Beer Saurus

OsakaRedbeard

Japan

3.9/5  rDev 0%
vibe: 3 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 3.5 | food: 4 | $$$

Visited on a weekday in August 2011.

5-8 is Happy Hour and has 500 yen select drafts. I went looking forward to it but was disappointed that to get the deal you have to have at least two people. Since I was there anyway, I decided to sample the wares and took a seat at the counter.

Atmosphere:
From the outside it looks like a bar, but once you get in it's clearly more of a restaurant. There are four 4 seat tables, two 6 seat tables, and one 8 seater. There are 8 chairs at the counter in front of the kitchen. There is a strange blue light in the place and when I got there around 5 it was almost empty but started to fill up with dinner groups later. Overall neither fun nor relaxing, but not bad.

Quality:
Staff took pride in their pouring. The beers I had tasted great.

Service:
A hearty welcome when I came in, followed by attentive and helpful service. When I visited a few weeks later with wife in tow to get the happy hour deal they remembered me and treated me like a long time regular. The staff don't speak much English but were game to try. They made suggestions, and wanted to talk about beer and places to drink it.

Selection:
There are 8 taps and 121 international beer bottles on the menu. When I visited, 21 bottles were out. Belgians dominated the menu with 34 choices. Koedo (the local beer) was featured but some were out. Heartland, Hoegaarden, and Guinness were the other taps.

Food:
The food was a bit pricey and the servings were small. The fried potatoes were very good. My wife doesn't drink, so she was unhappy with the place.

Value:
I don't know any other place in Japan where you can get a pint of Guinness for 500 yen. Prices in general were on a par with Tokyo prices but the Happy Hour special, though limited, was a great deal and worth a visit.

Overall I liked the place and plan to visit again since I live in the neighborhood.

09-20-2011 07:09:55 | More by OsakaRedbeard