Ran Zan Japanese Restaurant

Great quality sushi from a Japanese chef. I recommend the Spider Roll and their Snow Crab and Asparagus Roll made with real Snow Crab.
Their rolls are small and inexpensive which means you can get more variety for your meal, always a plus. Their tempura sauce is high quality and not watered down like so many others. The fish is delicious and high quality. I will be back!

Lovely East side neighbourhood spot! The atmosphere feels very homely and relaxed.
The sashimi very sliced to perfection and the vegetarian yakisoba was super flavourful.
Very nice staff as well!

We’ve been going to Ran Zan for many years and more recently, not as often as we’d like.
We were there last Friday evening, on the early side, so we wouldn’t have to wait for a table.
We were seated immediately and told that if we order sushi bar items, it would take a little longer.
We don’t mind longer wait times, and appreciated the heads up so we could order some non-sushi appetizers. We had the grilled hamachi kama (fish collar), which is always delicious and highly recommended.
If you haven’t tried it, please do! We also got the agedashi tofu and yakitori (grilled chicken).
The tofu was very good, as usual, but not to my surprise, the chicken wasn’t anything special. With dinner, which was a mixture of a la carte selections of sashimi and nigiri, I had a nice, icy cold Sapporo.
Tuna was very fresh, hamachi was delicious, and salmon was also good.
Farm-raised salmon isn’t super tasty in general, but it was fresh. Also had unagi (eel) nigiri, ikura (salmon roe) nigiri, and uni (sea urchin) nigiri.
The fish components were tasty, but the rice and nori (seaweed wrapper) were not very good.
We’ve noticed this issue with the rice during the past few visits, and don’t order maki rolls anymore, but it would be great if the rice quality returned to its former quality. Service was polite and professional.
Atmosphere is homey and what you would expect for a small, independent establishment.
The older couple works hard to continue serving the community authentic Japanese food, so we appreciate the effort and food.
There are so few Japanese restaurants in RI which offer authentic Japanese options.