Investigating Ohedo

At Where2Game, I am looking out for the best and newest local gaming venues. My interest piqued when Ohedo was suggested by a reader. Ohedo is a Japanese board game cafe located in Hamilton, ON – or at least that’s how it is advertised. With prime placement on Main Street, it has multiple gamers buzzing about when it’s going to open. The main issue I’ve found is that there isn’t a lot of information to find! So, I put on my Dick Tracy gumshoes and go to work to see what I could find.

The first place I turned to was Google. With it’s community based review system, I figured someone would have information.

Ohedo screen capture from Google on Jun 14, 2018

It’s missing a lot of information. So looked for their website to no avail, and from the Google Review it seems it is unclaimed. Ohedo doesn’t have an English website up and running from what I found and since I’m monolingual I haven’t been able to search in either Mandarin or Japanese. This location is very close to Columbia International College which is a private boarding college with a large student base from China, South Korea, and Japan. It is possible that a website exists for this student body, but I haven’t found one.

Turning to Reddit, I found a couple of posts from inquisitive members of the gaming community. The theme seemed to be the same: when is Ohedo going to open? /toomuchpie on their post in April 2017 said that they were still waiting for Ohedo to open. Another user, /hotsauceygum echoed this point Feb 2018 in their post when they said that it still had not opened.  The board game room had been coming soon for a year. I needed to know if this was still being worked on or abandoned. So I hit the streets.

I headed down to the Ohedo and it was still sealed up. No sign of activity and in the middle of a renovation. Brown paper lines the large bay windows preventing anyone from seeing in. I was able to go around to the door and it does look like it’s getting set up, but I have not been back to double check my findings and see if anything has been moved.

An empty board game cafe is a sad board game cafe

To the owners of Ohedo, if you’re out there, you have a community that is still interested and we look forward to reviewing you once you open. Let us know you’re not abandoned and we’ll be happy to update. To our readers, be sure that if something moves on this, we will pick it up and report it.

Game Venue Review: Mancala Monk

Mancala Monk

1229 Cannon St E, Hamilton, ON L8H 1T8 | (905) 393-6815
Gaming Cafe
https://www.mancalamonk.com/

Rating ♟♟♟♟

Rating Breakdown

Cost to Play ♟♟♟♟♟ Accessibility ♟♟ _ _ _  Atmosphere ♟♟♟_ _

Menu Cost ♟♟♟♟_   Parking ♟♟♟♟ _ Community ♟♟♟♟ _

Admittedly, I’ve never played Mancala. I’ve seen it back on Neopets back in the day, but never fully understood it. Luckily no knowledge of the game was necessary for our visit to the Mancala Monk.

Mancala Monk is situated near Cannon and Ottawa and has a welcoming exterior. There is a small curb to get past getting into the door which does not have an accessibility access.

Once inside the interior is nicely appointed and decorated. Games line the walls with easy to access shelving. When I first saw all the games waiting, I was overwhelmed with what to try. My gaming partners and I picked out some new ones to try and ordered some snacks.

The snack costs fell in line with what we have experienced in previous venues like Gameopolis. The snacks are on the higher side cost wise, but are still delicious and refreshing. Portion sizes were considerable though, less the tiny Perrier that one of my associates ordered. Liquor licensed, I didn’t really see any drinks being ordered as we were in the midday rush, but it was a nice option.

Cost of admission was $5 for 3 hours of play which is loosely enforced. My comrades and I played for 3.5 hours and definitely felt like we got our money’s worth.

In the time we were there, the store seemed to ebb and flow from full to half-full. We came at a prime time on a weekend, and called ahead. When I asked about reservations, they recommended making one and took it easily. I love the great customer service here.

When we arrived and checked in, they knew about the reservation and took us right away. Nearby, a couple of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) sessions played. There was plenty of space for the dungeon masters to play and host sessions of 3 players up to one with 7!

They also support product lines from Wizards of the Coast including:

• Magic the Gathering: drafts, Modern, prereleases
• Dungeons and Dragons – Adventurer’s League

They also offer special days where you can game. Half-priced Tuesdays and TGIFridates where you get two admissions, non-alcoholic drinks, and two sandwiches for $30.

If I had to make two requests to the Mancala Monk staff it would be to increase the level of table service (which I know can be hard in busy weekends) and to make the entrance and bathrooms accessible. This is a big opportunity for all retailers to include all members of the community.

Overall, thank you for the opportunity to play, and I will be recommending this gaming cafe in the future. Big shout out to Chris from Elev8 Dance who came out to game with us!