Quick post today on another ‘Delirium’ place, although the Delirium part of the name seems to have been getting phased out a bit recently. The Sendai Delirium became a Butcher Republic. Nothing much changed as far as I could tell. Apart from the name. Perhaps this has happened to other branches but it’s fair to say I’m a bit out of touch with them. I’d been meaning to pay a visit to the Rio Brewing place in Gotanda as that is where they were brewing I think. It seems to have closed down now though, perhaps a victim of COVID, so I guess I left it too late. Instead, we popped to the snappily named Rio Brewing & Co. Bistro & Garden. Two ampersands in one name. Must be good, right? Here’s what you need to know.
– Firstly, have you been to another place in this chain? If so, probably no need to read on. This place is as typical of the chain as you’d expect.
– If you haven’t, or you’ve decided to persevere with this post, this branch is in the very swishy Tokyo Midtown shopping complex. It faces on to a little courtyard so has a nice terrace/patio which looks like it would be fun in nice weather. Inside, it’s pretty big. Too many seats to count and the kind of decor you would expect from a Belgian beer bar in a fancy shopping complex.
-38 taps! But there weren’t that many actually on… Blame COVID I guess. Beers are almost exclusively Belgian and what you’d expect if you have been to one of these places before. Lots of Huyghe, lots of St. Bernardus, some De Ranke. The prices are pretty good to be honest for imported Belgian stuff and even if the taplist looks pretty normal there’s always good stuff to be found in there. They also have some Rio Brewing beers on, but whether they are made in Japan or Belgium, who knows really? Tax is added when you get the bill so be prepared for that. But like I said, the value is still pretty good if you like Belgian beer. They had some bottles in the fridge, but there was no menu for them and to be honest, there were a lot less than in other Delirium places so maybe they are not the focus here.
-Daytime opening, wifi, no cover charge in the daytime but after 17:00 there is a ¥300 charge (I think… the slight doubt relating to every part of that statement). I guess it was no smoking as I think almost all big places in Tokyo are now. Their food speciality is Chicago style pie style pizzas. Is that what they are called? Someone told me that they were bad, but I quite liked the one we had. But I am a person who believes that even the cheapest of cheap pizzas is still very nice. Don’t get confused though, the pizzas here weren’t cheap. I did like them though in case I started to make you think I didn’t.
I’m always slightly surprised how much I like these places, (but I do have a natural bias towards Belgian beers). At the same time, I never seem to visit them particularly often. The location of this place has positives and negatives for me. It’s reasonably close to my home (good!), but it is in the kind of shopping centre that makes me feel quite uncomfortable (not good…). But that’s my problem not yours, I guess. The terrace is a big draw I’d say and if they actually get 38 taps on when we don’t have this old COVID stuff going on that would be another big bonus. Would make a nice place to sit and sink a couple of absurdly strong afternoon beers on a nice day. Lovely!
Japanese breweries on tap when I visited:
Rio … (maybe)
Opening Hours:
Daily, 11:00-00:00
Location/map:
赤坂9-7-1, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Follow the map below but you can actually turn left before it suggests and walk through the courtyard past the water features.
Telephone:
03-3403-0808