Tsujita Artisan Noodle - Arts District

I love Tsujita! I've been to the San Gabriel, Pasadena, and Sawtelle locations and this one did not disappoint. I love how consistent the flavor is at Tsujita is among all their locations. I always order the regular Tsukemen and to my surprise, it came with an egg! (Normally it would be extra at the other locations).The server was attentive and food came out pretty fast. I would say it is relatively small inside. Maybe around 10 tables? Luckily there wasn't a wait on Saturday at noon.

I rarely write negative reviews, but my experience at Tsujita was so frustrating that I feel compelled to warn others. The service was absolutely unacceptable from start to finish, and to top it off, we were overcharged for full-priced meals when we specifically ordered off the lunch special menu.Let me set the scene: It was 2:20 PM on a Saturday, my friends and I, a party of six, walked in--bright-eyed, hungry, and full of hope. We had one simple dream: to enjoy the highly advertised lunch special. A dream that would soon be shattered beyond repair.First, we were left to marinate in our own hunger for a solid 10-15 minutes before we finally had to flag down our server like we were lost at sea just to place our order. She assured us--PROMISED us--that the lunch special was still available (important detail, hold onto that). We happily placed our orders and settled in, thinking all was well.Oh, how naïve we were.The food took an eternity, but whatever, we get it, kitchens get busy. But what we didn't get? Our appetizers. Our drinks. Our will to live. We had to practically beg for our side dishes, and when the drinks finally arrived, 2 out of 5 were wrong--which, statistically speaking, is an impressive failure rate.Now, here's where the real betrayal hit: Later that evening, upon inspecting our receipt, we realized that instead of receiving the affordable, budget-friendly lunch special, we had been charged full-sized dinner prices for EVERYTHING--appetizers, drinks, noodles--all at double the cost. DOUBLE.This explains why the portions seemed suspiciously large. At the time, we thought, "Wow, generous lunch specials here!" No. That was the sweet taste of financial ruin. We had been served full-sized entrees without being told, despite specifically ordering from the lunch special menu, and despite confirming with our server that the lunch special was available.So instead of a nice, inexpensive meal, we were served an overpriced disaster sprinkled with incompetence and garnished with regret.No apologies. No effort to make things right. Just a sky-high bill and the realization that we had been played like a cheap violin.I wouldn't wish this experience on my worst enemy. Check your receipt. Check your soul. And, if you're smart, check out a different restaurant.1/5 stars. Would rather eat instant ramen at home.

I visited Fujita LA's Downtown Arts District location yesterday and ordered the chashu ramen. I used to work at the Sawtelle location for almost six years. I grew up in Japan, so I'm extremely passionate about ramen, and I know my review might come off as pretty critical.The ramen's presentation was impressive--very clean and visually appealing. The egg came standard, which looked nice, but honestly, if the price is going to be over twenty dollars, I'd prefer a more affordable option without the egg or extras.When I arrived, there was only one other table occupied, yet it took fifteen minutes for my ramen to come out and eighteen minutes for a simple bowl of steamed rice. I'm not sure if the server or the kitchen forgot part of my order, but the wait felt unusually long for ramen.As for the ramen itself, I felt the quality had dropped compared to before. The broth didn't taste as rich or flavorful as I remembered, and the noodles didn't seem to pair well with the soup.I understand prices have gone up due to inflation, but for over twenty dollars, I think some adjustments might be needed.It's sad to say, but in LA, I feel like it's becoming harder to find Japanese chefs who really know authentic ramen flavors. Without that knowledge, I think it's tough to recreate something close to the real thing. In that sense, I feel like ramen shops are at a turning point right now.While I was tempted to give three stars, I'm giving four because I used to work here and I genuinely want this place to succeed. I hope to see improvements in the future!

