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Bar High Five
Tokyo, Japan
A tiny old-school institution that makes the perfect cocktails. Low lighting and an interesting mix of characters add an air of mystique.
Where to Drink + Dance in Tokyo
16 September, 2019
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Library Lounge These
Tokyo, Japan
An intimate late-night spot with a speakeasy vibe filled with vintage books and comfortable sofas. Sip on fresh fruit cocktails until the early hours of the morning.
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Bonobo
Tokyo, Japan
This achingly hip spot feels like you’re partying in someone’s house. It also has a secret club at the back that plays everything from electronic music to rock – check the listings on their website before you go.
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Piano Bar
Tokyo, Japan
Once you find the ornately carved wooden door and get passed the ¥1,000 (£5) seating charge, you will sip on calvados from goblets in a sumptuous setting of red velvet and chandeliers. Be warned: it’s pretty small, with space only for eight…
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Two Rooms
Tokyo, Japan
When the weather is warm, which it often is in Tokyo, all you want is a great view and a terrace, and the rather slick Two Rooms Bar and Grill offers both.
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Gen Yamamoto
Tokyo, Japan
Mixologist Gen Yamamoto is to cocktails what Heston Blumenthal is to food. A cosy eight-seater sushi counter lookalike, this bar takes drinks very seriously. Not cheap, but this is an award-winning, once-in-a-lifetime experience.
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Kinfolk
Tokyo, Japan
Hipster bicycle-makers from Brooklyn run this dimly lit wooden watering hole. Sip mojitos and rub shoulders with bearded cycle enthusiasts, travellers and locals.
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Zoetrope
Tokyo, Japan
Zoetrope is known among connoisseurs for its vast collection of whiskies. But the drinks menu is not the only reason to visit; subtitled films play on a projector here as an award-winning soundtrack reverberates around the bar. Dark and fitting only about 30 people, Zoetrope has a list of whiskies unrivalled anywhere else in the city and meeting the incredibly knowledgable barman/owner is the cherry on top.
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Berry
Tokyo, Japan
Housed in a former jeans factory in between the old offices of VICE, a photo studio and a marketing agency, Berry is a clandestine bar where anything goes. Play beer pong with the hottest new start-up employees or simply revel in the randomness of it all.
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8Bit Café
Tokyo, Japan
Almost impossible to find – it’s on the fifth floor of what appears to be an apartment block – this bar is about the size of a living room with eclectic furniture to match. The staff speak very little English and their menus are in Japanese, so ask (or sign) them to give you what they think you would like. All the drinks are based on different retro video-game characters and the bar has a variety of vintage games and figurines. The clientele tend to be both very eccentric and very friendly. It’s probably one of the best novelty bars to visit in Tokyo − if you can find it.
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Golden Gai
Tokyo, Japan
Golden Gai is a tiny fragment of old Tokyo that has miraculously survived the years, although it is somewhat dwarfed by the surrounding high-rise buildings. It consists of six tiny alleyways lined by almost 200 tiny bars. Some are so small that only five or six people can fit in at any one time and most have a seating charge due to their diminutive size.
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Albatross
Tokyo, Japan
Albatross is a tiny three-storey bar that seats around 30 people. You want to be sitting at the bar, where there are giant chandeliers and jewellery-wearing animal heads on the walls. Your favourite R&B hits will be played throughout the night and the drinks are fantastic, if a little overpriced.
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Nana Bar
Tokyo, Japan
Set up by a Japanese woman called Nana who was a flamenco singer, the bar has since been passed down to friends, who are very loyal to her and the way in which she ran the business. The staff are extremely friendly and keen to tell you the story behind the graffitied walls and painted ceiling. If you hang around long enough the barman may offer you a taste of his traditional Japanese cucumber (grown on a plot nearby) with his secret dressing as a bar snack.
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Oath
Tokyo, Japan
This is the most influential club on the techno scene in Tokyo. There’s is no entrance fee and all drinks cost about £3. When you’ve had enough of Oath, venture deeper into the building to fellow techno club, Tunnel, in the basement.
