Bakuya – Kanda
German beer bar with some German craft and some traditional German stuff. Prices seem high, but this is naturally all imported stuff on the eight taps. Unsurprisingly, German food too. Something of a unique proposition I guess, but maybe not one that is massively appealing to me given the pricing.
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Beer Bar Tor – Yushima
Belgian beer bar up north in Tokyo. Bottle selection seems decent and the prices are probably what you’d expect to pay. About 40 beers on their website menu. Probably one for Belgian beer loving locals rather than somewhere to travel to.
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Beer Stand Toyoda – Toyoda
I’ve now beer here! It’s a small place, not far from Toyoda station with very limited opening hours. They have one beer, which is a beer made for them by the Ishikawa/Tama no Megumi Brewery. It’s a very unique experience and felt like I wasn’t in Tokyo. Five seats only, a very friendly master. A fun place, but quite far to go for one beer, and definitely check it’s open before you go. A photo of the place is at the top of this post.
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Craft Company – Yotsuya
Medium sized place with a few tables. 12 taps with a variety of stuff on. Maybe… Their facebook is a bit low on detail when it comes to prices and beers. Sorry.
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The Day East Tokyo – Asakusa
Apparently a gastro pub but their slogan is ‘craft beer good sausage’ which suggests it’s not so gastro. The pictures make it look pretty fancy though. Another place with natural wines so I guess that’s becoming a thing here now. Real mix of imported and domestic stuff checked in on their Untappd but no idea about prices.
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Exbar Tokyo – Ginza
Kind of expensive looking place to me, although they seem to have a lot of pub games and machines so maybe my image is a bit confused. Has some kind of pour it yourself beer machines rather than having you order from bar staff. Worryingly little information about the beer online, but I suppose it does bill itself as an amusement bar and grill so perhaps the beer isn’t the main thing. Seems mainly imports judging by Untappd. Would be tempted to try the beer pouring machines but I should probably admit to myself that as a grumpy old man it’s unlikely I will ever go here. But could be exciting for some.
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Folk Burgers & Beers – Jimbocho
Burger bar with beer. Untappd hints at some interesting beers and their website says small beers from ¥650. But this is ‘from’ so maybe expect it to be a bit more. No veggie burger for me, but that’s not a huge surprise and I’m not moaning about it. Meaty burgers look good, but then most burgers look good to me.
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Honeycomb And Hopworks – Ochiai
Very new brewery in a place with nothing on the map. They seem to have their own beers but as they are collaborations I suspect they were made at the collaborators breweries. Seems like they have eight taps but I also suspect that there aren’t that many on yet. Maybe one to give a bit of time before visiting. But I am intrigued.
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Kakurenbo – Kanazawa Bunko
Has been open for three years and I’d never heard about it till Beer Tengoku tipped me off. Around six taps of craft beer, mostly Japanese with an occasional cider too. Japanese selections are reasonably interesting and the pricing looks pretty normal too.
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Number Nine Brewery / Quays Pacific Grill – Yokohama
Another fancy new place in Yokohama. Quite food focussed but with their own brewery (and a gin distillery too, I think). Not sure where all this Yokohama fancy place money is coming from. Seem to have made quite a few different beers since they opened last year. But don’t publicize tap lists or prices it seems. Or anything apart from food really. I’ll try to go someday. By the way, there is apparently a convenience store in the same complex (Hammerhead), with a massive selection of domestic and imported craft beer too.
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Ryuda – Kita Sando
Craft beer bar with ten taps judging by photos but normally with five or six mostly US beers on. No smoking, quite small and seems to have a focus on Japanese food to go with those US beers. Nihonshu and wine too. Get the impression it might be quite expensive. And am put off by the fact that they seem to love the Watering Hole which I don’t. But this is just my opinion.
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Sakamichi Brewing – Tachikawa
Reasonably new brewery (I think, I’m really out of touch though…) out near Tachikawa. Eight taps and decent looking prices, although not sure about the sizes. Mostly Japanese guests at the moment with a couple of US imports and one of their own which suggests I was right about it being a new brewery. Seems to be run by some non-Japanese guys and there are some imported US beers available in cans and bottles. They do growler fills too. (MORE INFO, DIRECT FROM THE BREWERY BELOW IN THE COMMENTS). (This place now has it’s own write up here. I’ll leave it on here though, as otherwise the comments from the brewery below wouldn’t make sense.)
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Some comments direct from one of the brewers at Sakamichi:
'We have eight taps, one of our own, five domestic, and two imports (usually American). We only have one size of glass, 400ml for ¥880. We plan to do flights at some point but we don't have them just yet.
