LBD Japanese Bar & Lounge

Happy hour all the time starting at 4pm on Wednesdays. Yes please.One of the great things about LBD is that you have the best of 3 restaurants (Jinya ramen, Robata Jinya, and LBD). The happy hour menu was great with lots to order at good prices. It is more limited than the regular menu, but you can still order from the regular menu if you want the special or larger dishes. I know it sounds weird but I really loved their agedashi tofu, or maybe I just didn't expect a happy hour-seeming bar to make amazing agedashi tofu. Skewers are always fun for happy hour.Free parking at the ward garages (Ward Centre, theater parking, Whole Foods, etc). Service was great - friendly and fast.We sat outside and it was casual but nice. Only awkward was if you looked up you were partially covered but partially not and if someone above you in one of the condos dropped something, it felt like uhoh, it would hit me. Oh and it can get really windy! Bathrooms are all the way in Robata Jinya so it's a bit of a walk, but you can walk inside to get there.Would definitely come back. And yes they open at 4, so for whoever needs to start early, this is your place...

Update:Food is about 3.5/5Service - 2/5Ambiance - 4/5Wish I can give a higher rating but service is just not there...I wish they hire more staff.

LBD is one of the few spots that does an all week happy hour in Ward Village (except for Monday when they are closed). Tuesday and Thursday-Sunday pau hana is from 4pm-6pm and Wednesday is all day. This modern Japanese cocktail bar has a great wine list and impressive bar program. Select cocktails and highballs are $10. Their daily featured wine is $8 and Sapporo on draft is $6. I really enjoyed the Robata-yaki. For $10, you get to choose three skewers and I highly recommend the negima, pork belly, and pork wrapped ume-shiso. The Miyazaki wagyu potstickers were $16 and well worth the price. The pau hana portion was perfect for sharing and I loved how crispy the dumplings were. The open air setting got a nice breeze after sunset and was so relaxing to chill at the bar. I used to love coming here to the old Nobu and will definitely add this back to the neighborhood rotation. The service was wonderful and their team made great recommendations.

Where can you go that will satisfy EVERYONE? There aren't many places that can do what LBD does.Nowhere else can you get high quality ramen (from Jinya noodle bar), skewers from the Robata grill, sushi, vegan salads/appetizers, happy hour small plates, a very good KIDS MENU (seriously it's the best), donburi (the charsiu don is amazing!), and a dessert menu worth looking at even if you're stuffed! With unique items like shrimp toast, stone pot wagyu beef bowls and more, this place has become our favorite restaurant! The fully stocked bar and the amazing bartenders are the star of the show but the food is so good even my kids want to come back here over and over. Even the kale salad was good, and I'm not a kale fan at all. The service is great. The only thing I'd maybe comment on is the bathrooms are way far in the corner of the robata restaurant, so you'd have to walk through 2 restaurants to get to it. Not really a problem for us. The couch seating outside on the lanai can get windy even when it's not, but it makes you feel more at home than the upscale indoor vibes at the two sister restaurants next door. We love Jinya too but sometimes one person doesn't want ramen, so LBD allows everyone to order what they want.

This outside portion establishment is connected to Jinya Ramen and Robata Jinya. You are able to order off of the menus from Robata and whatever LBD serves. Parking is easy in the whole foods parking garage or Ward parking garage. The cons: - Every service member we came into contact with was unfortunately not welcoming or friendly. - Since it rained it was tough to be comfortable when we were seated where the raining was falling and the seats were wet. Though they did warn us, we asked to be seated at a different table and were denied the first request. - Our drinks came out almost at the end of our meal and we also did not receive a couple dishes we ordered. We were not given any utensils, soy sauce, or napkins for about 30 minutes after being seated. The pros: - The food here is tasty and creative!- Interior design and ambiance make it a fun dinner, date, or happy hour spot.

Came last week to try their happy hour and came back again today and didn't realize it's ALL DAY happy hour on Wednesdays! The other days happy hour ends at 7pm.The cocktails are pretty good, I liked the yuzu margarita (actually pretty strong). We got the kushiyaki - choice of 3. We got the pork belly, shishito peppers and oyster mushroom last time. The pork belly was kind of dry so today we switched that to the tebasaki wings. The beef tongue and char siu pork was good too! Also ordered the special Seared Kona Kanpachi Jalapeno Roll, which was better than I thought. Definitely better than the hosomaki rolls.

Location: This is part of the 3 restaurants across from the Ward Theater complex. You have LBD at one end, then Rinka Sushi and Jinya Ramen. The nice thing about going to LBD (stands for La Brea Dining) is that you can order off all of the menus! If you go to just Jinya, you only can order their menu.LBD is an outside seating area, nothing indoors so remember that when you are headed there. We went on a Friday night at 8:30pm and there was hardly anyone there so we got a seat right away.If you are an old fashioned drinker, they smoke theirs! It is hard to find places that still smoke it and they have a great Japanese take on it.We love their karaage chicken, sushi and we did try a ramen bowl which was also good. Staff is very friendly and attentive! Love that!

After watching The Boy and the Heron, I felt like eating ramen. My wife and I were considering Kamitoku (which I like) but then I remembered I never ate at Jinya. So we walked across the street and noticed that the place was less than half empty. "Seating for two please"!We were told the place was completely booked for the night. Oh? OK, I guess.BUT then we were told if we walk out the door, we can still order ramen. I was confused as the door was right to my left and there was a bar.... whatever. So we walked out the door and found a cozy table right outside. I was told we can order from all three places (bar, ramen, and grilled food). This is awesome!!!!!I did have some trepidation because in the back of my mind was Rod U's review, but well.... you know me, I have to try the ramen - good or bad.We were not that hungry, but I ordered the gyoza, their special buta ramen (extra bamboo shoots please), salad and Asahi! I should point out that this place is dark! I mean, dark where you can't see your food very well. Which brings me to....The salad! It seemed to look really good! I was happy and then I took a bite and --- what am I tasting???? It tasted salty but with hardly any taste. I was confused. I asked if they had any other type of dressing but was told no. In an effort to try and get some taste into this thing, we ordered more dressing. Honestly, I don't even understand what this dressing is. It's like salty nothing. Someone should just bite the bullet and go get a bottle of Minato salad dressing and call it a day. It would be so much better and taste more "Japanese" than this. The salad went uneaten.The gyoza was good - not outstanding, but decent. No issues here.The "buta" ramen - the broth was slightly sweet and was ok. I did not find it outstanding although the noodles were cooked well. The egg was more like a poached egg than your typical ajitama egg. The bamboo shoots were very good and slightly spicy which I loved. I would say this ramen was ok. Not one of the top ramen, but a decent bowl. The place makes you feel like a trendy, hipster - hanging out in the dark place, sitting on a table outside with comfortable seats. The prices are on the slightly higher side, but I wish the food was better.

The food is so amazing and our server Sela was killing it tonight! The yuzu martini was delicious and every single food item we ordered was amazing. The mushroom risotto was a crowd pleaser!

This place has become a favorite Pau Hana place of mines. I make reservations on Yelp in case they are busy that night. Parking is anywhere around (Ward centre, Tj maxx area, theater parking area). It's located on the outdoor patio area where Jinya is. Very cozy spot. I love the ambiance here. It's a great place to come with friends and chat all night. You don't ever feel rushed. They have Happy hour food and drinks which is until 7pm. Their happy hour drink selections got a lot better! They have a $10 smoked old fashioned that's my go to drink here. Very good! Everything on their food menu is yum! Worth the happy hour prices to me.