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GuideUpdated July 15, 2026

9 Best Ramen Restaurants in Los Angeles

9 Los Angeles ramen spots serving proper bowls — tonkotsu, shoyu, miso, and beyond.

The best ramen restaurants in Los Angeles are JINYA Ramen Bar - Topanga Westfield, REDWHITE BONELESS RAMEN, Chubby Cattle BBQ | Little Tokyo, and more. Start with JINYA Ramen Bar - Topanga Westfield if you want the strongest overall first pick.

By Yuki Tanaka•9 ranked picks•Published July 15, 2026•Updated July 15, 2026
Methodology•Editorial team
JINYA Ramen Bar - Topanga WestfieldREDWHITE BONELESS RAMENChubby Cattle BBQ | Little Tokyo
9 Best Ramen Restaurants in Los Angeles
Google

Top picks at a glance

#1JINYA Ramen Bar - Topanga WestfieldJapanese • Los Angeles • value#2REDWHITE BONELESS RAMENJapanese • Los Angeles • value#3Chubby Cattle BBQ | Little TokyoJapanese • Little Tokyo • value

Who this guide is for

The best ramen in Los Angeles spans rich tonkotsu, clean shoyu broths, and creative seasonal specials. These picks are sorted by Google rating and review depth. Picks span Los Angeles, Little Tokyo and Sawtelle.

Quick picks

JINYA Ramen Bar - Topanga Westfield
Japanese • Los Angeles
Mall ramen is an easy target, and JINYA Ramen Bar at Westfield Topanga invites the skepticism.
REDWHITE BONELESS RAMEN
Japanese • Los Angeles
Most DTLA ramen draws a line out the door at lunch, then goes dark by nine.
Chubby Cattle BBQ | Little Tokyo
Japanese • Little Tokyo
Chubby Cattle BBQ | Little Tokyo is an easy japanese option in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles to suggest without needing a long explanation.
Browse all Los Angeles restaurantsBack to Los Angeles hub
Editorial details
Author: Yuki Tanaka
Published: July 15, 2026
Last updated: July 15, 2026

On this page

  1. 1. JINYA Ramen Bar - Topanga WestfieldView →
  2. 2. REDWHITE BONELESS RAMENView →
  3. 3. Chubby Cattle BBQ | Little TokyoView →
  4. 4. Tsujita LA Artisan NoodlesView →
  5. 5. Marugame UdonView →
  6. 6. Marugame MonzoView →
  7. 7. Kouraku Japanese Ramen & GrillView →
  8. 8. Chinchikurin Little TokyoView →
  9. 9. Daikokuya Little TokyoView →

How the restaurants compare

Editorial restaurant image stand-in for JINYA Ramen Bar - Topanga Westfield
Google
JINYA Ramen Bar - Topanga Westfield
Los Angeles • Japanese
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
value
Best for
noodles
Mood
Casual
Editorial restaurant image stand-in for REDWHITE BONELESS RAMEN
Google
REDWHITE BONELESS RAMEN
Los Angeles • Japanese
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
value
Best for
noodles
Mood
Casual
Editorial restaurant image stand-in for Chubby Cattle BBQ | Little Tokyo
Google
Chubby Cattle BBQ | Little Tokyo
Little Tokyo • Japanese
9.5/10
TastyPals Score
4.9
Google
Price
value
Best for
Little Tokyo dinner
Mood
Little Tokyo
Editorial restaurant image stand-in for Tsujita LA Artisan Noodles
Google
Tsujita LA Artisan Noodles
Sawtelle • Japanese
8.4/10
TastyPals Score
4.5
Google
Price
value
Best for
Sawtelle crawl
Mood
Sawtelle

How we chose

We looked for restaurants that feel like a strong fit for the guide topic, not just the most obvious names in the city. The shortlist favors rooms with clear mood, dependable pacing, and enough distinction to help someone decide faster. Read our full methodology →

Room tone

Lighting, pace, and general energy all need to support the reason someone clicked this guide.

Food fit

We favored restaurants that feel best suited for the moment, not just restaurants with broad reputation.

Useful range

The final list tries to give readers enough variation in neighborhood, price, and style to compare real options.