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Vanity
Tokyo, Japan
Models and bottles, Vanity is Tokyo’s answer to Boom Boom Room in New York. Situated on the 14th floor with a phenomenal 360-degree view of the city, it is a great spot for Tokyo first-timers. DJs spin cheesy crowd-pleasers like Rihanna and Avicii for the boys and girls dressed to the nines. There are also private karaoke rooms for when you get tired of dancing.
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Air
Tokyo, Japan
A famous old-school techno club (as seen in Lost in Translation) that has become part of Tokyo’s fabric. Large but not impersonal, come here to listen to some of the best DJs in town. When you get hungry pop upstairs to the decent café for a bite to eat.
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Sound Museum Vision
Tokyo, Japan
A well-respected establishment that has one of the best sound systems in the world, Sound Museum Vision is an enormous club sitting in the heart of Shibuya. It is separated into rooms which have different moods and considers itself a meeting point for motion graphics and music.
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Trump Room - CLOSED
Tokyo, Japan
Head around the back of the block and you will find a diverse mix of Japanese and foreigners from the fashion, film and art worlds overflowing from the club.
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Fuglen
Tokyo, Japan
This Scandi café is a dark, wooden refuge serving coffee in the daytime and alcoholic treats by night. Surrounded by vintage Norwegian furniture, or sitting outside on benches watching the world go by just minutes from Yoyogi Park, customers at Fuglen come for the nostalgic atmosphere of 1950s Norway and stay for the perfectly roasted brews, supplied by Fuglen’s own small roastery.
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Hitachino Brewing Lab
Tokyo, Japan
The Kiuchi Brewery in Ibaraki creates some of Japan’s most well-loved craft beers. At its flagship brewery bar near Akihabara station, beer fans can study the art of brewing in hands-on classes, while 10 taps serve all the Hitachino Nest favourites; from the espresso stout through to its white and ginger ales and lager.
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Tokyo Saryo
Tokyo, Japan
Billed as “the world’s first drip-tea shop”, this unassuming café in Sanenjaya lets customers sit at its counter bar and watch as staff prepare hand-dripped tea in beautiful apparatus. The café claims to showcase the difference between bottled teas – commonly consumed in Japan and purchased from convenience stores and vending machines – and the carefully prepared drip teas. For 1300 yen (about £9) you can try both and pick your team.
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Dagashi Bar
Tokyo, Japan
Dagashi refers to low-priced street snacks and sweets that have largely disappeared Tokyo and provide something of a nostalgic treat for those in their 20s and 30s. A new wave of dagashi bars have sprung up in Tokyo, with Showa-era style exteriors, all-you-can-eat sweets (for a fixed price or after purchasing a drink), alcohol, memorabilia and occasionally retro games. The main chain, Dagashi Bar, currently has four premises in Ebisu, Ningyocho, Ikebukuro and Shibuya.
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Peak Bar
Tokyo, Japan
Luxuriating with a cocktail and an eye-popping night view is an absolute must before leaving the capital – if for no other reason than to appreciate its magnitude and feel a sense of awe at the vast, twinkling city so far below. The Peak Bar on 41st floor of the Park Hyatt Tokyo, offers a setting softly lit by Japanese lanterns and enshrouded by a bamboo grove. Even better is the 4,000 yen “happy hour” deal between 5pm and 9pm, when cocktails, wine and canapés just keep on coming.
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Mt. Takao Beer Mount
Tokyo, Japan
Exclusively open from 15th June – 15th October each year, Beer Mount is the highest beer garden in Tokyo, situated on the slopes of Mount Takao at an elevation of 500m. After hiking this rare green space in the city, the beer garden offers hikers two hours of all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink deliciousness for around £24 per person, with DIY highball stations, cocktails, wine and beer. Outdoor seating provides flawless views over the city, including the garish but alluring Tokyo SkyTree tower and the bay of Yokohama.
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Tokyo Whisky Library
Tokyo, Japan
Walls lined with over 1,200 different bottles of whisky from across the globe make up this atmospheric hideout in Aoyama. For first time whisky drinkers there’s a clear standard menu to get started with, while connoisseurs can delight in finding all of their favourites in one spot.
