Robata JINYA

Loved, loved, loved the food!!! Happy hour menu had a wide variety of selections to choose from including hand rolls and skewers of beef and all sorts of meats for just $ 3/​$ 5. We tried the Ramen, skewers, and hand rolls. Our favorite was the spicy tonkatsu Ramen!!! And the food was not only good, but the service was as well. They’re all very friendly and attentive!!!

Food poisoning ALERT !!
Went to dinner with my boyfriend on 2÷1÷2016 we ordered jinya ramen, oyster shooter, sushi salmon, 3 kinds of mushrooms, salmon with mushroom truffle oil, chicken thigh oyster, and bacon wrapped sausage.
The food was tasty and great service. However we both got food poisoning the entire night and day after so we cant go to work! He had wendy’s for lunch and i had just some cereal and apple at home so it is impossible to get a food poisoning from others elsewhere but here! I dont know if it happened to anyone and i’m not sure if it because of the salmon or oyster but this is gonna be my first and last time at jinya bye!

Good sushi. I recommend la brea roll, albacore truffles roll, Angelina roll and triple hot roll. Caramelized cauliflower is amazing and the foie grass and prime rib robata is spectacular. Fish is super fresh. I forgot to take pictures…

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY. You decide what really happened.
THE BAD:
It was after 7pm so they were open. I called 17 times during a 33 minute window on the way there (and to my nearby home). I know, I know… seems excessive and crazy. The thing is, my iPhone offers the ability to automatically keep trying back so I did. I really wanted to find out if they could seat us or if we should drive somewhere else to eat.
The phone was busy the entire time. This is odd because I live a block away and order to-​go a fair amount and have NEVER had this problem. I presumed that their phone must accidentally be off the hook.
As I walked up to the hostess, I noticed the single-​line phone on the stand next to her. While I waited my turn, I re-​dialed. I got a busy signal. When I approached, I told her that I kept calling and getting a busy signal and that it might be off the hook. She looked me right in the eye and said it was because so many people were calling… it was constantly busy. I then told her that I was at that very moment calling, getting a busy signal and that obviously she was not on the phone and that it was not ringing. She stuck to her story and calmly repeated her claim that it was because too many people were calling. But it wasn’t ringing???
THE UGLY:
The restaurant was full and on a wait. So… I understand wanting to take the pesky phone off the hook, although I wouldn’t run my restaurant that way. I don’t understand why she chose to be dishonest? I am a regular there. I am a grown-​up. I even demonstrated in real-​time that the phone was not ringing.
THE GOOD:
The reason I didn’t give only 1 star is because I do like the food and most of the staff.

Mediocre. Esp for the price.
The duck skewer tasted overcooked and kind of burnt. The salmon skin sushi was dry and lacking in flavor. The ramen was WAY TOO SALTY. Mixed with the beer, I actually felt nauseous.
And 10 dollars for the shrimp toast, which came in a tiny portion? Meh.

I live in the area, sew that place couple of times and always thought it looked very tempting. One day I had a chance to finally give it a shot — I left the restaurant very pleased.
We ordered couple of different dishes including sashimi. Everything tasted very fresh and just the way it supposed to. I love Japanese food, I’ve tasted a lot of good dishes while living in Tokyo and must say, that place isn’t far from what i’m used to.

My friend made reservations for this place on a Thursday night. The restaurant is REALLY tough on their reservation. We arrived 15 minutes but they wouldn’t seat us until it’s 6:30. Which is pretty unusual and really wasn’t a good first impression with all the empty tables in the restaurant and to-​be customers waiting until it’s exactly their reservation time.
Service was decent, although the terrible layout of the restaurant made it extremely difficult for the waiters to get to our tables, since we were sitting along the wall and the tables were pretty close to each other. The servers were all very friendly and helpful with food recommendations.
Food wise was decent, and they did have some special dishes on their menu — truffle brussel sprouts tempura, chicken thigh oyster and the tofu, which they let sit on our table, watching it solidify was a pretty cool experience. Apart from the interesting food menu, the food quality was mediocre and overpriced for the quality.

Wow. How can you not love the combo of meat sticks and sushi. Good sizes to try a bunch. Chicken thigh, beef, and duck were my favorite.
The toro sushi was also excellent (but pricey). The rice was slightly warm like sugarfish.
I recommend sitting at the sushi bar, instant service, get the meats straight off the grill.
Also, fantastic service.

