Tokyo

A standing bar in a Ginza 5-chome basement, two minutes from Exit A3, which opened in 1992 as what it describes as Japan's first standing bar. There is no table charge: you buy tickets when you arrive, at least three per person, each ticket ¥300 or ¥330 with tax, and exchange them for drinks and food.

Over 150 drinks are listed. One ticket covers a standard cocktail, beer, wine, shochu or plum wine; two cover the mojito the bar is known for, which carries a certification from the Cuban embassy, or a drink made with the bar's own craft gin. Until 19:00 a set of classic cocktails drops to one ticket.

Good to know

• You must buy at least three tickets per person on arrival; the minimum spend is therefore ¥990 including tax.
• There is no table charge, and tickets are valid at all three branches.
• This is a standing bar — there are no seats to book.
• Happy hour runs until 19:00.

A British pub in Roppongi 3-chome, open since the 2002 football World Cup. It has a long bar, a large seating area, imported wooden furniture, a smoking booth and two dart boards that are free to use. The food is British pub cooking: fish and chips, homemade pies, bangers and mash, and a traditional Sunday roast served from noon every Sunday with horseradish and mint sauce brought in from the UK.

Five large screens carry live Premier League football, rugby, F1, UFC and AFL, and the pub says it will try to show any game you ask for. It opens at 17:00 on weekdays and from noon at weekends, closing at midnight, with the kitchen stopping at 23:00.

Good to know

• The kitchen closes at 23:00, an hour before the bar.
• This is one of the few places in this guide with an indoor smoking booth.
• Menu prices are not published in a form we could read, so none are listed here.
• The pub takes table bookings through its own site.

A buffet on the twenty-sixth floor of the Asakusa View Hotel, looking out at Tokyo Skytree and the roofs of Sensoji. Grilled dishes are cooked in the restaurant's own kiln over lava stone from Mount Fuji, tempura is fried in front of you, and the spread runs to about a hundred dishes.

Dinner runs 17:00 to 21:00 on weekdays, and 17:00 to 21:30 at weekends and on holidays in two sittings, at 17:00 and 19:30. Each booking lasts two hours from the time it starts.

Good to know

• The view costs extra. Window seats are ¥1,000 for a pair or ¥1,500 for a table of up to eight, and they are the only seats you can ask for by name.
• The restaurant states plainly that some seats in the hall have no view at all.
• Buffet prices change every month or two; the figures here are the ones published for October 2026.

A restaurant that opened in 1929 and serves tororo, grated yam, with barley rice. The main dining rooms are on the first to third floors, and the roof holds a space that works as a buffet by day and a bar called Lounge Vista by night.

Lounge Vista opens at 18:00 and serves small dishes and drinks until 22:30, with last entry at 20:30. It is reservation-only, and bookings close the day before.

Good to know

• The rooftop bar is reservation-only and bookings close the day before, so it cannot be visited on the spur of the moment.
• Booking a table in the main dining rooms carries a minimum food order per person, which is higher at weekends and in private rooms.
• Online booking closes at 15:00 the day before; same-day requests go by phone.
• Hours differ depending on whether a Sunday or public holiday falls in the middle or at the end of a run of holidays.

Bellovisto is the bar on the 40th floor of the Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel, about 150 metres above ground and five minutes from the West Exit of Shibuya Station. It has 118 seats and private rooms, including a counter looking out towards the Shinjuku skyline, and serves Japanese whisky and spirits from around the world alongside seasonal dishes. Six signature cocktails, grouped as SHIBUYA LUXURY, rework classics around the history of the area, from the tea fields of the Edo period to the current redevelopment. The whole bar is non-smoking, the dress code is smart casual, and from 18:00 guests must be 20 or over.

Good to know

• From 18:00, guests under 20 are not admitted, even when accompanied by a parent or guardian.
• A table charge of ¥2,000 per person applies from 19:00, except at the counter. Hotel guests are exempt apart from some special seats.
• Listed prices include a 15 percent service charge and 10 percent consumption tax.
• The dress code is smart casual and the whole bar is non-smoking.
• Reservations are taken up to an arrival time of 19:00, by phone on 03-3476-3398 or online.
• On Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays a table alone cannot be booked; a booking must include the afternoon tea or an Excellent Plan.
• Payment methods and any closing day are not stated on the official page.