Address
Minamiaoyama Santakiarakyoukai 2F 5-5-24, Minamiaoyama Minato-ku 107-0062
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Kurand Sake Market
Tokyo, Japan
At this serve-yourself sake bar a 3,000 yen (£20) entry fee allows free exploring, pouring and drinking of hundreds of types of sake. Customers are welcome to bring their own food and nibbles, and every hour staff and customers take part in a “kanpai” (cheers) with water, to avoid any brutal hangovers the next day. The brand has outposts all across the city, including Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ueno and Ikebukuro.
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Bar Codename Mixology Akasaka
Shuzo Nagumo is a known alchemist in Tokyo circles. This bar, his second outpost, doesn’t disappoint. In true speakeasy style, the entrance is discreet – a simple sign above a brown slab of a door that reads “mixology salon”. That’s salon in the French use of the word, which is to say grand, old drawing room replete with oil paintings and draped in damasks. Behind the bar it’s a different story. Vacuum machines, smoke guns and centrifuges are just part of the arsenal of scientific gadgets at the bartenders’ disposal.
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Bar Zoetrope
You might be tempted to turn back and find another of the speakeasies on this list once you arrive at Zoetrope’s entrance. A clunky lift bleached in UV light is your portal to this moody local institution: disembark three floors up and step into a whisky-lover’s paradise. The owner speaks perfect English and will be able to prescribe the appropriate tipple. Leave with your head-spinning. It’s all in the name, or perhaps it’s that horridly clinical lift…
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Star Bar
Can a bar beset with international fame and notoriety pass as a speakeasy? The jury’s out. Either way, this old-school, wood-panelled bar finished with art-deco flourishes and a coffered ceiling, is one of our favourites in Tokyo. Yes, the actual liquors and syrups used here are exquisite (fresh yuzu, plum and pomegranate are all on the menu), but the ice cubes are mini masterpieces in themselves, each hand-hewed into glossy orbs or spliced and chopped into glistening shards – or “brilliant ice” as the bartenders call them.
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Wodka Tonic
As the name suggests, this bar takes inspiration from the far east – of Europe, that is. Hidden in an underground lair within the Nishi-Azabu business district, this serious-looking bar is like the sort of stony cave you might find in the Caucasus Mountains – albeit one that serves a delightfully extensive range of whiskies and, of course, martini-style cocktails.
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Ant ’n Bee
Pull up a stool at Ant ’n Bee for a comprehensive introduction to Japan’s burgeoning craft ale scene. In a basement spot beneath the overwhelming morass of eye-catching storefronts in Roppongi you’ll find this place – the only bar in Tokyo with 20 Japanese craft brews on tap. It’s plastered with stickers and panelled in dark wood like a British pub. Shutters don’t close until 6am: that’s a pint every half hour if you grab an 8pm table. Beer lovers, take note.
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Bar Martha
Zip it. Bar Martha’s all about listening to great vinyl not making conversation, and the whip-cracking bartenders will be sure to pull you up on it if you forget. To describe the entrance as understated is an understatement in itself. There are no windows, simply a concrete step and a small, perfunctory plaque engraved with the bar’s name. It sits in a breeze-block shell of a building in Ebisu, one of Tokyo’s more fashion-forward enclaves, and the punters at Bar Martha are accordingly well-dressed.
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Bar Gen Yamamoto
If you’re looking to be transported to the dancehalls of prohibition-era New York, don’t come here. This concept bar is an exercise in minimalism. Each guest sips a cocktail tasting menu made from locally sourced fruit, herb and liquor, curated by resident mixologist, Gen Yamamoto – a man always dressed in a signature white dinner jacket. The bar sits on the ground floor of an ever-shifting meshwork of scaffolded residential buildings in Minato City. There are only eight seats so best to visit in a small group.
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Le Baron
An outpost of the Parisian hotspot, Le Baron is the latest addition to the list of hidden clubs. Located behind an unmarked door in an alleyway off Omotesando, the tiny club is every bit as glamorous as its Paris flagship.
Address
Aoyama Center Building B1F 3-8-40, Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku Tokyo 107-0062