Joe’s Sushi (Riverside)
Tue 24 Oct 2006
Posted by Nguyen under Food, Japanese, Uncategorized, Riverside, Sushi
9555 Magnolia Ave., Riverside, CA 92503
Joe’s Sushi is known for their all you can eat sushi special, although you can still go there for individual orders as well. You might as well get the all you can eat special because it’s only $23 per person and you end up spending that much or more at other sushi restaurants. Whenever going here, I reccomend eating at the sushi bar because you get to interact with your sushi chef and occasionally he’ll make you “special” sushi. They will make you anything you want right on the spot, but the only thing is that if you want the more expensive stuff like toro or uni then you have to pay extra. Joe’s Sushi is more of a korean restaurant than anything because all the workers and chefs are korean.
some of my friend’s decided to drive up to Riverside because they had a craving for Joe’s. Unfortunately it was a friday night and the restaurant was packed. We were not able to get a seat at the sushi bar because our group was way too big to seat everyone. I apologize in advance for this post because everyone was extremely hungry and I was not able to take a lot of the pictures before my friends devoured the food. I will do another post soon when I get a seat at the sushi bar. Occasionally the chef will be impressed by how much you’ve eaten and make you one of his special rolls. You can try asking what the name of the roll is, but even they don’t know what it’s called or they will just make up a random name for you.
They felt bad because we had to wait so long for us to get seated, so they brought out a boat of sushi as soon as we sat down. It had a lot of various kinds of rolls that were very tasty! I was not able of obtain the names of each roll as they were consumed rather quickly by our table. I was even surprised that I was able to fend off the vultures for a picture.
We were brought 4 carafe’s full of sake and 4 bottles of Asahi beer. All of the alcohol was on the house because we were regulars and the manager felt bad for us having to wait so long to be seated. I had quite a few sake bombs and shots of sake. Free sake definitely makes your meal so much more enjoyable!

The crunchy roll was ok and nothing special. It just had some eel sauce and chili sauce over it.

This was the deep fried shrimp drenched with some spicy sauce and eel sauce.
The spicy scallop hand rolls are my favorite. You get a good amount of scallops and a nice hit of chili. Usually when we sit at the bar, we request a pice of salmon be added to the roll. The salmon makes the roll 10 times better.
The salmon was good as always and melted in my mouth. I would say the slices of salmon were a pretty good size. Luckily I was able to snap a shot before everyone took all the pieces.

The hamachi that night wasn’t as great as they usually make it. They must have made them in a rush. The slices of hamachi looked bad in my opinion.
Look forward to a more adequate post of Joe’s in the future. Since we had such a big party they were rushed to get all our orders out and the level of quality was not there. I will definitely get a seat at the bar next time. I was not able to order what I wanted, since what we had was more of a consensus due to our large group. It was not enjoyable this time around because we weren’t able to interact with the chef’s. They are always fun to talk to especially when they get loud and yell random words.
Taste: 7/10
Atmosphere: 4/5
Service: 4/5
Total: 15/20






October 25th, 2006 at 2:00 am
Let’s see if anyone can spot where I am in the first picture.
October 25th, 2006 at 6:58 am
I’ve been trying to comment on your blog forever! But it seems like on my work computer your Authentication code is blanked out. Now I’m commenting from home.
Anyways, great gobs of sushi! AYCE sushi is something I have always been suspicious of, but it looks like this place is really extraordinary.
October 26th, 2006 at 6:33 am
I was very skeptical when I first heard about Joe’s and their all you can eat sushi. However I gave it a try, since a lot of people were speaking so highly of it. I’m glad I tried it. I really like how the chef’s make it fresh right when you order it unlike most all you can eat places where the food just sits there.
December 5th, 2006 at 6:32 pm
I love Joe’s!! I’ve been going there forever. I really love the atmosphere and the ‘Mom and Pop’ feel that they give the regulars. Next time you go, look on the wall by the door, my friend and I are in a calendar (I’m Sept she’s July) and Jin had us sign our months and posted them up
One of my favs is their pizza roll
December 9th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
Joe’s is most definitely the best sushi place in Riverside hands down. The sushi is great quality, delicious, and everyone is very hospitable. Sit at the bar, so you could see them make the sushi before your very eyes and it’s convenient not having to be waited on. The sushi chefs are awesome and deserve to get tipped well.
June 18th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
All I got to say about Joe’s Sushi is
RIVERSIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Best place on earth.
June 19th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
RIVERSIDE!!!!!!!!!!!! if you know joe’s don’t delete
November 9th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Ugh. That girl Randi is such an attention whore! I swear! LOL
It’s funny that I even found this posting and that Randi is on it…cuz we frequent Joe’s on Friday nights for all you can eat sushi.
We cannot get enough!
anytime sushi is mentioned, we know it’s joe’s or nothing. You cannot beat the food for the price and the management and sushi chefs make the experience well worth the dollar amount.
By the way…we heart Dundy!
December 2nd, 2007 at 3:49 pm
sushi is the best food ever
December 2nd, 2007 at 3:51 pm
i love sushi ching chong i love the crunchy roll i rock
January 3rd, 2008 at 2:22 pm
I use to LOVE this place when James Parker was the owner, but Joe’s Sushi Bar ain’t what it use to be when he was the owner. It’s become way so trashy. Our experience during Thanksgiving holiday, 2007 wasn’t too good. We couldn’t even hear ourselves talk, because there were obviously some college attention getters [females] who were drunk dancing on top of the sushi bar?! I thought this was against the health and sanitation laws? James would’ve NEVER let this happen!
April 20th, 2008 at 11:27 am
I’ve eaten at the Riverside Joe’s–food was good–but, I went with my wife and my 24 year old daughter who is quite lovely and found the comments of the various sushi chefs, as we entered, directed towards my daughter inappropriate, rude and have resulted in our family not returning—If I were the owner’s I would have fired the guy on the spot–today (4/19) we’re heading for Joe’s Sushi on Beach Blvd in Whittier where the atmosphere is more family oriented.