Robata JINYA is one of my favorite restaurants in LA. THE RAMEN IS THE BEST HERE, even though it’s not advertised as their main dish. I honestly think that it is better than Daikokuya, Silverlake Ramen, Santouka, and Orenchi Ramen in Norcal. I always order the Spicy Tonkotsu. I love that they use spicy bean sprouts and the soft-​boiled egg is perfect! I also like the fact that they offer a half portion option. I recently tried their skewers, and those were delicious as well! I recommend the Chicken Thigh Oyster and Chilean Sea Bass.
I won’t stop raving about this restaurant but at the same time I secretly hope that it stays low-​key to prevent long lines lol. It truly is a hidden gem. I will definitely stop by Robata JINYA every time I’m in Socal.

My first experience with Jinya was at their sister Studio City location, where lines were out the door and the wait, at or around 8:30 pm on a Sunday, was roughly 45 minutes, give or take. We didn’t wait but any establishment with such a sight naturally attracts attention.
Although I’ve tried many places on 3^rd street, and I’ve walked past Jinya numerous times, it never clicked until one day, my friend and I entered because she wanted ramen. I then realized this restaurant was associated with the one in Studio City. Moreover, I learned that this location is the only one which takes reservations. So I made reservations through OpenTable.
Upon entrance, at first, it’s a lot to take in, especially if you observe the various options and dishes on people’s tables. From ramen, to sushi, to barbecued skewers… you name it, they have it.
After looking through their expansive menu, I was overwhelmed with options, which can’t really be a bad thing. Kind of. In any case, determined to try their ramen, I ordered the small size ($ 6.80) and then proceeded to order two sushi rolls (albacore with truffle oil and the La Brea roll) with one salmon skewer.
The sushi came quickly. Both rolls were about $ 10 with six pieces each. Very tasty with good quality fish. I would not say this lightly or generously! My friend had the beef skewer with Asian sauce and she said it was extremely flavorful — both in the sauce it was dressed in and in the meat. «Explosion of flavor.» I’m down. My salmon skewer was beneath a thick and creamy mushroom sauce. It was good but not something I’d enthusiastically order again, as compared to the other dishes. The vegan ramen was also delicious and extremely rich in onion and garlic flavors. I’m super down with such flavors but be cautious if you’re not!
Since then, I’ve returned twice for lunch. One time, I ordered a full size of the vegan ramen. The other, I ordered one of their lunch specials (amazing deals!) which was a chirashu bowl, miso soup, and a salad all for $ 20. The chirashu bowl (see my pictures) featured about ten different kinds of fish, including but not limited to halibut, scallop, uni, salmon, tuna, albacore, and some others I can’t remember.
Loved my experiences here and appreciate the diversity and versatility of options. See you soon, Jinya!

We truly enjoyed our meal. The skewers are fun and came with different dipping sauces.
I had to have the black ramen, ½ size which was perfect. It was very flavorful and the egg made it.
We also say at bar and got some of the happy hour items.
I will go back.

I don’t want to review this place just because I don’t want people to know about this gem of a place, but how can I resist?!! This place is like Katana, without the «foofyness» and even better. It’s cozy and they are welcoming and it’s the perfect balance between authentic and trendy/​modern. It’s the best place for a girls/​guys night out. You can get so many things for the table and the variety is endless and everyone is sure to be pleased. You can drink amazing sake and beer and you can sit indoors or outdoors and they will accommodate you.
They have amazing rolls that are so well balanced. I love their tempura seabass roll. Their Japanese BBQ is on point. From the chicken meatballs to the garlic beef, it’s all good. Just go there and order. One of my favorite things is the tempura shrimp. Very creamy, perfectly crispy and nice size. The homemade tofu is definitely surprising and it’s something that you won’t experience everywhere so you need to try it at least once over here.
I really like the servers. They are always on top of you but not in an annoying way. They make sure you are happy and they are personal with you so the experience is also good because of them. Parking is hard to find so you may want to valet and reservations are highly recommended or you have to wait 15 – 30 minutes.

