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食い倒れ kui daore
Eating until your wallet falls over.
What does kui daore mean?
Osaka's favourite way to spend a weekend: takoyaki, then kushikatsu, then just one more thing. The word carries a proud shrug about the damage.
Example
大阪では食い倒れ覚悟で朝から歩き回った。
In Osaka we walked around from morning, ready to eat ourselves broke.
Vibe
Who you can say this to, and how it lands.
Safe to use Fine in ordinary conversation.
Culture note
Originally it meant literally ruining yourself through food. Osaka is nicknamed the kuidaore city, while Kyoto gets the clothes-spending version, kidaore.
The story behind kui daore
Kuidaore literally means to collapse through eating, and it was not originally a compliment. In older usage you ruined your household by spending everything on food. Osaka took the insult, wore it as a crown and turned it into a tourist slogan, with a mechanical drumming doll on a Dotonbori street corner as its unofficial ambassador.
The city keeps the sport organised. Takoyaki standing up, kushikatsu next, and the one iron rule that you never dip your skewer in the shared sauce twice. Old sayings pair Osaka with Kyoto, where people supposedly ruin themselves on clothes instead, kidaore. Every Japanese city has good food. Only one has built a personality around the damage.
Get kui daore in your pocket
食い倒れ is one of 308 words in YABAI, a Japanese culture snack for Android. Every word comes with its meaning, an example sentence, a vibe check and a story like the one above — in 13 languages, read aloud by your device. Paid app: no ads, no sign-up, no subscription.
