Kuidaore: Cute Izakaya in Ottawa

We felt like going to a Japanese Izayaka so we headed over to Kuidaore for some TGIF food and drinks one night. Apparently kuidaore (食い倒れ) in Japanese means “to eat one’s self into ruin”¹.

Location/Ambience

It was quite busy on a Friday night but we were able to get a table for 2 with minimal wait. The atmosphere was quite casual and had a typical Izakaya vibe with lots of young people and vibrant environment, minus the cigarette smoke that you would usually smell in such an establishment in Japan. This is located on Preston Street, where you can find street parking quite easily.

Drinks

They had an interesting drinks menu with lots of Japanese inspired cocktails, local and imported beers as well as various spirits and sake. I tried the Hitachino Dai Dai IPA which was more of a West Coast IPA with its darker hue, hoppy taste and fruity aroma (made with orange peels). Aaron had the Kikusui Perfect Snow Nigori Sake, which was an unfiltered, strong sake. I usually don’t like unfiltered sake as much but I felt it complimented our food very well that night.

Kikusui Perfect Snow Nigori Sake

Food

For starters, we picked the Tuna tataki. I really enjoyed the nicely seared tuna with greens, flavoured with a sesame soy and ponzu. Next, we had the ebi mayo, which I felt had a heavier batter than I had expected, but still not bad.

Tuna tataki
Ebi mayo

Next, we both had a bowel of ramen. I had their spicy tonkotsu and Aaron tried their grilled beef ramen. It was not as authentic as a good reliable bowl of Sansotei Ramen but still a nice way to add some comforting soupy noodles to a meal.

Grilled beef ramen

We had also ordered some skewers on the side. I was super impressed by their chicken heart skewers. The fried quail egg and chicken skewers were not bad either. I would have preferred the chicken skewer without so much BBQ sauce, but that’s just my personal taste.

Chicken heart skewer

Service

The service here was generally good. Both our servers were very kind and friendly. It was busy here today but we did not have to wait too long for our food. We had returned another time (on a Saturday night) and unfortunately the wait for food was much longer.

Overall

This is a lovely place to have a variety of Japanese food, rather than your usual sushi restaurant or ramen restaurant. It’s a cool place to just hang out with friends, have a few drinks and share a few small plates. Enjoy and try not to kuidaore!