Written by James
Niku to Mugi opened relatively recently in Hatagaya (about one minute from Gremlin) and it definitely has its own style that sets it apart from other craft beer bars. You take your shoes off on the way in and wear a pair of the slippers provided. The bar, actually I’d call it a restaurant bar, is split into two areas. The first area is the bar. This has counter seats and feels like a nice cozy bar. There are ten taps of domestic craft beer, some of which I had never seen on tap before. There was also a good food menu.
Beers come in three sizes; small, medium and large. I only had the large size which was a pint. Prices ranged from ¥1280 to ¥1580. Definitely not cheap but about standard nowadays. The small size ranged from ¥930 to ¥1110 and the medium size ranged from ¥1180 to ¥1430. I would guess that the small size was half a pint and the medium must be somewhere between a half and a pint. I felt that the pints definitely offered the best value.
The second area is for Yakiniku (grilled meat). This has several tables that have gas and grills for preparing the meat. You actually have to take your slippers off before you sit down at one of these tables. Obviously, you can enjoy the craft beer with your meat in this area too. There was also an extensive wine selection. The white wine was stored in several large fridges and the red wine was stored in a custom built air conditioned room. I love wine but this is a beer site so I won’t give more specific details here. There is no charge in either area and there is free WiFi which can be used to order food when you are in the Yakiniku area.
Like I said, this place is definitely a bit different from anywhere else I have been. A lot of attention to detail and two separate areas to enjoy craft beer. One last piece of advice is to check their opening hours on SNS before you go. They used to open from 3 p.m. every day but now it is 5 p.m. on weekdays and 3 p.m. on weekends.
Japanese breweries on tap when I visited:
Mukai Craft Brewing
Island Brewery
Hop Kotan
Omishima Brewery
Jouzo Beer Base
Nara Brewing
Marca
Kyoto Brewing
Camado Brewery
Oni Densetsu
Opening Hours:
Monday-Thursday, 17:00-03:00
Saturday, 15:00-03:00
Sunday, 15:00-00:00
Location/map:
幡ヶ谷 1-33-1, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Telephone:
03-6407-9833
Links:
Instagram