First time try that and never thought it's in Santa Monica! When we arrived there, there were short staffs but they are fast service! We only eat outdoor dining and we tried Black Ramen, full of garlic flavor! We loveee garlic! This ramen is perfect, very strong garlic & perfect for garlic lover! It is pretty big bowl, possibly best share with one person depends how hungry you are. Haven't been inside due that time closed for indoor dining. Have street parking but its kind tricky and hard to find a spot unless you're willing to park in neighborhood street then walk distance. I didnt realized its closed down already before i post my review
M T.
Great spot for comfort food. Ramen broth A+. Service A+. Value A+. Especially for Santa Monica. Great tempura too. Interesting and unique in a good way. Will return.
NJ Cruz
friendly staff. nice location. food quality could be a bit better
Monika S.
Small, casual dinning. Very good food with outstanding service. I am always impressed with the owner or chef comes out to speak with me personally to see how I am enjoying the meal and service. Such a pleasant experience. I would certainly visit again. I had the dumpling ramen. Very good.
H H.
Kinda bummed out about this one. Ordered the veggie ramen with an egg, and a side of gyoza as an appetizer. The appetizer came with the main course - what's the point of that? And the veggie ramen was super bland, with just big chunks of raw cauliflower and broccoli. Even adding chili sauce didn't help much - it just added heat but there still was no flavour. Biggest failure - the egg was just a HARD boiled egg split in two. It was not seasoned and way over-cooked. Overall a bummer meal, especially since there are so many other ramen choices near by. Service? The only time they checked on me was when the check arrived. Maybe it was an off-night.
Michael J.
This place is charming, relaxed, and in an excellent location! Everything from friendly and attentive service to fresh and delicious entrees. Highly recommend the Pork Ramen and the sushi rolls. The flavors are really delicate and balanced well. I could tell the food is prepared with thoughtful care. We were there in the afternoon and the next time will come i the evening to enjoy the outside lighted seating. My only suggestion is that they provide shade coverings for outdoor seating as it gets too hot.
Maruko X.
Ambiance: one of the best ramen places located in Santa Monica, casual, affordable and authentic dining experience, using fresh and premium quality ingredients to make the ramen Service: very friendly and so patient with questions, and knowledgable about their food and ingredients, attentively refilled water and cleaned the table Food & Drink: variety choices from the menu, different broth base for their ramen, pork broth for Tonkotsu, Black, Spicy Miso, soy base and chicken broth for Shoyu, mushroom and seaweed base for Veggie, and the most popular ones are black ramen and spicy miso ramen, they also server complimentary radish pickles and spicy sauce Black Ramen - **** pork broth, chashu, boiled egg, green onion, fried onion, bamboo shoot, bean sprout, kikurage mushroom, black garlic oil, dried seaweed, rich in flavors and savory taste, recommend Hot Green Tea - *** yamamoto sencha green tea Price: moderate portions and reasonable priced in the area, expect $20+ per person
Ben Wagner
We were seated inside on a desk and chairs that looked like it was taken from a standardized testing center. We gave our order, and the manager said "simple..." in a degrading way. When we got our food, we received a salmon sushi roll with a disgusting sweet sauce on top, and the ramen was clearly of extremely low quality. During our meal, the manager made fun of us by bringing forks to the table, and asking us if we wanted to use children's assisted chopsticks with no prompting to do so. Terrible food, jackass staff, do not come here.
Su S
Con:The worst restaurant in this neighborhood in my experience. Foods taste like low quality but price is out of the roof.The ramen that cost $10 in 2020 cost you $19 in 2021. The management is being greedy.Pro:Employees were friendly and super nice and cool. Great great customer service.Great moods and near beach so great place to hang around.Overall, 4 stars
Alex Ciabattari
Best service I’ve ever received, great food. Never left a review before but this restaurant definitely warranted one. 10/10.
