With a Sunday afternoon in front of me with the only plan being going to a record shop in Koenji, I decided to finally tick off some Chuo line places that had been on my backlog list for a long time. Perhaps common sense would have dictated that I go to one station and tick off everywhere near there. However, I thought it would be more fun if I went to four places at four different stations. So probably I still have another Chuo line new places pub crawl that I need to do. OGA Brewing is a brewpub (I think, but I couldn’t see any evidence of the brewery) and definitely a brewery cafe about 15 minutes walk from Mitaka station. I’d only previously drunk OGA at a football match where I tried their green kale beer made for Tokyo Verdy. I’m not a massive fan of kale so I thought it was only fair that I visited their pub before I made any judgements. So, here’s what you need to know:
- Narrow kind of cafe with a long counter along one side and some tables on the other. Didn’t have that wood and bar concrete decor you’d expect and rather instead looked more like what you’d imagine a normal cafe to look like. Lots of Tokyo Verdy memorabilia on show near the front door.
- Beers served in two sizes, regular and small. Didn’t see the regular size but I’d say that the small was around 250ml. Regular beers ranged from ¥850-¥900 and small beers from ¥500-¥650. They had eight taps but only seven beers were on. All of them were their own creations, naturally. Let’s be honest, if you’re going to a brewery cafe, you’re probably going there to drink the brewery’s beers, aren’t you? At the moment they also have a pour your own beer option too if that is your thing. They also sell their own beers in bottles to takeaway.
- Order at the counter and pay as you go. No cover charge and they have daytime opening every day that they are open (they’re closed on Tuesday, according to google). There seemed to be WiFi, but I didn’t try to connect to it. I was only making a brief stop as I was ON A MISSION.
Firstly, I should apologise to OGA, as when I arrived there were a few people there but I seemed to clear everyone out during my short visit. This didn’t happen in other places I went to, so perhaps it was a coincidence. If you want to drink OGA beers, this is the place to go, I guess. It’s a bit of a trek from the station though, so be prepared for that. And I think that hip drinkers might not find the place to their taste. It seemed to me though that they have a local fanbase and they probably aren’t necessarily interested in attracting skinny jeans wearing, bearded, Hazy Double IPA drinkers with topknots. They seem to have plenty of good reviews online for the cafe and their beers and it was a nice place to visit but to be honest, the beers weren’t really for me.
Japanese breweries on tap when I visited:
OGA
Opening Hours:
Monday, Wednesday-Friday 15:00-22:00
Saturday, 11:00-22:00
Sunday, 11:00-20:00
Location/map:
下連雀 4-1-16, Mitaka-shi, Tokyo
Telephone:
04-2229-8210
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