Kinjiro — Restaurant in Los Angeles

Excellent food, with very nice traditional dishes. From a technical standpoint, they food was very good on almost all aspects (preparation of the food, how evenly everything was cut (whether it was in a salad or garnish), flavor combinations, and presentation).

This was certainly a meal with character and identity, and will be a benchmark meal that I will remember for a while. Kudos to the chef and the kitchen staff for keeping this up for as long as you have.

While I give 5 stars for the food (and it truly was good), I provide just 3 critiques from the night (where I think I ordered 8 dishes?).

there was a salt problem. The thick cut beef tongue was definitely undersalted. Almost perfect, but just a tiny tiny bit of extra salt would have brought the flavor out way more. On the other hand, the chicken thigh was oversalted (during the dry brine stage, not during cooking). Holy mackerel that beef tendon beef tongue miso stew is one of my all time favorite Japanese dishes and you guys nailed it! However, you served it with this dry, crusty bread. With all due respect, I think that's a mistake. I'm glad we asked for a bowl of rice, because it felt so wrong eating that slightly stale crunchy bread with such an amazing stew. I would highly recommend you forget the bread and just provide a small portion of rice to complement the stew. There was something weird going on with the dashi used in the ochazuke...I don't know how to describe the flavor, but it felt oddly smokey and had a very strange flavor. I'm sorry I can't describe it any better, but I really had a hard time swallowing that one.

These 3 critiques are heavily overshadowed by the very clean and impeccable technique, fantastic service, and a very nice coursing style which allows me to really appreciate each dish. Stars of the show were the mozuku, mizuna, beef tendon/tongue miso stew, and zaru soba. I will be coming back for sure, thank you!

Oh, atmosphere gets only 4 stars because that small space could definitely benefit from some sound dampening foam on...

It's 1786...

I wake up in the middle of a hot summer night in a puddle of sweat from being trapped in a dark dungeon of a castle in Edo, Japan. The whole cell smells of umami izakaya.

Locked up by rusty old iron chains while a fat guard named Shibō waves a gleaming seared chunk of foie gras in my face. Teasing me with fatty chunk of liver just inches from my face but never letting me have it. Even though it's dark, the tiny window above allows enough moon light thru for me to see the marbling of the fat thru the glistening surface of the beautiful seared liver. It's glorious.

"Why?! Why do you torture me!??" I yell to him. No reply, he returns back to his low table and squats down on his tatami mat as he sips from a bottle of ice cold unfiltered Nigori sake. I lick my dry lips, I haven't had a drink in days.

I continue to watch him stuff his fat face with a massive piece of perfectly cooked black cod as it falls from his mouth from being so flaky. I can only imagine how it could taste in my mouth with all of it's savoriness.

He unchains my arms, gives me a pair of chopsticks and puts the last dish of steaming pork belly in the middle of the room then leaves the cell. It's been 6 days since I ate anything, so I pray and cry, just a little. The glaze of the sauce on the layers of meat is hypnotizing.

In a fit of joy I pick up the chopsticks, slowly...crawl towards the plate. As I'm inches away, I realize he didn't unchain my legs. "No!!!!!...

What We Ordered Regular Menu Uni, Scallop, Blue Crab with Ponzu Jelly Kinjiro Free-range Chicken Maki-age Seared Foie Gras with Saikyo Miso Uni Udon with Hijiki Seaweed

Specials of the Day Uni Risotto Seared Santa Barbara Uni Live Fried Soft Shell Crab

We were trying to go to Sushi Gen but, I noticed that Kinjiro was next door! It has been on my list to try after I saw the Uni Udon. Luckily, we were able to get a table right away without reservations. ^_^ I seriously loved everything about Kinjiro. Amazing service and food.

I highly recommend the Uni, Scallop, Blue Crab with Ponzu Jelly, Uni Udon, Uni Risotto and Seared Uni, as all the reviewers do. ^_^

My FAVORITE dish of the night was the Seared Foie Gras with Saikyo Miso. My goodness. It was such a buttery, melt in your mouth, perfectly seasoned piece of foie gras. I would come back and just eat 3 orders of this by myself. My friend enjoyed this as well. It was his first time having foie gras. :)

I would skip the Kinjiro Free-range Chicken Maki-age and Live Fried Soft Shell Crab. Both were good because of the dipping sauces. Nothing to...