Ronin Izakaya Bistro

you don’t know what you have until it’s gone!
come back!!!
i crave that ahi taco shimi! :[

Sad. This gem bites the dust:
Where do all the yummy ahi taco shimi live now? Not in my mouth anymore. Sad, again.
If the owners resurrect this place, you can bet I’ll be there. For the time being, I pour this sake on the ground like a stream of hundred tears.

I took my special someone here for dinner for his birthday. All the reviews on here about the location of this place are spot on and it actually helped me find the place. Ronin Izakaya is actually located between a laundromat and a strip club. Nonetheless the place actually looks really nice both outside and inside. I had made reservation for this warm Monday night but it was clearly not needed as we walked in to only one other table having dinner. Not long after a couple more tables were seated but the place was pretty quite which was nice and made for an even more romantic dinner.
We ordered the Taco Shimi, Blue Crab Cake, Calamari Fritters, Braised Duck Breast, Beef Tataki Salad, Seafood Trio Carpaccio, and Fried Rice topped with fried egg. Everything was really good but my favorites were the Taco Shimi, the Duck, the Seafood Trio, and the Fried Rice. The others were good but didn’t feel like they were as good.
The Taco Shimi as everyone else said here is absolutely delicious. Ahi tuna on top of homemade guac served on a «tortilla chip» and topped with a sweet Japanese relish. It was an explosion of flavor in my mouth. I loved every second of it. When I went in for my second one it was the same tasty explosion all over again.
As for the other dishes, the duck was cooked really well. The Seafood Carpaccio was extremely fresh. It was Ahi, Albacore, and Scallops and they all melted in my mouth.
Of course no meal goes without some dessert. We ordered the Yuzu Custard with Granita and Fresh Berries and the Flourless Chocolate Bar that comes with Vanilla Malt Milkshake shooters. I wasn’t crazy over the Custard. It was more like a flan to me and I’m not a huge fan of flan. The chocolate bar was really good but you have to be a chocoholic because it’s intense! The vanilla malt milkshake adds a really nice touch at the end.
I look forward to returning with another empty stomach to fill up on all the other plates they have. The place is a little pricey but they have a really good deal right now were you can get all you can eat for $ 25. ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT!

I knew this place was not going to authentic izakaya, but fusion.
BUT man… they should just call this place Ronin Appetizer Bistro.
Their dishes are VERY American and over sauced and flavored.
Run down:
–Taco Shimi
Way too much sauce and just too much going on (overpowering guac + dorito).
Can’t really focus on the albacore b/​c of all the craziness.
–Curried Crispy Chicken
Wasn’t hot or crispy enough. Salty. Had better.
–Duck with wild rice
This was good and different. Duck was tasty and cooked nicely and The wild rice + berries was subtle and a nice complement to the dish.
–Ronin noodles
First came with FULLY cooked egg on top. NooOooo!
Sent it back for it to be done correctly.
Only good thing about this dish was that the noodles were cooked perfectly, al dente.
Other than that, it tasted like chow mein at any chinese fast food place… like soy sauce and had tiny pcs of chicken?.
Although the desserts looks really good.
Maybe I’ll go back for that.
Parking sucks so gotta valet for $ 5. Hate that shit.
One word… Honda-​ya.

