Tokaido Beer opened maybe a couple of years ago not far from Kawasaki station. I’ve had their beers a few times at festivals and also got hold of the special beer they made for local football team Kawasaki Frontale. Normally their beers tend to be quite herbal and spicy and somewhat in a Belgian style. It wouldn’t be difficult to pair a visit to this place up with a visit to TK Brewing which is also not too far from Kawasaki station. They are a similar distance but sadly in different directions. To be honest though, a 20 minute walk is probably going to be good for you if you’re trying out all the taps at both places. Here’s what you need to know:
- Very fancy looking place with very interesting and unique design which you can check out on the video on their website. It’s a nice place to sit and have some beers and although it looks quite fancy the atmosphere is pretty relaxed. Pretty small place with a counter for eight and a couple of mini tables seating two. The big glistening brewery is visible behind the bar area through a big window. It also looked quite fancy. (That’s three mentions of ‘fancy’ so far, fancy fans). But I should say that I know nothing about brewing so shouldn’t comment on the equipment and instead focus on the consumption side. With this in mind, nice glassware.
- Seven taps of their own beers, four regulars and three seasonals. On our visit the seasonals included the aforementioned Frontale beer, a winter ale and an interesting sounding sour. Beers are served in two sizes, S (280ml) and M (385ml). The regulars were priced at ¥715 and ¥935 respectively and the seasonals were just a little more at ¥770 and ¥990. They also offered a flight of 3 x 140ml for ¥1320.
- There was a small selection of snack food available but I couldn’t have any as it wasn’t vegetarian. There didn’t seem to be wifi but there was no cover charge, they had daytime opening at the weekend and it was no smoking.
I’m pleased I could finally tick this place off as I’d always been meaning to visit but always overindulged in the past at TK and had to go home afterwards. So this time, going to Tokaido first and TK afterwards made sense! They also open a bit earlier than TK so is probably the logical first stop if you’re going to do both. You don’t see Tokaido beers around very often in bars so this is the place to come if you want to try them and the prices seemed pretty reasonable to me!
Japanese breweries on tap when I visited:
Tokaido Beer
Opening Hours:
Wednesday-Friday, 17:30-22:00
Saturday, Sunday & holidays, 14:00-22:00
Closed Monday & Tuesday
Location/map:
本町1-4-1, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa-ken
Telephone:
044-272-3639