Came here for the first time and really enjoyed it! Got lucky and was in time for happy hour and I loved the menu. I could solely eat off of that and be happy with the selections. We ordered a couple of things that were NOT on the HH menu, and still our final tab came out pretty cheap for the amount of food we got, how delish it was, and selection. I would come back here and hopefully for HH again. The food came out at a nice pace and they came around a couple of times to refill our water/​free green tea. However, since my friend and I drink a lot/​fast, towards the end when we had no more food coming out, they didn’t really come back so we had to flag them down. They do play music on the slightly loud side, tables are a bit close together so you can hear next table’s convo and when you get up to leave, you have to squish thru. They keep it pretty darkly lit inside. Patio has heaters and clear plastic curtains/​cover but if they had twice as many heaters it would have been warm enough for me to sit out there. Valet is $ 8. We got the below (also see receipt photo)…
HH:
chilean sea bass roll — 4 sushi pieces, with a little salad on top, good dressing and whatever leaves they were, also yum. the fish is tempura style. love the salad too, cause it’s healthy and tastes great.
3 skewers for $ 5 — they have 6 flavors you can choose from — tebasaki (wings), brussell sprouts, tomato?, chicken tenderloins (breast meat?), another veggie, and something else — i took photos of the HH menu so look at it. :) i got 1 wing order which comes with 3 wings — no salt or sauce comes with it, and 2 tenderloins — which for some WEIRD @ss reason come with wasabi dotted on it and seaweed. ??? All the chefs and the GM seemed to be Japanese so not sure where they got that from. I’m Japanese, FROM Japan, and I’ve never seen or heard of that. I was fine with seaweed, but scraped off the wasabi cause I only like it on sushi. Also the breast meat was dry, I should have just ordered all wings. They gave you dipping sauce for the skewers, but again I had never heard of this and whatever 3 flavors they gave were not very Japanese-​y. So I only ended up using one. Not sure why this place isn’t like a traditional yakitori place where they ask if you want salt or tare (sauce).
2 hand rolls for $ 5 — we got one yellowtail and one spicy tuna. good! very traditional/​spot on.
salmon truffle oil sashimi — LOVED THIS. it came with 4 radish slices and some sprout leaves or something that looked like 4 leaf clovers, but not sure what they are called. loved the «salad» again cause it made the dish healthier.
NOT HH menu:
shrimp toast — 8 pieces, good even without the semi sweet/​semi spicy mayo type sauce
organic tofu — i love home made tofu, Jonathan Gold recommends it, and I really enjoyed it. You MUST let it sit for 5 min to form. Not sure what they are doing/​adding to make it table side, which is really them just pouring it out into a bowl. Gelatin??? I should have asked.
grilled rice ball — anytime I see this on a menu I have to get it cause making it at home takes forever and who has the equipment to make this at home? soy sauce flavored, crispy on outside, soft on the inside. yum! usually takes 15 – 20 min (it didn’t say that on the menu, but every other place I’ve ordered it from will usually state so)
chicken oyster skewer — which is just chicken thigh, slightly fatty which I LOVE, good size pieces on stick, i think there were 4, no salt or sauce, just grilled, really enjoyed this. I put sauce on it.

Loved everything. The shrimp toast was fun. The chicken meatballs with the cilantro sauce is a must. The homemade tofu, made at the table is fantastic. Like a savory custard… It’s better than it sounds. You add scallions and other condiments to garnish. It’s really great. The yellowtail sashimi was perfect.
The fried truffle brussel sprouts might be the greatest thing ever. It’s fried in a light tempura. It’s really, really, really good.
This place is fantastic. Its cozy, the ambiance is comfortable with beautiful lighting. I’d eat here weekly if I lived closer. It’s genuinely good.

Let me be completely honest and say that I enjoyed the company that I had more than the food that I ate.
The quick summary to this is: Great place, a bit expensive for me. but a workaround might be their Omakase option for money value!
Let me start and say that I am the type of guy who wants to leave a restaurant feeling super full. And I cannot do that without spending more than $ 40 here which is a little bit too much for me considering my mind was not blown (too hard) with the food that I ate.
THE BEST thing however in my opinion is their sukiyaki skewer. I think its a great rendition of something that i LOVE and grew up eating. The aftertaste is the same!
The hand roll is great. I had the scallops! You can taste a difference in quality and it leaves a great lasting impression.
The shrimp toast is a little overrated. No need to spend $ 13 on that. I did not enjoy that mostly cause i thought it was too expensive for what I was eating.
The La Brea Roll is good. I was happy i ordered it but Im not gonna toss and turn at night looking for it you know?
The Ramen is gonna be a crowd favorite. I think their spicy umami miso is the best in town. Also take note that all the JINYA ramen bars are associated with this restaurant so if you love those, its the same exact ramen! and i love those!
Staff is nice! really helpful and share good rapport with their customers!

