Hey Kiddo — Restaurant in Denver

This is an adventure. A saga of flavor. A rip roaring thrill ride of a review that will hopefully leave your mouth watering and your thumbs making reservations.

My wife and I have three kiddos. We love our kiddos, but we also realized we desperately needed a break from our kiddos so we could have some adulto timeo. Craving a flavorful meal that would tickle our tastebuds with tantalizing tastes never before tasted we decided Hey Kiddo was the ideal spot for our night out without our kiddos.

Let’s breakdown the kiddo-less, Hey Kiddo, experience.

The Arrival Hey Kiddo is located on the third floor of a somewhat unassuming building right on the bustling Tennyson street. Parking can be scarce and hard to find so we left our boxes on the hillside suburb a bit early to ensure we were relaxed, not rushed when arriving to the restaurant. Fortunately it was a Sunday night and we found parking easily. Walking hand in hand we arrived at the Asher building and took the elevator up to floor three, where a timeless yet trendy outfitted hostess greeted us with a smile and a warm welcome. We officially arrived.

The Atmosphere The inside (when is the sun is out) is cozy and crammed yet open and airy the walls are covered in light wood and the ceilings feature some odd angles that make you feel like you’re in an Asian inspired Swedish mountain home. While the interior is certainly a unique blend of aesthetic elements you can quickly tell the focus of the diners should be on the extensive bar and the open kitchen. Modern music subtlety sounds from the speakers giving a more approachable feeling to the whole experience.

The Service An entire team will take care of you while you’re seated at your slightly cramped table. Everyone brings forward a great sense of passion, enthusiasm and knowledge of the menu.

The Drinks The cocktail program starts the evening off right with an interactive menu of unique drinks offered in fun and engaging glassware. If you’re not feeling any of the listed cocktails they will also gladly make you a sip that suits your mood.

The Food This is probably why you’re reading this review so if you’ve made it this far you’re in for a treat. We decided to have a three chapter eating adventure so join me for each.

Chapter 1: The beginning Wanting to warm up our pallets and try some new tastes we ordered up four things.

A little amusebouche featuring a touch of caviar on a little oyster. We actually didn’t order this, it was brought to us and was the star of the first chapter, salty, sea-y and refreshing this felt like I had an intimate French Kiss with the ocean.

Milk Bread. Whitaker is grandmaster of grain so if you go to any of Kelly’s restaurants bread is a must. These were soft and light yet dense and fluffy. It felt like a Hawaiian roll had a baby with a hearty rustic roll. Would recommend.

Popcorn chicken. The sauces were the highlight of this dish otherwise the chicken felt s bit dense and heavy and the utilization of dark meat was a bit of a surprise.

Panzanella salad. This was a nice medley of palisade peaches, milk roll croutons, tomatoes and more. While tasty and refreshing it was a bit too oily.

Chapter 1 was fun but apart from the oyster was not OMG amazing. But then we got to chapter 2.

Chapter 2: The main event.

These dishes are why you come to hey kiddo.

Kurobuta pork ribs: presented like a mini Jenga tower of flavor packed protein these melt-in-your-mouth meat treats were bursting with flavor featuring a slight spice from gochujang and a subtle sweetness from palisade peaches. Each toothy tear of meat made my eyes roll in the back of head with flavor euphoria.

Shaken Rice: the story and theater behind this dish is worth the order. I won’t spoil the surprise but be prepared for some vigorous table side shaking that would put shakira to shame. The most fun part of this dish was every forkful was flavored differently.

Kimchi pickles. This was great as a palate cleanser between bites or rice and rips of the ribs.

I am out...

This was on my list of restaurants to try for a while. I finally had an excuse to go and here I am.

I think I was pretty whelmed. This was one of the restaurants that like people like to make fun of Denver for: like really expensive, mediocre food with a 22% surge charge.

It started promising (kinda) with the beef tartare which was mixed with gochujang and some pine nuts. As a side note, I also love that a lot of tartares are incorporating bold Asian flavors (this one and the one at Brasserie Brixton). However, these are supposedly “shareable”; like, if it’s shared by ants then sure.

Then came the wagyu! First of all, I wasn’t asked a temp so I was like ok, maybe they cooked it mid-rare (I usually do rare). The temp was bordering on medium. And my god, that was probably the sweetest steak I’ve ever had. I think it was marinated with a bunch of sugar to “complement” the savory dip that comes with it. For me, that doesn’t work. The steak itself should be absolutely delicious without a sauce but not at Hey Kiddo apparently.

The sides (which you have to order separately) weren’t that impressive. There’s an “array of pickles” you can order and the special charred bokchoy with chili crisps on top. They were all things I could make at home and I was stuck wondering why I didn’t just make dinner at home.

Ended awkwardly with the sashimi, which was pretty ok but had like 4 pieces of hamachi surrounded by a (rather delicious) sauce. As far as crudos go, it’s no where near the top of what I’ve had.

I found the concept of the menu to be really confused, as in it’s trying to incorporate Asian ingredients/flavors into dishes that weren’t executed well or designed to begin with, and you can really taste it in its dishes. lol and service, forget about it and it wasn’t even a busy night at all.

In my humble opinion, this is one of the most overrated restaurants in the city and the amount of good words this has is astounding. Good for them and its fans tho!

Did I mention there’s an automatic 22% surcharge? If it was a good dinner I’d be more than happy to pay but like when steak ate sweet and the sides are underwhelming, I feel really cheated.

Maybe I went on...

First off, I went to the Ok Yeah side of this establishment, so the review will reflect that experience...

This place was incredible. My gf and I work remote and are spending the summer in Denver. Recently we have been getting into more crafty cocktails, as we have been drinking less, so we want the drinks we do have to really count. For my gf birthday I took her to Ok Yeah for our first "bespoke" cocktail bar experience. Essentially, there isn't a drink menu, and the extremely knowledgeable, funny, kind, scientists at the bar work with you to come up with a cocktail tailored just to your taste. They started us off with some complimentary punch, and asked us a few questions about our tastes and even our personalities. After a few back and forths, the bartender was off creating the beautiful drinks that made it to us. The cocktails were absolutely amazing. I had been interested in getting more into rum cocktails, and he made me a sort of rum old fashioned (as I told him I mainly did bourbon if I was doing liquor). It was so different and so surprisingly good. My gf went floral and citrusy and was immensely pleased with her drink.

After our first round was getting low he asked us if we wanted another, and if wanted to stay in the same vein or branch out. We did a little of both and were rewarded yet again with exceptional drinks. I got another rum cocktail but asked for a bit more tropical and it swept me off my feet. I was truly swooning (maybe because of the alcohol 🫠). My girlfriend was equally enamored with her concoction.

We had to cut it off there, but I could have stayed for more they were so so delicious and interesting. The whole time we munched on these excellent little varied hand rolls from the kitchen than helped keep us on our feet and smiling the whole time. The whole experience was phenomenal, and I highly recommend to anybody looking to try something new and challenge yourself a little bit. The bartenders were all so nice and intelligent. The decor was on point and the vibes were absolutely immaculate. Thank you for serving me some of the best cocktails of my life. I will be sure to return before our summer out west is...