Billy Barew's Beer Bar Ebisu

chuggernaut

3.88/5  rDev +15.1%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 3 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

Any downgrades about this place are what makes it great. Meaning, it's as close to a dive bar with a great selection of beers that I found in Tokyo. The service is still Japanese standard, aka excellent, but not pretentious like most places can be. You aren't being bowed at, but you're never ignored. The waitstaff didn't speak much English, but it was never a factor. They were playing American basketball on the TVs and the tunes were legit as well. This is a great place to get some high gravity beers in you before pushing it up in some of the more exciting/busy parts of Tokyo. Popcorn and nuts were free... sit at the bar.

11-02-2012 11:07:35 | More by chuggernaut

jeranbrews

New York

2.86/5  rDev -15.1%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3 | service: 1.5 | selection: 4 | $$$$

Well this place is another one of the few branches of this chain in tokyo. It's a very easy straight line 4 min walk from Ebisu station.

A - A small bar with about 6 seats and 3 or 4 booths. Pretty small by western standards but very average in Tokyo.

Q / Selection - You can check out the beer menu on the website, but they offer about 6 very standard anywhere beers on tap. Heiny, Bass, that kind of thing. Then they have about 40-60 bottles on tap from lots of different countries.

Service - Standard Japanese responsiveness and smiles, but it's cash only, and expect to pay an extra "table charge" (if you've lived it japan you'll know what I mean) anyway I wasn't impressed. I had a few small complaints about charges and the prices of the items and they didn't seem to want to talk about it or want my business again.

Food - Well. For my 500yen ($6) table charge I was given a small bowl of popcorn.

09-15-2010 12:37:20 | More by jeranbrews