Came here late Saturday night after a concert at the Hollywood Palladium absolutely feigning for a nice warm meal. Ordering was quick and our appetizer of edamame came out quick. Though I did enjoy the spice of the spicy garlic soybeans (I used to work in a restaurant that served this), I feel it was a bit overpowering being cooked into the soybeans themselves and would've been better off as a side chili as we weren't able to finish them because it was too uncomfortable. The vegan ramen my girlfriend ordered felt clean while retaining enough heartiness and depth for a meat lover like myself to still enjoy. The chashu ramen was equally impressive and hit all the right notes of flavor. Worth the price point for ramen

Tsujita is spreading, no more excessively long waits in Sawtelle anymore. Usually.For some reason, you wait in line physically rather than write your name down on a list but once you're seated, it's the same concept as any other Tsujita. Get the tsukumen ramen if you've never had it before. It's a savory ramen that you dip into a heavy brothy sauce, goes well with limes too. If you want to be fancy and get chashu, then I hope you enjoy their hefty fat slices of chashu that's about as juicy as... well I dunno, it's good. That's all you need to know.Is it spectacular that you HAVE to eat it when in Little Tokyo/Arts District? Nah, I imagine there're other options out and about but definitely not a bad place to eat at before enjoying the breweries around after.

Tsujita Artisan Noodle chain comes to the east side with this Arts District location!I ordered the Spicy Tsukemen, and while the flavor and spice level was great, my broth did not come out that hot. When dipping my noodles in the broth, it just made my noodles and soup warm, which wasn't the best. Serving size was good, though I would say all the tsukemens and are tad pricey.My husband got the silky ramen, and it was great. Prices for the extra toppings are a bit much. Service was good, and it wasn't crowded at all. It was good to check out, but not sure I plan to visit again.

We stopped in here after a show and were seated right away. I hadn't had a lot of Ramen so wasn't sure if I would like this. The noodles and broth were SO fresh and the flavor was amazing. I loved everything about it. It was fairly no frill, service was fine but the food couldn't have been better.

When I heard Tsujita serves Tsukemen, I definitely had to stop by! This location is pretty small with only a handful of tables but when we arrived for dinner during the week, we were able to be seated immediately. I started with the Spicy Tuna Bowl and this was hefty and full of tuna. It had a really good flavor and had spicy kick to it too! For my main I got the Large Chashu Tsukemen which was a huge portion. The chashu serving was very generous and each piece deliciously tender and soft with an a great flavor. I had never seen lime added with tsukemen and so our waiter instructed me to put some on the noodles prior to dipping. It makes for a interesting bite and ultimately I preferred the noodles without it. But the combination of the broth and noodles are the most important. I definitely enjoyed the broth and felt that it had a fairly strong flavor. But at the same time I've had tsukemen elsewhere where the broth is even richer/deeper and even more flavorful.That being said I think Tsujita is still well worth a stop since Tsukemen is harder to come by and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Excited to see a Tsujita in the Arts District as I haven't had their tsukemen in years. Ordered a large chashu tsukemen--noodles were perfectly cooked as always, chashu was succulent and fatty (in this case, a good thing). Service was friendly and very quick--not overbearing but very attentive to our needs. Really love the simplicity of the restaurant; it has a small footprint but makes efficient use of the space. Parking on the street midday was easy to find.

I usually never write reviews discussing service over food quality however our service at Tsujita was rather disappointing due to pretty poor service throughout the meal. We arrived around 2:20pm on a Sunday and waited over 10-15 minutes until we had to ask our waitress if she could come by to take our order. We then asked our waitress in advance if the lunch special was available (menu stated it was until 3pm daily). She confirmed it was still active. Myself and my party of six all ordered a few lunch special tsukemen + some additional food items. It took a while for our food to come out (totally reasonable as we knew the kitchen can get busy), however what was most frustrating was that throughout the meal we had to remind her multiple times that our lunch specials had appetizers (karage and takoyaki) that were not served to us initially and none of us got the drinks included in the lunch special until halfway through the meal after we reminded her (we also were brought the wrong drinks twice out out 5 drinks total and had to let her know). We did notice the bowls of noodles were rather large for a lunch special size however hadn't been here before so assumed this was normal.Later in the evening after checking our receipt, I noticed that we were charged for full sized portions for everything including all drinks and appetizers separately instead of a lunch special price, which is pretty messed up in my opinion given that we specifically asked if the lunch special was available, got confirmation it was, and then ordered off the lunch special menu to our waitress DIRECTLY. I understand we ultimately ate large portions (that we thought was weird) because we ACTUALLY got full sized portions incorrectly. I don't mean to discount that the tsukemen and appetizers were very tasty however overall, this service experience was really terrible. Speaking from someone who rarely cares about service when I visit a restaurant, this experience affected the entire meal experience AND we ended up accidentally paying double the amount each for our meals which was atrocious (I regret not checking the itemized amount right before paying).