Japonica El Segundo — Restaurant in El Segundo

As much as I was excited there was a somewhat-new restaurant on Main Street in El Segundo, I was pretty disappointed with the actual sushi.

Atmosphere: 5/5 They have both indoor & outdoor seating, both of which are a good mix of modern, clean, cute, and casual. They also have a large parking lot with free parking.

Service: 5/5 They checked on us multiple times and turned up the outdoor heaters when asked.

Food Taste: 3/5 Note, it’s not bad fish, no one got sick, but there were bad flavor combos.

Miso Soup: This was good, $2.99, and came out right away. All of their ramen dishes are miso based, so it’s understandable why their miso soup was delicious.

Beef Tantan: Get this ramen dish ($15.99) and you won’t regret it. The only good entree we tried.

Final Fantasia: Avoid!! I ordered this $17.99 sushi because it said Chef’s Choice and had a lot of fishes I typically enjoy, but it was the worst flavor combo I can remember. Bluefin tuna, yellowtail, Scottish salmon, kanikama, cucumber, sweet onion yuzu ponzu, micro greens, and soy paper. It was missing either the tuna or salmon because there were only 2 of the 3 fish listed on the menu in the dish, and I couldn’t taste the yuzu. It was my bad that I didn’t realize kanikama was imitation crab, but regardless it really did not go well with the other flavors. When the waitress came back part of the way through me eating it, I told her I didn’t like it and she asked if we wanted something else instead, so we ordered the spicy tuna roll instead. I thought she was taking this roll off our bill because we said we disliked it, but she did not.

Spicy Tuna Roll: Avoid!! Who puts sriracha on a tuna roll to make it spicy?! I’m not sure if they were trying to be unique and creative, but this is not what anyone at our table of 5 expected. We had to scrape off the sauce after trying it on the roll the first time and being severely disappointed. Please, find an authentic spicy tuna recipe and stop ruining this dish.

Spicy Tantan: Avoid if you can’t handle extreme spice. Out of the 5 of us at the table, we all tried it (some with high spice tolerances) and it was unbearably and unpleasantly spicy. We could hardly eat any and left most of it in the bowl - a waste of $13.99. There should have been a serious warning. We enjoy spice, but this...

Back in February, my wife and I ordered a special Valentine's dinner from Japonica, a restaurant we’ve supported for years. We live just four blocks away, so we chose delivery and received a confirmation that our order would arrive at 7:31 PM.

By 7:35 PM, we were getting vague text updates from the delivery person, missed a call, and couldn’t reach anyone when we tried calling back. After 30+ minutes with no food and no way to get answers, we called the restaurant directly. A young woman answered and told us the order had been picked up—but couldn’t say when or by whom. She had zero information and made no effort to help.

We tried expressing our frustration, but the background noise made communication difficult. When I stepped in and asked for her name and to speak to a manager, she refused to answer and kept repeating, “Is there an issue?”—a baffling response, considering we were already 40 minutes past our scheduled delivery time.

Eventually, a regional manager took over. She explained that it’s Japonica’s policy for employees not to share their names, even first names. While I can understand safety concerns, this rigid policy does not excuse the dismissiveness and lack of accountability we experienced. She also stated that once a delivery order leaves the restaurant, Japonica no longer has any visibility or responsibility for it.

That was stunning to hear—especially given the complete lack of follow-up or concern for our missing order. We received no help, no apology, no compensation. Our Valentine’s dinner was completely ruined.

To salvage the evening, we ordered from Islands in Manhattan Beach. I actually called back to clarify a missing detail, and their manager not only shared her name but followed up within a minute by calling me back to confirm our order and accommodate our request.

That is what customer service should look like.

Japonica’s food may be great, but their customer care and delivery process are seriously broken. After years of dining here, we’re left disappointed and...

The sushi at this place is decent (3.5/5) but the ramen is terrible and the sauce is way too peanut-y. But this place gets 1-star for service because it’s just terrible after 3 different interactions with them!!

I called today and asked to place an order for pick up and the restaurant said “sorry we don’t place orders over the phone you have to come order here and wait for it”, I explained that I have kids at home and asked for an exception because I can’t come and wait for 30 mins then was told “no sorry we’re busy if we start taking orders over the phones we’ll be extra slammed” - what?? What kind of reasoning is this? So I should leave my kids at home for 30 mins so you’re not extra slammed by the sushi roll I’m about to order? Which you would have to make anyway whether I’m there in person or not?? You clearly shouldn’t be in business if that’s the case.

I also live next door so I’ve been to the place twice for dine-in since it’s opened.. the first time the service was terrible and slow and we had to ask for otherwise standard things specifically rather than them just giving it to us (small plates, ginger, wasabi, drink refills, chopsticks), the waitress literally went back and forth 5 times before we had all the things we needed to eat and that’s all after the sushi has come. The second time we’ve been.. same scenario, a long wait to sit and an even longer wait for the food. Then we got our food in this order: sushi rolls then five minutes later our beers and water made it to the table then after another 5 minutes the edamame! Needless to say no one wants to eat their edamame after they’re done with their sushi.. and every time you bring anything up with the wait staff they’ll say “sorry we just opened we’re slammed” .. what a terrible excuse. Perhaps you should close the business until you have figured out your customer service then reopen when you’re actually ready and happy to...