Robata JINYA is one of several Japanese restaurant located on the strip of 3^rd Street. If you are not familiar with 3^rd St., it is a foodie mecca that literally, has the best of the best places to dine in! JINYA lives up to this rows of foodie in the area, where they provide great service, awesome brunch specials especially ramen and even their sushi rolls were quite delicious. We dined outside their front patio overlooking the street view and it was fantastic. Their ramens for sure are quite flavorful and I highly suggest you give them a try!
Until then, Cheers! ~ :p

ENVIRONMENT
Like other restaurants on Third, both indoor and outdoor seating available as well as valet. There is also a sushi bar inside.
MENU
Large selection of skewers, sushi, tapas and ramen.
Also, great happy hour menu selection
SKEWERS — Comes with three sauces
Okra — good and sweet
Brussels Sprouts — my favorite of the three. I love charred.
Chicken — good.
Shrimp Toast — this is a must try. It’s so F’ing good that I could eat it all day long. A definitely new vice that I will specifically come here for.
Spicy Tonkotsu — Not unbearably spicy, but does the job.

Great experience here. Sat outside with the beautiful weather. Service is good and décor is nice.
Ordered the classic ramen. Noodles cooked just right with a great tasting traditional broth. The pork was very tender and broke up easily. Added an egg that was cooked perfectly. Sushi was also fresh and good. The server was more than accommodating for splitting the checks.

The small, noisy restaurant served up some of the best ramen I’ve had. The sushi was fresh and tasty as well.
The one thing we weren’t crazy about is how hot and loud it was inside.

My husband and I came here for a date night dinner before heading to the Groundlings for a comedy show, and this turned out to be a great way to start the night off right. 4.5÷5 stars!
Service was very friendly and prompt; I didn’t have any of the issues that other reviewers did. My server was helpful in suggesting the appropriate amount of food, and he frequently came by to check on us and refill our water. Dishes came out very quickly — I feel like we never had more than a few minutes between dishes.
We got the first omakase option (byakko) as well as a smattering of happy hour dishes (happy hour on Saturday!!! awesome!!). Surprisingly, we got to try lots of items between the two of us, which I enjoyed.
SO GOOD I’LL GET IT AGAIN NEXT TIME:
– Spicy tonkotsu ramen (medium spicy level): so flavorful, hearty, and complex. The spiciness made me raise my eyebrows, but it wasn’t overwhelming at all. Noodles were perfectly al dente, and the tender melt-​in-​your-​mouth chashu was excellent.
– Shrimp bacon skewer: really well-​seasoned, and the shrimp was perfectly cooked.
HAPPILY RECOMMEND:
– Chicken thigh oyster: mm, moist.
– Tsukune: I liked dipping it in the cilantro sauce for a bit of acidity.
– Crispy rice with fois gras: smooth and creamy topping, slightly tangy sauce, and crunch from the rice.
– Shishito peppers: nice char from the grill. Flavorful sauce.
– Nasu miso (eggplant): eggplant’s texture still weirds me out a little, but I still enjoyed this dish because the sweet and savory miso sauce was so tasty.
– Scottish salmon truffle: above average fish quality, and I liked the light hint of truffle.
– White chocolate terrine: the dessert that came with the omakase. Sooo yummy. The only reason I wouldn’t *definitely* order this next time is because I should watch my waistline…
COULD SKIP, BUT STILL GOOD:
– Shrimp toast: didn’t blow my mind as I expected from the reviews. The toast was really crispy, so that was nice. Flavor was pretty mild.
– Lycheetini: only $ 5 at happy hour. Decent amount of booze. Very sweet, but that’s just because lychees are super sweet! True to the flavor of the fruit.
– Prime beef skewer: if you like beef in all its glory, you might like this. It was a little boring for me — I wanted more flavors added.
– Edamame: very good but you can get this anywhere.
The place was really busy on Saturday night, so I’m glad we made reservations — I even heard the hostess turn someone away because it was fully booked. I’ll definitely be coming back for more — there are lots of items on the happy hour and regular menus that I am still dying to try! Good thing the ½ order of spicy tonkotsu ramen and shrimp bacon aren’t too big — I’ll have lots of room for more =D