (5 pcs of nigiri w/​3 pcs of tuna sashimi, comes with miso soup and salad all for $ 12!), fish was fresh except for the hirame (didn’t taste as fresh as the rest).spicy scallop nigiri (tasty) and uni nigiri (not the freshest I’ve had). It was a pleasant experience… the «Asian» sushi chef behind the counter is Korean (not as authentic in my book…). Service and food was good, certainly better than other sushi joints I’ve been to in Capitola and Santa Cruz. Good value for the quality. Not a big restaurant, echoing other Unilocalers, acoustics can be improved. it’s like a «dome-​effect» in there.
Would go back with husband next time so he can try the non-​fish Japanese food.

Great lunch option if you are looking for an affordable sushi spot that offers nigiri in their set lunches. The sushi ble was beyond filling and delicious. Definitely worth stopping in for!

The best sushi restaurant in town
Been going here since they opened
They are definitely the most generous always giving extra items from their without charging which is a real treat
Whether you like sushi, rolls, tempura or bento box they are the freshest and best made
Furthermore the layout feels most authentic not too large or too small
They have their own parking lot and easy in and out access onto Scott’s valley drive
Please see photo montage for the full experience
PS if you are a pain in the arse like me you can get brown rice rolls and brown rice instead of white as a side which I do for health reasons

I’ll stop by this place from time to time. I bounce back between this and Otoro. I like them both, but for different reasons. Everyone is friendly here, and the service is prompt. I typically come here if I want the udon soup, it’s great.

Darn good sushi. That sums up this place.
I’ve eaten at this establishment numerous times over the past couple years and have never been disappointed with the food. Would be a solid 5 stars if not for the spotty service. Luckily, the service was decent tonight.
My hubby and I dined for dinner and it fulfilled the sushi craving we’ve had for a while. We ordered a Crazy Horse Roll, Ika nigiri, Uni nigiri and Ama-​Ebi nigiri. Everything was really good and very fresh. My only wish was that my Ika nigiri was served with a Shiso leaf in place of the seaweed strip, but that’s personal preference. A complimentary Rink Roll was offered and gladly accepted.
I will continue to return again and again!

Had a really good experience at Rumble Fish Sushi. I give 4 stars because 5 stars is perfect.
My wife and I went here on a recommendation from a friend. The atmosphere was interesting, it reminded me of eating at a friends house in a sub-​division of Cupertino at where I grew up.
I almost always ask the waitress «what should I order» but I didn’t have to this time because there was a «chef special» roll with a «?» In the menu… I asked her about it and she said it changes, but be prepared for it to be spicy. I ordered it!
It was AMAZING… It was a tempura shrimp inside with spicy tuna and cucumber. On the top was a rainbow roll-​ish (tuna, salmon, albacore, and unagi) and spicy mayo. On top of that was a mixture of green salads and seaweed salads toped with rooster sauce. It was great! I can say enough about how much I liked this roll.
To finish up, service was good nothing special. Salad had a good dressing, and my wife’s sashimi was decent.
All and all I would recommend the place to people! If your adventurous try the «chefs special»!