Another new-ish Yokohama place today, but I should stress that recently my concept of new and new-ish has become a little stretched. Bruntons has a fancy logo, appeared on a vegetarian food website and had some interesting looking beers checked in on Untappd so this looked like it would be an interesting visit. Here’s what you need to know.
– Classy looking 2nd floor bar, a little walk away from all those Kannai bars on the other side of the baseball stadium. Counter for about five, seats for around 14 and a little raised Japanese style seating area. Definitely aiming for the higher end of the market.
– Consequently, the prices match. Regular pricing ranges from ¥1200 to an eye-watering ¥1400 for a US pint of regular Japanese craft beers (check below for the breweries). Halves, (280ml), were served in nice glassware and ranged from ¥700-¥800, with a half of a Japanese BBA stout costing ¥1200. Bottles available too, but I forgot to take a photo of the menu, so that information is long gone from my memory now! Think there were some Canadian imports though… Thankfully, they have a happy hour from 15:00-18:00 on weekdays when pints are ¥1000 and halves ¥600. A beer flight is also available, 3 x 148ml for ¥1200.
– Seems to serve a lot of vegetarian food, which makes a nice change! I didn’t inspect the menu too closely, but the names seemed veggie friendly and the place was listed on a vegan food website. Surprisingly, the food seemed to be much more reasonably priced than the beer, which is the opposite to the usual beer/food equation we find in craft beer bars. Interesting!
– No smoking, no cover charge, tax included in the prices (thankfully!), daytime opening and WiFi.
So, very much mixed feelings. The huge drawback is the prices. It really is significantly more expensive than other places, but you have to consider that it seems to be an independent place, rather than involved in a big money chain. Also, it is in an area where there isn’t much competition for craft beer, so this usually causes prices to rise a little. It was a nice place to have a beer, but it was very disappointing that we missed the happy hour by ten minutes. I blame the trains for that. Would love to try the food some time, but I fear the beer prices, for what sadly turned out to be not the most exciting of Japanese breweries will probably mean that it’s a while before I go back.
Japanese breweries seen on tap:
Yokohama
Iwatekura
Numazu Craft
Minami Shinshu
Be Easy
Loco
Opening Hours:
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday, 14:00-22:00
Saturday & Sunday, 11:00-22:00
Closed Wednesday
Location/Map:
山下町104-17, Naka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa-ken
Telephone:
045-323-9773
This would seem to be a good venue for vegetarians and vegans staying at one of the hostels west of the Ishikawacho JR station (Hostel Zen). But as you scribed, it's a bit too bad about the beer prices.