9 ranked picks

JINYA Ramen Bar - Topanga Westfield — Mall ramen is an easy target, and JINYA Ramen Bar at Westfield Topanga invites the skepticism. What pushes back against it is the chain's documented process: founder Tomo Takahashi built the brand around broths that run for twenty hours — pork bones, chicken, bonito, kombu — a production commitment that a shopping-center address does nothing to alter. The Topanga location also carries more physical presence than the setting might suggest, with 131 seats and a proper outdoor patio that separates it meaningfully from its food-court neighbors. The menu's reputation leans on a few dishes worth understanding before you go. The Creamy Tonkotsu Ramen is the standard entry point and, based on consistent customer feedback, is known for a broth that reads as layered rather than flatly rich — the long simmer is the stated reason. Tan Tan Men takes a sesame-and-chile direction, and diners regularly describe it as focused and warming rather than diffuse. The Birria Ramen is the more deliberate swing: a Mexican-inflected bowl that leans into crossover flavors and reportedly draws a crowd precisely because it doesn't try to hide what it is. Whether that fits your evening is a mood question, not a quality one. The Miso Glazed Eggplant rounds out the options as a vegetable dish that, unlike many in its category, appears on the menu with enough frequency and positive mention to suggest it functions as a genuine choice rather than a concession. For a price-one restaurant operating inside one of the San Fernando Valley's busier malls, JINYA is doing more considered work than the location typically signals. Lunch hours fill quickly by most accounts; a weekday arrival before the midday rush is the practical move if you want both a seat and reasonable pacing from the kitchen. View restaurant →
REDWHITE BONELESS RAMEN — Most DTLA ramen draws a line out the door at lunch, then goes dark by nine. REDWHITE Boneless Ramen plays a longer game, holding court until midnight (1 a.m. on weekends) in a dim, bar-leaning room a few blocks from The Broad and Grand Central Market. The "boneless" in the name isn't a gimmick: this is a plant-forward kitchen, and Chef Kei, who's been at this fifteen-plus years, builds broth the slow way, simmering vegetables and aromatics into something with real umami backbone rather than leaning on tonkotsu's easy fat. The Spicy Miso has earned a genuine following, and rightly so. The Smoky Truffle and Yuzu Sesame round out a lineup that takes vegetarian ramen seriously instead of treating it as an afterthought. There's a Miso Avocado roll for the table, too. I couldn't confirm pricing ahead of time, so check before you go. But for a late-night, meat-optional bowl in a neighborhood that empties out after the concert crowd leaves, this is a quietly useful room. View restaurant →

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Daikokuya Little Tokyo — Little Tokyo has no shortage of ramen contenders, but Daikokuya at 327 E 1st St has a reputation that most of its neighbors on that half-mile stretch simply cannot match — and sustained neighborhood trust of that order is worth paying attention to. The room is intentionally compact: one run of tables along the left wall, a counter along the right, historical photographs on the walls. By most accounts, the space feels closer to a neighborhood canteen than a curated ramen concept, which is precisely the point. LA Downtown News named Daikokuya the best ramen spot in 2016 and again in 2017, a back-to-back recognition that held up against a genuinely competitive field. The menu centers on the Daikoku Ramen, and diners consistently return to it for good reason. The tonkotsu base is reportedly built over nearly a full day of simmering kurobuta pork bones, then balanced with soy sauce — a process that produces a broth known for depth and deliberateness rather than shortcuts. Pork belly chashu, bamboo shoots, and an overnight-soaked egg complete the bowl without overcrowding it. The Tsukemen offers a different angle on the kitchen's broth work, with noodles served separately for dipping — a format that tends to appeal to diners who prefer a more concentrated hit of flavor. The Homemade Gyoza are a frequent recommendation in the same breath as the ramen, rarely treated as an afterthought. The Matcha Tiramisu rounds things out on a note that, by reputation, gives people pause before skipping dessert. Weekend hours run until midnight, which makes Daikokuya a rare late option in the neighborhood — useful information worth holding onto. Arrive before the lunch rush or after 9 PM on a weeknight to avoid the lines that form reliably outside. Start with the Daikoku Ramen and the Homemade Gyoza. View restaurant →

Explore next

SawtelleLittle TokyoJapanesedinnerlunchclassic

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