Today another place visited in pursuit of the Shibuya Beer Party 2021 stamp rally prize. And to be honest it’s a place I had never really thought about visiting before. It was a really pleasant surprise though! Near Kita-sando station in between Shibuya and Shinjuku is a bit of a dry area on this blog but Fam333 more than makes up for any lack of choice. Here’s what you need to know:
– It seems I’m always saying places are small on this blog but Fam333 is really small. There’s a counter for five which backs onto two high tables for two and a lower table which could seat maybe five or six. All of this is crammed into the space the size of which other bars might use for their toilets. So it’s quite intimate! It’s also hidden away downstairs near some old fashioned looking bars so you could easily miss it if you weren’t paying attention. The photo above is of the street level entrance and it’s pretty bad, but I’m sure you’ve come to expect that in this blog.
– Five taps of Japanese craft beer plus one of Heartland. (Perhaps there are a couple more in non COVID times). Beers are served in two sizes, regular (295ml) and pint (480ml). The craft beers were all priced at ¥900 and ¥1100 respectively, which to be honest is a pretty good price I think for a small place like this. Certainly it was one of the cheapest on the Shibuya Beer Party circuit. Perhaps there were a few too many hazy beers for my liking but I realise that at the moment I am very much in the minority in this respect.
– No cover charge, daytime opening and no smoking. The staff were very friendly too. There was a surprisingly large number of them considering the size of the place. The food looked pretty good too, but as we were on a mission to get stamps on a stamp card we only stayed briefly. Their opening is split into morning time (breakfast basically), coffee time (errmmm, coffee, and lunch I guess) and beer time. But we were told that it’s OK to drink beer during coffee time. That rule doesn’t apply to all situations in life, but is great news in this case.
A very pleasant surprise. The fact that the beer lineup wasn’t quite for me but I still really liked this place should give you an idea of how nice it is. It had a personal feel that you don’t always get in beer bars and I definitely would go back here again. I convinced myself that the stamp rally was worth doing for the glass and to be able to tick off some new places that I probably never would have gone to, but it has actually unearthed some hidden gems. Lovely!
Japanese breweries on tap when I visited:
Ushi Tora
Hatos
Distant Shores
Repubrew
Opening Hours:
Daily, 17:00-02:00
But please check their website or social media. Due to COVID, hours are all over the place right now
Location/map:
千駄ヶ谷 3-3-3, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Telephone:
03-6812-9135