OPEN BOOK is a bar of about ten square metres in Shinjuku Golden Gai, opened in 2015 with the slogan "the world's best lemon sour". Its signature drink is built on brown sugar shochu with syrup made from pesticide-free Japanese limes, sliced lemons from Hiroshima, a thin glass and large ice. The shelves hold books left by the owner's grandfather, the late writer Kojimasa Tanaka. The bar states that it opens basically every day from 20:00 and closes by midnight, and asks guests to check its Instagram for the latest. There is no signboard: it is the third shop in from the outside on Golden Gai's 5th street.

Good to know

• There is no signboard. The bar is the third shop in from the outside on Golden Gai's 5th street, and around 100 shops share the same street address.
• The bar says it opens basically every day from 20:00 and closes by midnight, and asks guests to check its Instagram for the latest hours.
• Prices in the bar, the number of seats, payment methods, cover charges, the smoking policy and any age limit are not stated on the official site.
• The official site is also an online shop, and it asks visitors to confirm they are 20 or over before entering.

Bar LUKE opened in September 2017 as the sister bar of Chianti PoP, which the site describes as a long-standing bar in Okachimachi, and the two are only a few seconds apart on foot. Between them they pour over 90 whiskies and more than 190 drinks in total, including cocktails, wine, sake and shochu, and both serve the same food menu. LUKE has 6 counter seats and 15 table seats and is in the basement. Both bars stay open until 4:30 the next morning, but they close on different days: LUKE on Sunday and Chianti PoP on Tuesday.

Good to know

• The two bars close on different days: Bar LUKE is closed on Sundays, Chianti PoP on Tuesdays. Chianti PoP opens at 18:00 and also closes at 4:30 the next morning.
• Bar LUKE is in the basement.
• For groups of four or more it helps to call ahead so that tables can be rearranged. LUKE 03-6240-1795, Chianti PoP 03-3831-8962.
• When booking, the bar asks you to mention that you saw the website.
• It is not clear when the official site was last updated, so call to confirm that the bar is open before visiting.
• Payment methods are not stated on the official site, and whether prices include tax is not stated either.

A monja restaurant that opened on Monja Street in 2009 inside a house built in the early Showa period. The windows, the safe and the ceiling beams were kept from the original building. It seats 44 and can be hired exclusively for parties of 30 to 44.

Two stocks are used depending on the dish: a lighter stock simmered from several ingredients for the seafood monja, and a richer chicken-bone one. The kitchen closes at 22:00 and the bar at 22:30, with the door shutting at 23:00.

Good to know

• The kitchen closes at 22:00 and drinks at 22:30, though the door stays open to 23:00.
• The whole restaurant is non-smoking.
• Exclusive hire is possible for parties of 30 to 44.

An oyster bar run directly by Tsukiji Sandai, a wholesaler inside Toyosu market. It gathers oysters from around Japan so that you can taste them against each other: large rock oysters in summer, richer true oysters in winter.

It opens only in the evening, from 17:00 to 22:00, and is closed on Sundays and public holidays. The kitchen also makes a soup curry from wild fish and shellfish stock.

Good to know

• There is no lunch service; the bar opens at 17:00.
• Closed on Sundays and public holidays.
• Prices are not published.
• Listed by the Tsukiji outer market shopping association.

The Corridor-street branch of the standing bar, in a basement in Ginza 8-chome two minutes from the Ginza exit of Shimbashi Station, holding up to 80 guests. Its own English page describes it by its corridor-street setting and its DJ events, which makes it the loudest of the three.

The ticket system is the same: at least three tickets per person on arrival, ¥330 each with tax, no table charge, exchangeable for any of the 150-odd drinks. One original cocktail, the NEO TOKYO at three tickets, is served only here. On Fridays, Saturdays and the night before a holiday it stays open until 2:00.

Good to know

• You must buy at least three tickets per person on arrival; the minimum spend is therefore ¥990 including tax.
• There is no table charge, and tickets are valid at all three branches.
• This is a standing bar — there are no seats to book.
• Happy hour runs until 19:00.