Kuidaore Handroll Bar — Restaurant in Oakland

Kuidaore is a wonderful restaurant! I highly recommend including it in your visit to Jack London Square. Food: The fish is fresh, delicious and high quality. The small plates are creative and have all been really flavorful and well-balanced (I have just 1 more on the list to try). My only criticism is that some of the fish is so tender it can be difficult to get the whole bite from the plate to my mouth. The handrolls are really good, each one is packed with fish and the seaweed is super crispy - exactly what you'd want. They'll let you split them between 2 people if you want to be sure to have room to try a lot of them. There are a few expensive, very fancy ones - think edible gold, wagyu, caviar...incredible to taste and beautiful presentation. Their miso soup is delicious and an inexpensive extra that you should definitely try. People: The staff are amazing! So welcoming and accommodating. After a few visits, our favorite waitress recognized us and had our drinks started before we even sat down! The chef/owner is friendly and checks in on customers when she can. Atmosphere: The chairs are awkwardly tall but it gives you a great view of the handroll station. It's an intimate setting that's very comfortable. The only negative is that when it's busy it gets pretty noisy. To reiterate, I definitely recommend going here if you're...

I had high hopes for this hand roll spot in Oakland, but overall, the experience was pretty underwhelming. The food is very average, and a lot of it seems like it's just pre-made items that you can easily pick up at a Japanese market or wholesaler. The seaweed salad, wasabi octopus, and ankimo all tasted like they were store-bought, not freshly made in-house.

To make matters worse, the seaweed on the rolls was wet and soft, completely lacking the crisp texture you'd expect. For the price, I was expecting much higher quality and attention to detail. Unfortunately, it just didn’t live up to that. If you're paying a premium, you expect fresh, unique dishes, not things you could grab off a shelf at a market. Not worth it for what they charge.

It felt more like a cheap American sushi roll place trying to act like trendy and high end dining.

Not recommended at all,...

The food was delicious, nothing super innovative, but tasty fish, perfectly crisp nori and fun cocktails. I loved the happy spoons and premium hand rolls. No complaints about the food, but it was quite expensive, two of us spent 200 including tip and I was still hungry.

The service and ambiance are my reason for less stars. The lights are extremely bright so that detracted from the experience. Some softer, warmer light for evening would bring the vibe up to match the pricing would be an easy fix. The staff was nice enough but it felt more cafe casual and unrefined.

I would maybe try it again for lunch if they had a...