Izakaya Shingen

Very lovely Japanese restaurant in downtown Ottawa that gets surprisingly close to authentic Japanese food that you can get when travelling to Asia, though I am not a big fan of their chicken karaage’s sauce as it was a bit too vinegary, but just a personal opinion since my friend loved it. Other plates are decent to delicious, right amount of spices. If you’re a fan of seafood and are willing to try new things, I really recommend the grilled Mackerel. They did it in the Japanese style so it’s really unique and had the right crispness. The environment/atmosphere plus decoration was also 10/10, really authentic and pretty. The only thing is that the seats are a bit tight to one another in the restaurant, so I’m not sure if it would fit a big group of customers. Overall very lovely, unique experience, I really recommend and will definitely return.

Everything about this place was awesome. Decent sake selection (I got the sake flight), lots of good food choices at a very reasonable price (I highly recommend the aburi mackerel). Service and atmostphere was A+. Definitely coming back next time I’m in Ottawa.

If you want to pay money just to be ignored and treated poorly, this place is perfect!! We found a foreign object in our beer, and the man staff just rushed to take the glass away without proper explanation. After a quick “sorry” and removing the charge for the beer, they completely ignored our table. Also the table behind us, who ordered about five minutes later than we did, received their food first. Meanwhile, I still hadn’t even received the warm sake I ordered. We didn’t even have a designated server. Three different servers dropped off dishes without a word, except for one woman who was at least polite. This used to be one of my favorite spots, but something has clearly changed. Extremely disappointing. I had many good memories here, so I revisited from Toronto, but it was extremely disappointing. 진짜 캐나다 4년 살면서 이렇게 팁 내기 싫었던 레스토랑은 이곳이 처음입니다.

Visited with a friend on the evening of November 14th. The place was busy and had a great atmosphere. We sat by the window, and I ordered a variety of grilled skewers. However, I was really disappointed that the skewers were unbearably salty, to the point of tasting bitter. Even with the sauce, they were overly salty and sweet. Personally, I prefer my skewers with just a light sprinkle of salt and without any sauce. I mentioned this to the server, who promptly took the untouched skewers to the kitchen. The kitchen staff tasted them and agreed that they were excessively salty and bitter. They immediately contacted the owner, who comped those skewers from our bill. We were told that a new chef, who had only been working for two weeks, was responsible. My suggestion: Would it be possible for the chef to set aside a few samples to taste before serving? This way, they can ensure the seasoning is balanced—not too salty or too bland. Overall, I appreciate the staff’s responsiveness and professionalism in handling the situation!

I guess it's really as good as it gets for an Izakaya in Ottawa. The food can be good, but service is really hit or miss most of the time. I have visited 4 or 5 times and half of that time, they forget drinks and bill you for them. The food is generally pretty tasty - notable the curry tonkatsudon. As for the small plates, they could generally be better but are okay - they're just expensive for what it is. All in all, I do enjoy coming here - especially with friends as it makes for a great atmosphere.