Great music, great atmosphere, great service. Ramen has a really good texture and pairs well with the bamboo shoots and seaweed. Charsiu was excellently prepared, very tender.If you haven't tried this place yet, you need to!
Peter Fox
The staff is amazing. Great service and super nice. Unfortunately, the food is not at the same level. We got a Philadelphia roll (good, not too much cream cheese), a rainbow roll (mediocre & expensive) and a chicken skewer which was not great. The skewer came with some chopped cabbage and corn that was 100% either out of a can or from a freezer bag. For the price, I expected better.
April C.
Ordered To-go: - Spicy tuna with crispy rice: Loved this!!! The flavor in this was amazing. It was not too spicy and the rice was so crispy even after the drive home. I'd definitely go back for this. - Tonkatsu Ramen: Pretty good! The noodles and toppings are packaged separately from the broth. It's pretty green onion heavy but you get a lot of noods and broth to balance it out. One thing (I also saw someone else mention) that could be improved, the noodles stick to one another and kind of mush together to the point where it's pretty hard to pick apart. The staff and owner are so so friendly. They have a cute outside area with heat lamps. The noise from the street is not too loud so it's definitely a great place for outdoor dining! There is plenty of parking in the street behind the restaurant.
Marilyn B.
We got the vegetarian ramen and it was unfortunately a disappointment. For 18 dollars, I would not get this again. You would expect more for that price but the broth tasted like water and the noodles had no flavor. Like they said "eh vegetarians and vegans won't mind" lol. I only give it 2 stars because the host was very nice and made us feel "at home" and made sure we were alright.
Winnie K.
Ensoku is one of the ramen shops in Venice area. There are plenty of paid parking lots nearby all along Main Street. During COVID - nice outdoor dining available. I went on cold overcast day for lunch and asked for heater, but wasn't working. Instead they offered me hot green tea. They have great customer service. For the food: The garlic ramen is piping hot and black garlic flavor added nice richness. It's much thinner broth than some other spots in LA. Sometimes the broth is just too rich and fatty and this spot is more soup-like. The pork is tender and lightly grilled, egg was overcooked. Overall, tasty option when you're craving ramen.
First time try that and never thought it's in Santa Monica! When we arrived there, there were short staffs but they are fast service! We only eat outdoor dining and we tried Black Ramen, full of garlic flavor! We loveee garlic! This ramen is perfect, very strong garlic & perfect for garlic lover! It is pretty big bowl, possibly best share with one person depends how hungry you are. Haven't been inside due that time closed for indoor dining. Have street parking but its kind tricky and hard to find a spot unless you're willing to park in neighborhood street then walk distance. I didnt realized its closed down already before i post my review
Great spot for comfort food. Ramen broth A+. Service A+. Value A+. Especially for Santa Monica. Great tempura too. Interesting and unique in a good way. Will return.
friendly staff. nice location. food quality could be a bit better
Small, casual dinning. Very good food with outstanding service. I am always impressed with the owner or chef comes out to speak with me personally to see how I am enjoying the meal and service. Such a pleasant experience. I would certainly visit again. I had the dumpling ramen. Very good.
Kinda bummed out about this one. Ordered the veggie ramen with an egg, and a side of gyoza as an appetizer. The appetizer came with the main course - what's the point of that? And the veggie ramen was super bland, with just big chunks of raw cauliflower and broccoli. Even adding chili sauce didn't help much - it just added heat but there still was no flavour. Biggest failure - the egg was just a HARD boiled egg split in two. It was not seasoned and way over-cooked. Overall a bummer meal, especially since there are so many other ramen choices near by. Service? The only time they checked on me was when the check arrived. Maybe it was an off-night.
This place is charming, relaxed, and in an excellent location! Everything from friendly and attentive service to fresh and delicious entrees. Highly recommend the Pork Ramen and the sushi rolls. The flavors are really delicate and balanced well. I could tell the food is prepared with thoughtful care. We were there in the afternoon and the next time will come i the evening to enjoy the outside lighted seating. My only suggestion is that they provide shade coverings for outdoor seating as it gets too hot.
