Rush Street

I'm not sure what the other reviewers are complaining about, but I have never had a problem with Rush Street and I've only gone on Friday and Saturday nights! If the service was a little slow, it's because the place was so packed it was difficult to walk through, and I'm sure each server had a bevy of tables to take care of. I'm baffled by people complaining that they weren't taken care of immediately. Clearly the staff isn't just taking care of one table so they won't be there every 10 minutes to cater to each person. But my waiters have always come back, asking if we need anything else and being charming, to boot. And if I needed something, calling out to my waiter has always brought one immediately over. Maybe having a sunny disposition makes a difference? As for Guinness, I'm an avid G drinker and I don't have a problem with the pour. Not many places outside of the UK do know how to pour a Guinness, so I simply wait 3 minutes to let my drink settle before taking a drink. Which is actually what I'd do even if the pour was correct. Problem solved. \r \r I also love the food and the desserts are AWESOME. Baked goods... Yumm. \r \r Try it with an open mind and be a little peppy when talking to waiters! :) Pros: Great dessert, waiters are charming and attractive, cute restaurant Cons: It's a little loud, can be crowded and you're going to have to wait if you don't make a reservation more

I've been to Rush Street 3 times. \r \r - August 21, 2008 I went with a large group on a week night for happy hour. No complaints. Good food, drinks and service. \r \r \r \r \r \r \r - November 28, 2008 I went to Rush Street with one friend. Granted, it was a busy night. We were able to get a table on the upstairs patio. We waited 20 minutes and no one even came by to give us menus. I went inside to try and order drinks from the bar. The bartender told me that I couldn't stand where the waiters place orders. That was fine, so I walked over to the other side of the bar where she proceeded to ignore me for the next 10 minutes. After 30 minutes of being ignored we left and went next door to Gyenari's and had a great time with good food and prompt service. \r \r \r \r \r \r - January 26, 2009 I went to Rush Street with another friend hoping that my last experience was a fluke. On a Monday night at 5:30pm, it was not croweded at all. We were seated immediately downstairs and given menus. 15 minutes later no one came by to find out if we were ready to order, take our drink order or even offer us water. Then another party of four was seated right next to us and their order was taken with water on the table within 2 minutes. We picked up our stuff walked next door to Gyenari's and had a good time. \r \r \r \r \r \r Take if from me, skip Rush Street and go straight to Gyenari's, the waiters are attentive and polite. The food is good and they have a nice assortment of specialty drinks. Pros: Good Appetizers Cons: SERVICE! more

Being a native of Chicago and then relocating to Southern Cal, there is a special connection to this restaurant and bar. I love the decorum inside, and the ambience of being there. The food is so good and strongly Chicago-influenced. Thank God for the owners of this place. Thank you for making me feel at home away from home. more

Last night I went to Rush Street for the third time and I have to say, this place gets better and better every time. The variety of culinary styles on the menu help cater to all food preferences. In addition to traditional, safe dishes that we all know and like, they have many unique dishes that I had never seen on a menu anywhere. They really get creative here. The tazaki (not sure if thats how you spell it) nachos are out of this world; a must try. The baked mac and cheese is close to perfection, using seven or so different types of cheeses. I didn't even know there were seven types of cheeses. \r I've read a few complaints about the drinks, specifically Guinness. I don't see the problem. I had two glasses of Guinness last night and that was before the meal even came out. They we're great; nothing strange or out of the ordinary to report about that. I'm not a fan of dessert usually however both the red velvet cake was unreal, as was the tiramisu.\r Being from the midwest, I feel a strong connection to Chicago-style food. I usually have a very strict grading scale when it comes to places that label them selves as ""Chicago style."" This place not only captures the great Chicago taste, but they also put their own CA spin on it. \r Rush Street is a great establishment. I highly recommend it. Pros: ambience, culinary creativity, service Cons: couldn't find the bathroom (more my fault than the restaurant's) more

...And I LOVED the food here, most notably the beef sliders & my entree, the steak frittes. I'm a stickler for price; it can always be less expensive and I can always have more on my plate, but the food here was definitely worth the price paid for it, and I left full.\r \r I've read a lot about the atmosphere of Rush Street, but I found the atmosphere to be just fine. Yes, Rush Street is trendy, but I felt it to be more of a 'laid-back trendy' than something you'd find on Sunset Blvd. Try to get a booth or better yet, get seated in the upstairs lounge, because this is the kind of place to go with a group of people who have got a couple of hours to pass (i.e. enjoy whatever game is going on that night). Pros: The food, the atmosphere Cons: Parking more

