Ninjin, Santa Monica

      Last Friday, my husband and I were in Santa Monica for a show at the Broad Stage. We left a bit early so we would have ample time for dinner and perhaps some tripping around at the Farmer's Market on Fairfax and 3rd before showtime at 7:00pm. "What do you want to eat?" I asked him in the car as we slowly inched our way down the 405 at right about rush hour time, which actually means any time on this particular stretch of highway. "Anything, I'm starving," he replied. "How about sushi? Maybe we can find something nice". Being rather clueless to the good eats around SM, I briefly Googled decently rated sushi restaurants near the Broad Stage. Ninjin, along with Sushi King, popped up on Yelp at around 4 stars. 

     Lucky for us, this little hole-in-the-wall of a restaurant was on a street currently under renovations. The entire mid-section of Colorado Ave. was coned off, with the remaining lanes incredibly uneven, giving us a ride bumpier than Indiana Jones at Disney. The restaurant itself doesn't provide parking, and since street parking is out of the question, we drove around to a nearby grocery store and parked there.

Edamame

     We were in before the dinner crowd, so seating wasn't an issue; there was only one other party in the tiny restaurant. Unsure of the portion sizes, we ordered the edamame (not gratis), a roll, a sushi combination, and received a bowl of miso soup with the nigiri plate to start. The beans were the perfect balance of sweet with just the right crisp and the miso had a lovely ocean flavor unlike most misos I've had previously. I could seriously drink that soup all day.

Black Dragon roll

      All of the fish and seafood, minus the uni, were incredibly fresh and delicious. However! Both of us really disliked the sushi rice. Simply put, it was extremely undercooked and this is coming from someone that typically loves al dente rice and pasta... on the rarer side. I've tasted my fair share semi-raw rice while cooking risotto at home, and the sushi rice was exactly that.

Uni (Sea Urchin)

      The uni was the only raw food out of the bunch that didn't taste too fresh. Good uni is, perhaps by far, my favorite - it's creamy, sweet, and tastes of the sea. This uni, however, had a bitter tinge and an overwhelmingly unpleasant aftertaste that left me drinking water non-stop between paying the bill and the car.

Chef's Choice, a casual "omakase"

     Every piece of nigiri was succulent, even the tomago (egg) that I've spent every trip to any kind of sushi restaurant avoiding. Since I have no prior experience with it, I can't say whether it's better or worse than other tomago, but I can say I loved it! It tasted just like egg custard, with a firmer texture of course. The only thing I didn't care for at all was the imitation crab - no, no, nope, no thanks, NEVER, except wrapped snuggly inside a roll.
     We planned on ordering more but the rice was really an appetite killer. It just felt like it sat funny inside my stomach, and I really didn't want any more of it. My husband agreed and we asked our waiter for the check, which totaled out with tip to be under $45.

Ninjin
607 Colorado Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 451-9800