JINYA Ramen Bar - Santa Monica — Restaurant in Santa Monica

I was looking for good Ramen, and noticed this pace on Main Street in Santa Monica. I decided to try it, since it had great curb appeal. There's a large outdoor dining area, and at night it looks very inviting with the big flame heaters.

I thought parking was going to be an issue, until I drove around the block and saw the huge metered parking lot behind the buildings. Plenty of parking for $1 an hour, however I don't understand why the self-serve parking machines have no lighting at night.

As I approached the restaurant I saw there were people waiting out front, so this place must be good! I added my name to the list and waited about 15 minutes until we were called. I would have preferred to sit inside, but there is very limited indoor seating. The hostess pointed us to a table in the back of the patio, right next to an ugly open door that leads to the alley.

The table was slightly slanted, due to the slope of the patio (just something to keep in mind when the bowl of piping hot ramen comes). Actually, once you're sitting in the patio seating, it doesn't look nearly as nice as when you're driving by. In fact, they have the most uncomfortable chairs I've ever sat in.

We waited a good 10 minutes before a waitress finally brought over menus. Luckily I had my iPhone, since the only lighting on the patio are those big flame heaters. Once we ordered, the food came out pretty quick. We started with the Shrimp Toast, which was nothing more than a piece of shrimp between two pieces of toasted white bread, served with some kind of mayo dipping sauce. Nothing special. We also had an order of the Sauteed Shishito Peppers, which were a bit overcooked. Again, nothing special.

I was looking forward to the Wonton Chicken Ramen that I ordered. It was OK. Not bad. But I've had much better at other ramen places. The broth just tasted like it was missing something, and the noodles were a bit overcooked. The wontons were OK, but the meat inside tasted like pork (which I hope it wasn't, since this is a chicken ramen).

Once we were finished, the plates were cleared quickly, but then we sat waiting for another 15 minutes for the check to arrive. I finally asked the busboy to bring it. Once it came, I didn't bother waiting for the waitress to come back, so I just walked it up the register myself. After all, my parking meter was almost up.

Overall, this was not a great experience. Poor service, average meal, uncomfortable chairs, and no lighting. I won't be...

JINYA Ramen Bar in Santa Monica on Main St was a horrible experience. We got a table for two when the restaurant was not busy at all and only had maybe two other tables other than ours that needed to be waited on. The waitress took about 20 minutes to come get our drink orders when they sat us down and had an unpleasant tone with us for no reason. This was the first thing that already set us off when we literally just sat down. I had to constantly get their attention across the room and call her over after we had been waiting awhile as she never checked on us. We did not want to wait any longer so we ordered our drink and food orders together so that they would come out faster the next time she eventually came back. We sat inside and there was only one other table that was being waited on. Not only after waiting 20 minutes for our drinks, my friend and I had to wait another almost 30 minutes for our food, when there was only 2 other tables being served. I don't know if the waitress was having a bad day that day or what happened, but when they gave us our food order, she just sat it on the table without saying anything and just left the table. After now waiting an hour finally to eat, our food was cold and felt like it had been sitting in the kitchen table for awhile. This ruined the taste of the ramen and the whole afternoon lunch. The customer service was one of the worst experiences I have ever had for such a highly rated Ramen spot located in Santa Monica. Would not recommend this place to anybody and will never be...

I've been to plenty of JINYA RAMEN BARS (13 locations). I travel often and it's my go to spot. This is the worst location. We had to wait to be seated inside, which is honestly completely fine. It's a popular spot, I can understand that. I went to restroom while we waited. No toilet seat cover available. We were seated by the bus boy (I'm assuming) who literally threw the menus down and left. I get it, you have to clean stuff.

Once we sat down our table was dirty. Which is nasty as hell. There was sauce spilled all over the sauce tray and there was a used saucer bowl. When we asked for the tray to be cleaned, we were ignored several times. We ordered our drinks and they were wrong. My sake was wrong and my sister didn't get her lemons until the food was brought out. The food was delicious, 10/10 recommend.

When it came to closing our waiter was switched. The man asked if we wanted to order anything else before the kitchen was closed. We said no, but asked if we could get two boxes, and waters to go. The man asked if he could close our out tab, I asked if I could pay with Apple Pay. He huffed quite literally like a dog and said "I guess". I went with him and asked if I could scan for my points. He said to write it down on the receipt. I did. Then I said where do I pay? He looked at me said "What do you think?" Then walked away. A nice lady walked up and said I could pay with her. I paid...