Does anyone know how to pour this beer properly?? you pour half, then pour the other half. i should have to wait a minute for my beer and not 3 seconds for the glass to fill up and u hand it to me. It seems pretty popping but the food is ok, the staff was rude to me, it started to get packed so i said forget it and me and my girlfriends just went next door, we found a place called gyenari, they werent busy, super nice, atmosphere was great, and awesome specials. more

I've given this place two chances, and it has failed. The drinks taste watered down. If I order a Guiness, it should take more than 5 seconds to pour from the tap. The staff need to be more attentive and please, this is Culver City, NOT The Palisades. We are normal folk here who thrive on being real, not pretentious. So! Get real Rush Street, you have the potential to be GREAT!!! Pros: Potential. Cons: Drinks. Service. Smell. Snobby. Prentious more

some friends and i went there for a few drinks...the place had a funny smell when we entered...the upstairs lounge was about 85 degrees...the drink i ordered was supposed to be a pear martini, but was bright red and tasted like cherry cough syrup. the server informed me that the bartender had added grenadine (eww!! why?!) to make it a red color--does that explanation even make sense? normally, i don't send anything back, but the drink was undrinkable, so we exchanged it for a glass of wine, which i didn't care for either. (but i wasn't about to send it back). it figures that upon receipt of the bill, i discovered that the wine wasn't even what i had ordered. the place wasn't too busy, but we could barely get our server's attention. she seemed nice enough, but just a bit young and inexperienced. next time, if we want to spend $13 for a drink, we'll go to katsuya where the drinks are amazing every time. Pros: design, ambience Cons: drinks, service more

I can?t remember the last time I was this disappointed by a restaurant or its staff. \r \r I went with a small group, 4 people in total, for a friend's birthday brunch. We had a reservation and called in advance to order a desert with a candle to be brought to the guest of honor. Just as we were finishing our main dishes, the desert was brought out by a bus boy who unceremoniously dumped it in the middle of the table. There was no candle on it. No-one wished our friend happy birthday. Our plates were left on the table and no-one came to take them away. After about 10 minutes, I ended up having to get up to put them on the bar so our friend could have her cake. Meanwhile, the wait staff stood around chatting, completely ignoring the fact that I was having to clear up our table myself. The place wasn't even busy. We weren't offered coffee or any other deset. When we told the waiter about the problem with the cake, he blamed the kitchen. He didn?t offer to take anything off the bill or even apologize. Pathetic service. \r \r Go somewhere else! Pros: decent food, but nothing special Cons: terrible service - i had to clear up my own table while the waiter chatted with the other staff more

Be careful of this place! Tips get changed around! 3s, 6s and 5s get turned into 8s.... 1s become 7s... Check and keep your receipts, you never know when some bartender is upping their tips. Pros: N/A Cons: Bartenders more

You walk into this place and it feels like a real cool gastro pub with some cool beers and probably a good menu. Although I did not try the menu (was there on Saturday night for drinks), the food looked great. There is a lot of different areas to relax and sit down and there is a cool island downstairs. Upstairs it feels like a completely different place. There is an area by the DJ which looks and feels like a VIP area, but a VIP area in Culver City??? I saw 1 table with bottle service...again...bottle service in Culver City? That's a Hollywood thing. If I want that, I'll go to Hollywood where they try and cram in VIP areas for no reason. There was a random area upstairs for dancing and had a stripper pole...I'm a guy so I smiled, but it didn't go with the rest of the place. The upstairs outdoor patio was great, but it just has no identity. There was a complete mix of people, which is not a bad thing, but I just think this place needs to have an idea of what it wants to be. The music was also too loud and I could barely have a conversation with people I met there. Pros: Beer selection, Menu, Location Cons: No identity, random stripper pole, music is too loud more

Went on a thursday night and was seated promptly with a group. Had a very attentive server. Entrees were... uninspiring. The mac and cheese was the only bright spot. Humus was strange. The decor seemed a bit confused. sports bar? hipster hangout? elegant dining? by aiming for all 3 it missed the mark on all counts. more

My best friend and I were driving around and literally HAPPENED upon Rush Street last wknd. We had no clue all of this new work had been done over in Culver City so we were both very excited to see all the new and wonderful things that were there. Once inside at the bar, the bartender (Thomas) made sure that we had a great time and even made us his own signature drink - YUMMY! The crowd left a lot to be desired since most of them were little corny, thus the 4 stars, but the space is great, the music is appropriate, the bartender was hilarious and I'd love to go back! more