We currently have a temporary take out license which allows us to to fill growlers and sell bottles and cans from our fridge. We carry both domestic and American craft beers in the fridge. We're non-smoking inside and out and we have wifi.
We don't have our brewery yet, so at the moment we're making our beers at other breweries, but the recipes are our own. Hopefully our own brewery and brewing license will follow soon.'
Neil, when a digest venue is outside of Tokyo, could you please indicate which prefecture it is in? Toyoda may be well outside of Tokyo, but in the past, I have ridden trains from Asakusa all the way out to Machida. (I enjoy riding and photographing trains also.) I'm on v.92 here, and Google™ Maps take up to a half-hour to complete loading, so I'm not looking up Toyoda.
One swift fatality of Covid-19 is the pour-your-own by the ounce | milliliter system. I have done this in the past, in both Cleveland, OH. and Chicago. But, the potential of the taps picking up the pandemic from a hazardously placed used glass is too risky here now in the U.S.A. Glassware is being shunted aside for one-use plastic.
If and when you ever do hit these spots, tell staff they need to be online somewhere besides facebook. You seem to dislike some bars. I feel the same way about facebook.
Toyoda is in Tokyo, just not in central Tokyo. I also dislike Facebook, but the fact is that most bars use it and if you are looking for a tap list that is usually the best place to find it. Also, the whole point of these digest posts for me is that I can give a mention to places and people can decide for themselves. If I did anything other than the most cursory of research I’d be spending hours on this blog trying to keep things up to date and mention everywhere that deserves a mention. To be honest, that’s a lot more time than I have or would want to devote given that pretty much all I get from doing this is occasional emails from people asking for recommendations who maybe can’t be bothered to read the blog themselves. I will be eternally grateful to the three people who have donated in the eight years I have been writing this. Thank you to them!
Checking here again.
It appears the proprietor of Baku-Ya, riding home on his bicycle the evening of the 6th August, was struck by an auto and suffered fractures to his body and left hand. The shop was closed until the 27th.
Some of the German beers being imported into Japan do not get to Chicago, which surprises me slightly. There was a delay with the import approval shipment of the German beers, and it has resulted in beers approaching their “best by” dates. Prices may be cut in order to sell them because currently, 260mL is going for ¥980, 330mL for ¥1250.
But do you perceive people more likely go here because they could not get a timely reservation at DevilCraft, and it was too crowded to wait?
Beer Bulk J is really far out too. Where it is may be why it does take out. The Keio train station nearest it has a Keio shopping mall attached to it. There are competing ("OPA" & "the Square") shopping malls across the avenues from it. As well as a McDonald's and a Shakey's Pizza.
Oh boy. Its beer selection. You can choose from a Session IPA, Wheat Session IPA, Black IPA, IPA, W-IPA, British IPA, Smoke IPA, Fruits IPA, Herb＆Spice IPA, Triple IPA, SMaSH IPA, Hazy IPA, and an Imitation PA. Does it know the meaning of "Porter"?
Folk Burgers & Beers: I doubt I would order an $18.03 beefburger anywhere around Chicago. It got a keen recommendation in _Japan Times_ (in English), so perhaps it thinks it can get that much for a “2nd anniversary burger” there. Maybe it is delusional.
Ise Kadoya – Shinjuku: Neil, if this COVID-19 pandemic is ever proclaimed “manageable”, this venue is a licence to print money. Click here for an English-language W-WW page. Can a department store apply for an after-hours permit? For persons missing their last train, expending four hours here would be straightforward.
Opens at 11:00. The quote is correctly attributed to Dean Martin, "You can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning."
There is one hazard for you, though. It is only 450 m from the Watering Hole. This is also the probable reason for Ryuda seeming to like it. ;=)} (I would attribute this to x-Facebook-x surveying the neighborhood. However, this would not apply for the mention of Ushi Tora, which is another venue I know you don't like.)
I think you might be overestimating the pull of Devil Craft these days. Now they have four branches I'm not sure it's so difficult to get in to Kanda anymore. But I may be wrong.
As for Beer Bulk J, I doubt they were aiming at attracting people to come from far away. I would guess that their business is very local and that was their intention. But again, I may be wrong.
And I know what you mean about Ise Kadoya Shinjuku. The location is great but I'd say that there's no chance that Takashimaya would stay open late just for them. It's a huge place and the costs would almost certainly be prohibitive. Especially considering that for every person who missed their train and went in and spent lots of money there would almost certainly be double the people who would go in, order the cheapest drink and proceed to fall asleep at their table.