Hands down, this is my favorite asian tapas place!
They gave us free garlic edamame in the beginning! MMMM delicious! I think it was literally the best edamame of my life.
Three of us shared 6 tapas dishes + 1 dessert:
1. Ahi Taco Shimi — seared ahi and avocado shiitake mushroom relish dip on a tortilla chip. I think I could seriously eat TEN of these!!! SOOOO GOOOOOD! Take my advice as well as that of all the other Unilocalers who raved about this dish and order it! You won’t regret it!
2. Crispy Curried Chicken — crispy curry marinated chicken with sesame peanut dipping sauce. Yummy!
3. Seared Hokkaido Jumbo Scallop — I loved the sweet corn that the scallops came with! We devoured it!
4. Tataki Beef Salad — seared beef with julienned sweet asian pear and ronin ponzu sauce. Pretty good but probably my least fave of the night.
5. Shoyu Ginger Salmon — salmon, shoyu, cilantro, green onions, and ginger oil. Nothing too special about this dish but it was still good!
6. Ronin Fried Rice — Came with a fried egg on top! What is it that makes this fried rice so dang good?! I don’t know. but it was freakin’ delicious!
7. Chocolate Bar — warm gooey chocolate cake with powdered sugar and berries on top and it came with a cute mini glass cup of vanilla ice cream smoothie for each of us! I loved it!
Service was awesome! Our waitress was so friendly and helpful!
Ambience is better later in the night. We got there when the sun was still up and it wasn’t great… but throughout dinner, the sun went down and the lights dimmed… and it transformed into a great, romantic first-​date spot!
The only thing that sucked was parking. Street parking was really hard to find so I just gave up and paid $ 5 for valet.
They’re doing an AYCE $ 25/​person special right now until ⁹⁄₁₃ which is an AMAZING deal but I think it’s only Sun-​Thurs, they only give it to the first 20 people who come, and you have to pay cash but it’s SOOO worth it~ so go go go!

Dined here last night for a girl’s night out. I chose this place after reading all the great reviews on Unilocal.It’s a cozy little place off La Cienega with walking distance to STK, Coco De Ville and Area which was very convenient for us since we didn’t have to worry about parking. One bad thing is that it’s right next door to a nudy bar, and a crazy homeless guy was throwing stuff at the window! That freaked us out, as well as the couple sitting right by the window. ok… continuing on about the dinner.
Here’s what we ordered:
taco shimi — yes, exactly what everyone else talks about this dish. It was definetly our favorite that we ordered it twice!
miso clam pasta — first bite we thought it was okay, but then later we got addicted to it. Yummy
Spicy scallap dynamite with mochi — interesting. very spicy but good
chicken dumplings — average
blue crab cake — average
chocolate bar with vanilla smoothies — not bad, it came with 2 little smoothie shots and the waiter was nice enough to give us one more so we can all try it.
I’m not a sake drinker, but we ordered 2 rounds of the geisha sake flight shots with sorbet (yuzu, watermelon and lemon). It was smooth and yummy!
This place was reasonable priced and I will come here again! oh I almost forgot, the complimentary garlic stir fried edamames were tasty! I think I like Ronin over Musha’s!

Amazing with a capital A.
A+ for food
A+ for service
A+ for ambiance, décor and great use of a small space
Don’t judge them just cuz they’re right next to a fully nude strip club w/​a hooker pink sign… Ronin is awesome! I came here expecting it to be a traditional izakaya restaurant like Hondaya or Shin sen gumi but I was totally wrong. I consider their dishes more like fusion tapas made with much better quality ingredients and served up in generous portions.
I loved their own interpretation of agedashi tofu and I had to refrain myself from licking the bowl of their clam soup. I also recommend trying the ahi taco shimi. The only dish I wouldn’t recommend ordering from their menu is their crab cakes. Everything else I’ve tried so far was deelish. Definitely save some room for their sweet tapas too. Been here twice so far, shall return again and again.

I’m so tired, but sometimes writing about things I like helps to wake me up, so here I am writing on a Monday morning.
Aite, here we goes.
Came here last night with Susan P. because she listed off a bunch of eateries and «Japanese tapas» seemed the most unique to me. Weirdly, this place is located right next to a strip club, and there’s a lingerie store right across the street. What can I say. LA is weird.
We walk in, sit down, Susan lists off a bunch of her favorite small plates, and being the indecisive eater that I am, I decided that we should just go for all of them.
We ordered:
+ Ahi Taco Shimi
+ Crispy wild mushroom gnocchi
Er what else… my memory is failing me… exhaustion setting in.
Oh yes, okay, so I just checked my camera and now I know what else we got:
+ Marinated cod
— Oxtail
Here’s the rundown:
ORDER THIS:
+ The Ahi Taco Shimi was pretty tasty. So, it’s like these ahi tuna bits sitting on a bed of guacamole and some type of.. .chip. I don’t really like ahi tuna very much, but I guess they had a better quality of fish here, because it actually tasted good, and the guacamole was a strange but well-​paired complement.
+ The gnocchi/​mushroom small plate was pretty heavy but interesting and flavorful. The gnocchi was.. .fried, which was really strange to me, but it was delicious. I thought the mushrooms were really run-​of-​the-​mill, but I was in a good mood, so whatever, it was okay.
+ The marinated cod was cooked tender and the sauce that it was basted in.. .some type of.. .brown sauce. Tasty. Sorry, I know I’m not being very useful or helpful right now, but all you need to know is that this is a good dish; recommended.
DO NOT ORDER THIS:
— Oxtail. Not good. Tastes like confusing. This was a mistake.
Oh, and they also give you some hot, garlicky edamamme at the beginning, which is very different from the plain edamamme that most places serve. This was extremely tasty.
Final word: A fun little place with interesting and pretty good eats. They project Kurasawa films on the wall sometimes, which, I guess, if you’re a film junkie or into those kinds of films at all, is pretty cool. Oh, and I learned that West Hollywood is to LA what the Castro is to SF, so that’s also pretty cool.
But yes. Japanese tapas. Good stuff.