Ambiance: one of the best ramen places located in Santa Monica, casual, affordable and authentic dining experience, using fresh and premium quality ingredients to make the ramen Service: very friendly and so patient with questions, and knowledgable about their food and ingredients, attentively refilled water and cleaned the table Food & Drink: variety choices from the menu, different broth base for their ramen, pork broth for Tonkotsu, Black, Spicy Miso, soy base and chicken broth for Shoyu, mushroom and seaweed base for Veggie, and the most popular ones are black ramen and spicy miso ramen, they also server complimentary radish pickles and spicy sauce Black Ramen - **** pork broth, chashu, boiled egg, green onion, fried onion, bamboo shoot, bean sprout, kikurage mushroom, black garlic oil, dried seaweed, rich in flavors and savory taste, recommend Hot Green Tea - *** yamamoto sencha green tea Price: moderate portions and reasonable priced in the area, expect $20+ per person
We were seated inside on a desk and chairs that looked like it was taken from a standardized testing center. We gave our order, and the manager said "simple..." in a degrading way. When we got our food, we received a salmon sushi roll with a disgusting sweet sauce on top, and the ramen was clearly of extremely low quality. During our meal, the manager made fun of us by bringing forks to the table, and asking us if we wanted to use children's assisted chopsticks with no prompting to do so. Terrible food, jackass staff, do not come here.
Con:The worst restaurant in this neighborhood in my experience. Foods taste like low quality but price is out of the roof.The ramen that cost $10 in 2020 cost you $19 in 2021. The management is being greedy.Pro:Employees were friendly and super nice and cool. Great great customer service.Great moods and near beach so great place to hang around.Overall, 4 stars
Best service I’ve ever received, great food. Never left a review before but this restaurant definitely warranted one. 10/10.
Restaurantji Recommends
Great music, great atmosphere, great service. Ramen has a really good texture and pairs well with the bamboo shoots and seaweed. Charsiu was excellently prepared, very tender.If you haven't tried this place yet, you need to!
The staff is amazing. Great service and super nice. Unfortunately, the food is not at the same level. We got a Philadelphia roll (good, not too much cream cheese), a rainbow roll (mediocre & expensive) and a chicken skewer which was not great. The skewer came with some chopped cabbage and corn that was 100% either out of a can or from a freezer bag. For the price, I expected better.
Ordered To-go: - Spicy tuna with crispy rice: Loved this!!! The flavor in this was amazing. It was not too spicy and the rice was so crispy even after the drive home. I'd definitely go back for this. - Tonkatsu Ramen: Pretty good! The noodles and toppings are packaged separately from the broth. It's pretty green onion heavy but you get a lot of noods and broth to balance it out. One thing (I also saw someone else mention) that could be improved, the noodles stick to one another and kind of mush together to the point where it's pretty hard to pick apart. The staff and owner are so so friendly. They have a cute outside area with heat lamps. The noise from the street is not too loud so it's definitely a great place for outdoor dining! There is plenty of parking in the street behind the restaurant.
We got the vegetarian ramen and it was unfortunately a disappointment. For 18 dollars, I would not get this again. You would expect more for that price but the broth tasted like water and the noodles had no flavor. Like they said "eh vegetarians and vegans won't mind" lol. I only give it 2 stars because the host was very nice and made us feel "at home" and made sure we were alright.
Ensoku is one of the ramen shops in Venice area. There are plenty of paid parking lots nearby all along Main Street. During COVID - nice outdoor dining available. I went on cold overcast day for lunch and asked for heater, but wasn't working. Instead they offered me hot green tea. They have great customer service. For the food: The garlic ramen is piping hot and black garlic flavor added nice richness. It's much thinner broth than some other spots in LA. Sometimes the broth is just too rich and fatty and this spot is more soup-like. The pork is tender and lightly grilled, egg was overcooked. Overall, tasty option when you're craving ramen.