
A tavern with a mission.
Named for a boy who read while carrying firewood and grew up to feed a nation — Kinjiro has been bringing good food and drink to Little Tokyo since 2014.
From humble roots to a nation's table.
Ninomiya Kinjiro is famous across Japan as the boy who studied while walking, a bundle of firewood on his back. He rose from humble origins to become a beloved statesman whose agricultural reforms brought food and joy to people through hard times.
His statue still stands outside schools throughout Japan. We named our nomiya — our tavern — after him, because his mission is ours: to bring happiness to each guest, one plate and one pour at a time.
昔々、二宮金次郎という少年が薪を背負いながら本を読んで歩き学問を身に着けた話は有名ですが、後々彼は、農政改革を起こし、日本全国に食と幸を与えたとされています。


2014

Chef Yoshikazu Kondo.
Working from a tiny kitchen in Honda Plaza, Chef Kondo cooks izakaya food with fine-dining precision — dashi-cured ikura, kelp-cured mackerel, miso-glazed bone marrow, and grilled beef tongue sliced thick.
The menu moves between the traditional and the contemporary: a pickle course of rice-bran nukazuke sits beside squid ink udon and uni risotto. Owner Jun Isogai runs the room and the sake list with the same quiet care — spare décor, relaxed service, and a pour for every mood.
What they're saying.
From Jonathan Gold's 101 Best to The New York Times' 36 Hours in Los Angeles, Kinjiro has been a fixture of LA's best-of lists for a decade.
At Kinjiro in Little Tokyo, ride the izakaya range with a Cowboy
36 Hours in Los Angeles
Top 100+ U.S. Gourmet Casual 2017
Jonathan Gold's 101 Best Restaurants, 2015
Jonathan Gold Reviews Kinjiro in Little Tokyo
10 Best Izakaya Style Restaurants in the U.S.
6 Tongues You'll Actually Want to Eat
The 11 Best Udon Spots in LA
15 Mighty Fine Japanese Pubs in Los Angeles
The 10 Best Restaurants in L.A.'s Little Tokyo
A Purist's Guide to Little Tokyo
25 Best Things to Do in Los Angeles
Delicious Japanese Bar Eats: 8 Izakayas Around LA
Kinjiro Izakaya in Little Tokyo
Kinjiro (Los Angeles, CA)

A small room. Worth planning ahead.
Reservations open at noon, exactly four weeks before your date — and they go fast. Email us your date, party size and preferred seating.