My First Finger Licking Good Meal
This was an increadable experience. I would recommend the Taco Shimi and Miso Cod.

Great, yummy food! I liked the mushroom gnocchi and taco shimi (with ahi tuna). The seafood trio (includes tuna, scallops, albacore) was also delicious as well.
The garlic edamame they serve before the meal was scrumptious!
Ronin is not as good as Musha (in Santa Monica), but still pretty good.
Easy parking in the back lot

Yay Asian tapas teasers! Portions are small and is just enough to taste the flavors. Most dishes here have a bit of greens on the side.
— Garlic edamame — Yum! Warm and garlicky
— Crispy curried chicken — Chicken was good but curry could be spiced a bit.
— Ahi taco Shimi — raw ahi tuna with avocado on a Dorito like chip, it was damn good. So good we placed 2 orders. (This is their signature dish)

— Spicy agadashi tofu — Not bad.
— Soyu ginger salmon — Delicious.
— Crispy wild mushroom gnocchi — A unique twist on potatoes.
— Miso cod — A spin on cod fish.
— Wok tossed local veggies– item was a bit spenny for about a cup of veggies.
— Ronin fried noodles — Tasty
Atmosphere is contemporary with simple decorum. Waiter was attentive.
The good: There is a hidden parking behind this establishment if you can find the entrance.
The bad: All the parking spaces could be taken up by the nudie place next door when busy.

Mmm… now this is Asian tapas done right! Not that I have a lot of experience — but I was very impressed by the spread. I ate here last night for my friend’s birthday and it was great fun.
They play old Japanese samurai movies projected on the wall like at one of those cool bars. There’s calming music playing too. The staff is super nice and accomodating — they gave us free dessert bc we had such a huge party and ordered tons of food!
My favorite dishes were the steak skewers, garlic edamame, mushroom gnocchi and both the ahi tuna and salmon tacos… as one of the party-​goers said, «…it’s like buttah!» Agreed. While it was a bit pricey and parking is a bitch on restaurant row, this place was yummy and definitely set a standard for Asian tapas!

I was with Matthew H when we decided to hit up Ronin on a recent trip to LA LA Land. He was right — the wait was a little ridiculous, but the restaurant was small, so it was understandable. Also, it’s not the restaurant’s fault that a completely oblivious group of girls sat and chatted for for over forty five minutes after they’d paid their bill. The owner, James, did feel bad, and brought us some sake mojitos (which were delightful, by the way,) to pass the time. In fact, a long wait generally makes me subtract a star from my Unilocal review, but the sake mojitos made up for it for sure.
We ordered a menagerie of tapas, and here’s the rundown:
Taco Shimi — IN-​EFFING-​CREDIBLE! They are not at all what you’d expect from Ahi tacos. The flavors went together impeccably and the presentation was fantastic.
Cold Mushroom Salad — I don’t know the official name, but I’d like to rename it «Holy Flavor Explosion In My Mouth.» I cannot explain to you how well these flavors went together… shittake mushrooms, pomegranate, balsamic, goat cheese, and BEETS of all things. Sounds ridiculous, but tastes amazing.
Lamb — SO well cooked… however you might expect 3 pieces instead of 2 for $ 13.
I can’t recall everything else I ordered… but I have to tell you about the Tofu. The hot tofu dish was… well…for lack of a better phrase… mush in your mouth. The flavor was bland, the texture was worse. The sauce it came with was tasty, but the tofu should have been cooked in it, instead of just sitting ON it.
As we were about to get our bill, the server brought us two desserts, on the house. The dual crème brûlée and their signature Chocolate Bar. I really really wanted to like it — and maybe you shouldn’t take my opinion
on this, because I’m not a big chocolate fan… but the chocolate was, in my opinion, quite bitter. The regular crème brûlée was decent, but I didn’t care for the chocolate one. Again — take this with a grain of salt, because I’m not a chocolate-​lover.
All in all, this place really was fantastic. In fact, if it weren’t for the tofu and desserts, I’d give it 5 stars. I’ve really been battling between 4 and 5 stars… and as much as I want to give 5 stars, due to the way the owner went of his way for us to make up for the hour and a half wait… the tofu disaster and bland brulee has to bring me to 4 stars.
Bottom line though — if you’re in LA, you MUST eat here. It’s absolutely worth the wait.

