Ottawa Foodies

While I've only been eating sushi for about two years I've quickly grown to love it. I've eaten all over Ottawa and Toronto, and feel I have a pretty good idea of what constitutes a good sushi place. So the SO and I headed to Kinki tonight to meet up with some friends.

Let's start at the beginning. I decided to run to the washroom as we got there, getting a chance to look around the place before stepping out onto

the patio. I get back to the table just in time to see the waiter taking off after handing out the first drinks order. He asks if I knew what I wanted, and I told him that I would take a look and inform him when he came back... (queue a 30 minute waiting period which ended when I flagged him down)... he finally returned (BTW he bitched about being short staffed that night despite having 2 women helping him on the patio, and at least 3 people inside when I went to the washroom) with our water, we placed both our other drinks orders (as there were a few people who hadn't ordered drinks yet) as well as our dinner order.

My SO and I decided on ordering the following: The Tapas platter with edammame, salad, veggie tempura, and prawns followed by the combo platter (the $28.00 combo of the three $16.00 plates), which we thought were going to be maki each drizzled with their corresponding sauces.

First off, they had no edammame, so we settled on spring rolls instead. After yet another half hour wait, the waiter returns with our appetizers.

The first thing we noticed is that we had no spring rolls. The waiter informed us that they screwed up and gave us double prawns, but that the spring rolls would be coming, and that the extra prawns were on the house. The second thing we noticed was that the standard slightly sweet dipping sauce for the tempura was not there. We had to ask him to bring it to us. When he returned with two giant bowls, they were not filled with the standard mirin, soy and dashi mix, but just a watery tasting soy sauce, which he assured us was their tempura dipping sauce (gross, it was DEFINITELY soy sauce, and not much else, everyone at the table agreed). The third thing we noticed was that the second order of prawns was actually one prawn and three deep fried chicken strips. WTF?!

As for the taste of the appetizer, the spring rolls were alright, though the dipping sauce was the standard sweet hot sauce with the chilies that comes from the store. The salad was OK (though it was my only exposure to wakame salad), the tempura was average (somewhat greasy), and the prawns were also in a store bought sauce (or at least it tasted that way).

So onto the mains. After yet another wait after our appetizer plates were cleared, out main arrives, only for my SO and me to discover that they were not in fact maki, but simply sashimi. Fine, I'm OK with the lack of standard pairings (rice, nori, wasabi and ginger) as long as it's tasty.

However, the plate's three parts (as paprika tuna with mango dipping sauce, a peppercorn tuna with a chipotle sauce, and a salmon with sweet vinegar) which were all seared, were crap... utter shite.

The mango sauce was gross, and tasted store bought. The paprika tuna was in itself quite unpalatable, and my SO refused to touch it after one try.

The peppercorn tuna was OK (peppercorn and tuna go well anyways), but the chipotle sauce was tasteless. The salmon was also passable, but the "sweet vinegar" was more like "tan coloured water" than anything else. The only reason I even ate the damned stuff was because it cost a friggin' arm and a leg.

And to top it all off, when the bills arrive, we have the bill split up incorrectly, with a drink we didn't order being placed on our tab. Kinki's and waiter, I hope you enjoy your 72 and 10 bucks (respectively) from me, because I'll never, EVER eat at your restaurant again.

While the sushi is good here, it is overpriced and the service leaves a bit to be desired. In addition, this is a young, hipster place, so it seems you have to be slim, beautiful and wear black to go here.

I wont pretend that I know alot about sushi but as the novice muncher that I am I was astounded by what Kinki had to offer. I went in with a friend after class and we were both about to make the same mistake of ordering california rolls when the waiter actually sat down at the table and pointed out the Kinki Roll and the Diablo roll to us saying wed like it more. Personally, I love it when people in the know are so willing to introduce a newbie to the good stuff. On that I was thoroughly pleased with the sushi, it came out fast and fresh and completely blew anything I've ever eaten out of the water. the restaurant its self is estheticly pleasing although i found the cushions on the large booth seats uncomfortable. We went during an off-peak hour so the music wasnt loud and the place wasnt too busy, but for me, thats just perfect. all in all Kinki's was a restaurant with a great vibe, outstanding service and food quality and a refreshingly different take on how sushi should be served.

The SO and I went to Kinki last night for the Extreme Happy Hour (after 10 - reduced price, double portions). It was my first time there. We ordered the Kinki Roll, Fire Roll, Rainbow Roll, Hamachi nigiri(Yellowtail), Vegetable Tempura and Vegetable Gyozas and bottle of Pinot Grigio. We wanted to order the Mango Unagi but they were all out.

The tempura was okay... I've had better in the city. It was crisp, but greasy. I linked tempura to Kinki and take a look in there for the review. The gyozas were good: they were slightly salted, but garlicy and flavourful.

