Ebisu Japanese Restaurant

Reviews

• Leah S.

  star star star star star 10 June 2026

  My husband is on a roll picking amazing restaurants for us. While we were in Providence for the day, I picked a place that was unfortunately closed for Labor Day, and hubby suggested Ebisu as an alternative and totally NAILED IT!!!
  
  When we drove up, I was wary, given the first impression from the street. It's not much from the outside, but don't let that dissuade you from giving it a try! Inside it was calm, dark and smelled like miso, so I was pretty excited. We were the only ones there when we arrived, and were seated immediately.
  
  The menu was great, and I loved their "build your own ramen" options. They also had a specials board with awesome desserts, apps and some seasonal drinks. We were starving so everything looked good to us. We asked the waitress/manager for some extra time.
  
  To start, we ordered a side of the shiso and garlic fried rice, a thai iced tea with coconut milk, and for our mains we both built our own ramen. The rice was packed with flavor, and was really delicious. Thai iced tea is never a bad decision, and despite the coconut milk getting clumpy, it was refreshing.
  
  Ramen is really hard to do well in my opinion, but this place offers 30 hour tonkatsu broth and it is incredible. We both ordered that as our base, he got bean thread noodles and I opted for the traditional ramen. His toppings were more meat and eggs, and I got bok choi, house made delicious kimchi (delicious and fresh), corn and mushrooms.
  
  For dessert, we were vacillating between the halo-halo, which is something I love and haven't had since I lived in Hawaii, and the miso doughnuts. Because I hadn't ever heard of a miso doughnut, we went for it. WOW its amazing. I loved the combination of the umami of the white miso and the sweet savory combo with the ice cream and caramel flavors. It's like kettle corn but with a hip Asian flair. It's awesome they took this culinary risk and it absolutely paid off.
  
  The ramen was the best I've had in the area other than Boston. The doughnut was like nothing I've ever had in my life and I can't wait to return to have more of both! Prices were reasonable for the size of the servings and the amazing flavor they manage to pack into each dish. I'm not sure how everything else on the menu is, but I can't stop thinking about those flavors! Service was friendly and fast, and the place was clean, inviting, and surprisingly gourmet. Solid 5 stars.

• Chloe L.

  star star star_border star_border star_border 8 June 2026

  Service is excellent, appetizers are great, we were all super happy with our appetizers and wanted to try more.
  
  But main dishes are nowhere nearly as good as the appetizers.
  
  Miso Ramen- cool that they have this opinion but this is nowhere near what real ramen suppose to taste like, basic cheap broth, definitely not worth it.
  
  Bbq pork- way over priced for some chashao level pork you can just get from a Chinese buffet and probably better.
  
  I would give it better rating if the dishes weren't visibly dirty and the kimchi fried rice didn't tasted like the kimchi has gone bad... errrr basic food safety!

• Denise G.

  star star star star star 22 May 2026

  Great find!! We stopped here on our way from New Haven to Cape Cod ... we actually started at an Asian restaurant across the street, but walked out of that one. I don't know why I didn't see this one first!!
  Yaki Soba and Yasai Curry were both delicious!! Our server was efficient and friendly. The restaurant is clean; music is good :)
  If ever in this area again, we'd definitely stop here!!

• Jan R.

  star star star star_border star_border 22 May 2026

  Good Japanese food but with a limited menu in my opinion.  It is listed as one of the top 10 pokebowl restaurants in Cranston but they don't serve pokebowl which is what I was in the mood for. I had a lunch combination with bbq pork and rice with a side of broccoli. It was ok. I also had fried dumplings with it which were again ok. My friend had a ramen bowl special which he enjoyed and I thought had little flavor. We shared coconut milk corn on a skewer which again was good but again little seasoning. I would come back to try something else because the reviews are so good.  Hopefully I will make better choices next time.

• Deb W.

  star star star star_border star_border 20 May 2026

  Providence is well known for its abundance of amazing restaurants in the area so I always have high expectations when dining here.  Unfortunately, I was disappointed with my visit to Ebisu. I should have known once I walked in on a weekend night and there was only one table that was filled other than ours.  My underwhelming experience could be due to the fact that I live in Boston where there is an abundance of delicious Japanese restaurants and my taste buds be spoiled.  I wouldn't say the food here is bad, but it definitely wasn't memorable either.
  
  I ordered the tuna tostada, kawa (chicken skin) skewers, and Ebisu ramen.  The flavor of the tuna tostada was decent but it literally came with one small piece of tuna on top.  Once you finish that in one bite, you are left eating rice with seaweed.  Definitely disappointing.  The kawa had great flavor but not prepared in a way that is typically made in a Japanese Izakaya restaurant.  The broth in the Ebisu ramen had good flavor, it was light and clean.  I would recommend adding more toppings to make it a more filling exciting meal.