I am not going to say much… I am just giving this place 5 stars so it’s average can keep going up! Excellent food and excellent service. We tried a lot of dishes on the menu. My favs: shrimp taco shimi, jumbo scallop, and the steak skewer. My syrah blend was mighty tasty too! While eating dessert (the flourless chocolate cake with vanilla shake shots, crème brûlée, flan with something mysterious on top, and wonderfully marinated fruit) I seriously felt like I was in a euphoric state. It was an amazing meal with amazing friends. I will be back if I am in the LA area again!!!
So…branch out and give it a go!

They don’t take reservations, so we got there a little early to put our names on the list and wait for our friends. They set us up with a table and brought us drinks while we waited, chatted and watched an old samurai flick projected on the wall.
Two «happy birthday to you“s (not for us), three bottles of sake (all for us), four and a half hours, and (skipping five and six) something like seven plates of [what’s Japanese/​Italian for «tapas»?] later, we shut ‘er down. The gracious staff never made us feel in the way or rushed to work our way out. They did, however, make us feel welcome, well-​treated and well-​fed. I couldn’t have asked for more.

#300: Delicious food. IN MY BELLY!!!
My tummy is very happy tonight and unfortunately sticking out, after eating a splendid meal at ronin. There was ample street parking when we sauntered in casually around 630PM. LA doesn’t (wake up) to eat dinner until I’d say, around 730PM, as the place was empty when we all arrived. We started off with a garlic tossed edamame that was complimentary. Then, came the order of seafood carpaccio trio, thanks to all the Unilocalers who recommended it. Seared albacore, regular tuna, and clam. Deliciously seasoned with some tentsuya sauce. The fish was super fresh and cold on the tongue. Next came the spicy agedashi tofu. A different take on this usually passive dish. Just the right amount of fried, saltiness, and kick.
Jumbo seared scallops weren’t miraculous, but there was also nothing wrong with them. For some reason, I was expecting more after the first couple of dishes. The cod was so buttery it melts in your mouth. It was paired with a sweet poi paste (at least I’m almost certain it’s poi). The flavors are kind of different separately but somehow brought out the flavor well in its counter.
The duck was plated on a bed of blackberries and fermented purple rice (fermented or soaked in rice wine). These flavors also blended well.
The ronin fried rice is a definite must. I’m not sure how they make it so good, but damn, we were thinking about ordering another one when we weren’t full yet, but decided to go with something we hadn’t eaten.
Seared ahi tuna that appeared on chips. Easy to eat. I forgot how this tastes cuz I ate it too fast. I think it was good. Except it had some wasabi trace taste. I do not like wasabi.
Just when I thought I was going to burst at the seams, they waitress brings complimentary chocolate cake paired with a shooter of blended ice cream with some interesting asian flavor. Place is awesome. Service was attentive.