The sushi arrived really quickly and was freshly made at the sushi bar. It was all great. See my sushi-specific review in the sushi section for Kinki.

The service was attentive, quick and friendly. It was a tad chilly in there, but then again, it's chilly outside too! My only major complaint was that the dj music was too loud. Maybe it was our seat or the acoustics in the room, by my SO had to sit beside me for us to be able to carry on a conversation. We ordered one roll too many - had we ordered less and without a bottle of wine it would've been around $60 for the two of us. I'd go back, but probably not outside of the happy hour.

We had a hankering for late night sushi and a friend of ours worked at Kinki so we popped on in. Service was super, but that can't be rated as we knew a few of the servers. Here's what we got though.

(pic: top is the Hidden Shrimp roll, standard shrimp tempura roll, but these were fat....and bottom is Tsunami roll which is tempura red snapper, and tuna on top with spicy mayo. The other maki roll was the Fire roll, pretty mainstream (not so spicy) salmon roll.

I've never been blown away by Kinki. I've had some pretty bad experiences here. But this time, you can't find fault when being served by your friends and the sushi hit the spot.

We've found the speed of service to be fine, but we've been there at off-peak times, when it wasn't busy -- 5:30 p.m. on a Monday (recently) and a Saturday for lunch (a few months ago). It wasn't empty either time, but neither was the place full of the Trendy Sushi Set that the place seems to be targeting.

As for the food, we've been pleased -- no duds through four meals (two people eating, twice). As the expression goes, your mileage may vary.

The complaint everyone had about this place (myself included) when it first opened was that food took forever (sometimes an hour) to arrive at your table and the dishes were hit-and-miss. I remember a particularly delicious Thai-style soup and a quite miserable overcooked fish dish. Has the speed of service improved since then?

Had edamame here at their 'happy hour' -- fair-sized bowl for $6 -- and was impressed. Beans done just right, coated with enough salt to taste (but not be too salty) and toasted sesame seeds (a nice touch, which added good flavour). A few warmed bean sprouts were added to the top, as a garnish; not necessary, but they didn't get in the way of the main attraction, and they spruced up the look of an otherwise plain bowl of green.

Great trendy decor, great service, good sushi.
BUT!!
The miso soup wasn't very good; The chunks of tofu were too big and the noodles were overcooked in my opinion.
The sushi is WAY overpriced for the amount you get. It cost 80$ for me and my boyfriend and we were still so hungry when we left we had to pick up more food on the way home.

Fine place for someone with a thick wallet and little appetite.

We ordered the Kinki Roll, Fire Roll, Rainbow Roll, Hamachi nigiri(Yellowtail). The Hamachi was amazing: there was a large slice on a average to smaller bed of rice.

The presentation was very well done - the 12 pieces (happy hour portions) of each roll came on a square plate and was accented using small pieces of palm, ginger and little balls of wasabi.

The rolls were all very good - the Kinki roll could've used a bit more tempura and were slightly awkward to eat. Because of the size we had to bite it (what a no-no) or risk not being able to talk for a good two minutes. The Fire roll wasn't exactly hot or spicy, but definitely had some flavour. The rainbow roll was decent.

Over the past few years I've dined here numerous times with colleagues and friends. Nice decor and ambiance, but the sushi just can't compete with other local establishments. The KINKI roll was alright for a specialty type roll (flash fried and drizzled with a sweet sauce). I can't stress this enough - avoid the hot & sour soup!

The server on my last visit was very knowledgeable about the menu (especially the sake) and our wait time was reasonable. I would return, but not on my own accord - maybe if someone else is footing the bill :)

kmennie, if you want good vegetarian sushi, try the "Land and Sea Roll" at Sushi88 (vendor 903). It's a typical inside out (sesame coated) maki roll, filled with wakame (seaweed), and cucumber. About as tasty as vegetarian sushi gets! ;)

I'm ashamed to admit this, but I tried sushi for the first time just recently.

From this place. And?

Meh. That's it? Bland, boring.

Caveat: this was vegetarian "sushi."

Had sushi a couple of times here, and each time was pleased -- good flavours and textures, well-presented. Best I've ever had? Not at all. Good enough both times to leave satisfied? Yes.

Last time there, I had the 'mango unagi' maki, which was excellent -- grilled eel and cucumber with a splash of mango drizzle; a good combination, and the eel had a particularly nice flavour. Mrs. Ozonator had the 'ichiban' maki -- salmon and avocado, in a large-ish roll, also tasty.

We had the tempura here and I wasn't all that impressed. There was a lot of it for an appetizer - 10+ pieces. The pieces were fairly large and difficult to eat. I found it greasy though it was crispy. There wasn't a lot of batter, either.

I would've liked to have the shrimp tempura (my favourite) but their mixed tempura is shrimp, scallops and crawfish.

I wouldn't order it again.