We sat upstairs on the back patio. People were smoking all around us with no regards for the people around them. The crowd was pretty trashy but not as bad the deep dish pizza. The server was aloof and disinterested in our table. Although, she was interested in the table of guys next to our group. Lucky them, they received free drinks! We decided to go to the bar to order. Luckily, the bartender was super nice. So, we gave them two stars only because our bartender's drinks were good.\r \r Pros: good drinks Cons: the crowd more

Absolutely brutal! The upstairs bartender who is clearly a bitter out of work actor refused to make a proper vodka soda but had no problem taking our change and keeping it for himself as tip. The ownership is also stealing from everyone by making the well bottle liquor all watered-down...do you really think we can't tell? No class, total attitude and expensive.....I say good luck when the doors shut down in 6 months! Pathetic!!! Too bad for all that Culver City has done to remove the years of blight only to have it return in the form of shady bar owners. You had such a great chance at success. Pros: decent crowd Cons: drinks are BS more

Great space, but loud. Wasn't a big fan of the fact that the hostess sat us at the absolute worst table when the restaurant was not even half full. We were seated promptly @ 7:00 and everyone was very nice but they sat us at a table that was too close to the bar so when it did get crowded I had everyones butt in my face!!! The appetizer of buffalo lolli-pops was ok, the chicken ceasar was very good and the steak fritte was excellent. The fries came out a little on the cold side but we let it slide because the waiter was so cute!!! : ) Great bottle of reasonably priced wine...not a good dessert menu but all in all a pleasant experience. Pros: interesting wine list Cons: bad desserts more

We tried Rush Street a few weeks ago and had a pretty good experience. The service was slow but the food was AMAZING! We had the tuna tataki nachos, BBQ pork sliders and the calamari. Everything was cooked perfectly! We figured that maybe our server was just busy and that we would try coming in again at a time when they were less busy to get better service. So, last Friday we decided to give the place another shot. We arrived at 5:05pm. There was a large party in the bar of about 30 people and 1 booth seated with a 3 top. We asked to be seated in a booth and the hostess informed us that they were being saved for ""larger parties"". My boyfriend and I looked at each other puzzled... The hostess then escorted us to a table in the bar on the outskirts of the large party. 5 minutes went by, no server... Although we did notice many servers standing around doing nothing, no one attempted to help us. After 10 minutes, I found the hostess and asked her if she could get us our server. She responded with ""Well, we have this really large party here right now and they're busy with it. They'll come over when they're done"". We loved the food so much the last time that we really wanted to stay, but after another 10 MINUTES of not being acknowledged and ignored, we got up and walked out. The less than intelligent hostess gave us a warm goodbye as if she didn't remember that we had asked her to find our server 10 minutes ago. We ended up next door at Gyenari where we had great food and even better service! I would recommend it any day over attempting to get service at Rush Street. Pros: The food Cons: Everything else... more

OK, So my friends and I decided to check out the new place Rush St on Wednesday and we love the space. We loved the music and can't wait to come back when there is a DJ. This place is so pleasing to the eye the designers should be patting themselves on the back. The food - we got the bruschetta (good), the beef sliders (melt in your mouth), and these salmon things on toast which I personally loved. We decided to share stuff since our waitress (Mary), who btw way one of the best servers I have ever had, she walked up to our table with a huge smile and was giggling about something and kind of made us all laugh, she suggested ""MEAT"", so we got the Burger (Way better than Father's Office), Turkey Burger (never had one better), the white pizza ( very tasty but a little floppy). I am usually a bar sitter but it was full at 7 on Wednesday. Side bar, what the hell are the waitresses wearing??? Who the hell wears danskins? They all looked like they were stuffed in an 80's nightmare with puffy sleeves. I feel so bad for those girls, I would take it up with some sort of work torture group. But I digress. When we finished stuffing ourselves Mary suggested that we take a walk upstairs to see the place and WOW even more to come, it is so beautiful up there from the seating to the walls, the only thing I would change would be the stripper pole although kind of cool it didn't feel comfortable to sit in that area even though it was the most comfortable looking room, we felt like perverts sitting in front of a stripper pole. The crowd was late 20's to late 40's professional looking. Not stuffy, not posers THANK GOD! We hung out for a couple more drinks and we liked that the two girl bartenders weren't all stuck up. So overall great, service great, uniforms awful, food great, atmosphere great. Good fun vibe and theres valet parking to boot. Pros: Big space, something for everybody Cons: Not closer to my house more