This place was awesome. I told the waitress that I would write a 5 star review here, and would have given it an overall 6 stars if that was available.
Lets start with the food, since that’s the most important part for me. Started with an Ahi Tuna dish, followed by the Kobe Beef salad. Both dishes were quite delectable– I don’t even eat seared tuna very often, but this was fresh and tasted balanced, which was great.
The entrees that we ordered were the following: braised short ribs, the fried rice, the cod, and the fried chicken. All of the dishes were prepared very well, a place that would deserve five stars. The best thing about this place was the fact that dishes were not overpriced, but rather very affordable for a nice meal out on the town. Appetizers and entrees are priced on average around $ 10 dollars a place. 4 – 6 plates are more than enough for two people.
The service was also very good. Although this is a small restaurant with not many people on a Monday night, I was pleased to know that my server was able to list off her favorite items on the menu, and give recommendations on what was good or bad. I just hate it when people are unable to do that.
On top of all this, they offered us free desert, which was very tasty. Definitely recommend this place for a date, even though I went as a large group. I would recommend making reservations, as this is not a very large place, and I am sure it will start getting busier once the word about it spreads.

The flavors were really good but overall the food seemed to be very BLAND. Edamame was good but needed a pinch of salt. same goes for the pork, the shortrib, fried chicken, and the agedashi tofu. We seriously had to ask our server for several dishes of salt b/​c there wasn’t any on the tables. Maybe the kitchen ran out of salt for the evening? Quite possibly… Anyhow, we told our server at the end of the meal when she asked about how our dinner was.
Our server was attentive all night so we were quite pleased with the service. Pitchers of Sapporo was a definite PLUS (I don’t find many izakayas offering pitchers) and we were also treated to a complimentary dessert ~ a warm delicious melt-​in-​your-​mouth brownie bar accompanied by a mini shotglass full of vanilla shake. That was good.

Pre-​food turnoffs: an izakaya on La Cienega? Hmmm. Menu: everything is listed as «tapas» = lowering themselves to be understood by westsiders who don’t know how to drive east on the 10. Same for «Bistro.» The menu was pretty small for an izakaya.
I don’t like oiled endamame. It’s peel and eat finger food, and why put grease on the shells. With the salt and pepper, the flavor was good, though. Everything we had was generally quite good: the black cod was beautiful, the fried rice (not something I’d normally order) had really good flavor, the tuna «poke» was delicious but more like tartare, the pieces were tiny, not real poke size. The cold tofu salad was pretty standard. The pork belly was really boring, it looked like it was boiled and then plopped into the bowl The first time our plate of fried chicken nuggets came out, the chicken was raw. I don’t really recall the other dishes.
The real standout of the evening, in addition to the black cod, was the yuzu custard with yuzu granita. Yuzu is such heaven, and granita was such a nice way to serve it.
For six of us, including two pitchers of beer, it came out to only $ 26pp. The individual dish prices were on the high side, but sharing with a group always makes it cheaper. I wouldn’t mind going back to try other items on the menu, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to return, especially since it’s a pain in the butt driving around there and trying to find parking.

Four and a half stars? Huh?!?
Not to say that there’s anything wrong with Ronin Izakaya. There isn’t. I liked the food, the service was fine, the ambiance was interesting, etc. But seriously, people need to reserve the really amazing ratings for really amazing restaurants.
When I arrived, there didn’t appear to be anywhere to park, except for the typical valet stand. So I parked all the way around on Beverly Blvd… only to realize once I walked back to the restaurant that there WAS parking behind the restaurant. Somehow, the friends I was meeting had spotted the tiny alley way, and took a chance that it would lead to parking, with no signs to guide them. Now, you’ll know.
So, I get the «Japanese Tapas» concept. Tapas are in, so is Asian Fusion, blah blah blah. But where does «Mash Your Own Potatoes» or whatever it was called fit into the equation? I mean, it was fun and all, but wasn’t exactly Japanese.
The dishes that were most memorable were the edamame — I’m not sure what they were cooked in, some type of flavorful oil, but man, did I lick my fingers — the steak kabobs, the poke, and the desserts. I’m blanking on what they were called, but they were cleverly presented.
The place itself was tiny (hence the difficult reservations), and awkwardly situated next to a garishly-​blinking strip club («Live! Nude! Girls!!»). Would I visit again? Sure, with a big-​ish group of people I suppose, who are looking for a night out, rather than just to grab some food.