Sadly, the Grub has now closed
Just a brief post today on a fairly new place that has opened in Yoyogi Uehara. I initially wasn’t sure whether I should put this on here as there is a lot of non-Craft beer there. But considering that I seem to keep going there I thought it owed it to them to publicise their place a bit.
– Seven taps, four of regular macro stuff, one slightly rotating BrewDog tap (which is usually Punk IPA, but occasionally a seasonal appears) and two taps of craft beer. These vary between Japanese craft and imported craft (US or Mikkeller recently). Served in two sizes, glass and pint. Glass is around 330ml I reckon and for the guests, normally costs around ¥800. Pint is a US pint and is around ¥1050.
– Large bottle menu with a focus on Belgian and US stuff. Also a page in the menu of limited stock bottles with some 750ml stuff included.
– Very nice pub food. Big selection of dishes, decent vegetarian selections too. Think they really take a lot of care with their food.
– Looks a bit like a British pub. They have a couple of screens showing sports but with the sound down. Lots of seating.
– They now have a couple of ‘happy hours’ too. Daily from 17:00-19:00 you can get ¥200 off pints and glasses of their guest craft beers. And you can get the same discount between 03:00 and 04:30 from Monday to Thursday.
Very pleased we have another place in Uehara, really close to the station too and this one is a very different kind of place to Cafe De Tete. It’s considerably cheaper and is very much a pub rather than a bar/cafe. They are open extremely late and publish their taplist on facebook daily and there is no cover charge, so if you are fussy (like me) you can keep an eye on it and then just pop in for one when there’s something you want to drink. In spite of the limited selection of decent taps, they do seem to care about their beer. They recently were selling three different aged Belgian magnums by the glass as a Christmas special. The staff are very friendly and it’s a very relaxed place. The big downside is that smoking is allowed. This isn’t such a problem at the moment, as it’s a fairly big place and not so busy, but I suspect that one chain-smoking patron on an adjacent table could quite easily ruin your evening. But I don’t want to put you off as this is a place that I like going to and I hope succeeds. Ignore all that, it’s now non-smoking. Hooray!
Japanese breweries I’ve seen on tap here:
Minoh
Beer Buddy
Sankt Gallen
North Island
Opening Hours:
Monday, 17:00-02:00
Wednesday-Friday, 17:00-04:00
Saturday, 13:00-04:00
Sunday, 13:00-02:00
Location/map:
第二小林ビル 2F, 上原 1-32-15, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Telephone:
03-6804-8714
Links:
Facebook
Blog
Ratebeer listing
OK – I will show my cards on this venue.
I never went inside here. But, on my trip to Japan in May 2009, when I was allowed to crash at the business office of a beer blogger in Tomigaya, every night, as I staggered back from the Yoyogi-Koen station, I noticed what looked like a prospective beer bar ~ because it had a bottle of Brooklyn Lager (this is before it was brewed at Hitachino Nest) in its window.
I never went in.
But I suspect it is still there. It would be on the west path from the Chiyoda Line exit. On the south side of the avenue. This may be a lounge. But I saw no signs of a session charge. This is the only potential solid beer bar I can honestly recommend for you there in Yoyogi-Uehara. It's also easily reached from the Odakyu Line Yoyogi-Hachiman station.
Thanks for the comment.
I'm pretty sure I know where you mean and it has closed down and was just a regular bar with some bottles in the window that they didn't serve. I would be surprised if there were anywhere in the area that I was not aware of as I spend a lot of time walking around.
Also, you wouldn't have been in here as it has only been open a few months.
All right. I have had enough of this. !=}#
I cannot stand by any longer while you try in futility to find a quality craft beer bar in western Shibuya-ku.
I'm coming over there.
I'll arrive in Tokyo late night on the 6th March. So I'll be ready to hit the streets on Saturday, the 7th.
If Meguro-ku, Setagaya-ku, Nakano-ku, & Shinjuku-ku can have solid craft beer bars, the western portion of Shibuya-ku must have somewhere to which you just have not yet gotten.
I am not a vegetarian. I am poly-cuisinal. I could tell you about the scores of times I wound up eating the pizza with green peppers, mushrooms, & black olives {because other people in the party gobbled up all the pizza with sausage, pepperoni, or bacon.}. X=)#
The original Beer Republic in Ogikubo is also worth a look. The owner/chef was one of the original staff at Ant n Bee before striking out on his own in late 2011.
http://ameblo.jp/beer-repubric-the-grub/
Thanks Starbird again. It was on my original list of places to go and I guess I should add it. Think the reason this place made it on here was mainly due to its proximity to my house. I am considering a new catch-all post with places that I think could be worth popping in to if you are nearby, but that I am never going to have the time to visit. Maybe the Ogikubo Grub should be the first on that list.