Friday, March 29, 2024
Home Bar Review Craftman Gotanda in Gotanda, Tokyo

Craftman Gotanda in Gotanda, Tokyo

by Rob
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Craftman Gotanda One Paragraph Review

With 31 taps, Craftman Gotanda has something for everyone – if it wasn’t for the sly charges that aren’t mentioned before you step in. With tax not included and a table charge of ¥324, two or three beers with a friend can easily cost over ¥6000 without realising. Moreover, there is no English menu and there are no pictures on the menus so good luck if you can’t read kanji. The bar is apparently non-smoking as we didn’t notice anyone smoking for the four hours we were there for. If you’re prepared for those additional prices, then you might just enjoy Craftman Gotanda.

Craftman Gotanda Inside

Look at all those taps. One of them contains Asahi Super Dry though.

Craftman Gotanda Full Review

Gotanda isn’t the first place I think of in Tokyo for craft beer, with Shibuya and Shinjuku less than 15 minutes away going clockwise on the Yamanote line, with Tokyo, Hamamatsucho, and Shimbashi less than 20 minutes away going anti-clockwise on the Yamanote line. So with Craftman Gotanda located less than five minutes from JR Gotanda, Toei Asakusa, and Tokyu Ikegami line, off we went in search of this place.

Since hearing from a friend about Craftman Gotanda and it’s cheap beers, I’ve been eager to get there. 31 taps of beer with over 20 of them being domestic craft beer piqued my interest and off I went in search of it. Even though it was a Tuesday evening, we made the right decision to book some seats as by 6:30pm, the bar was three-quarters full and bustling. There was some music in the background but it was so quiet compared to the hubbub around us that it might as well have been turned-off. There are about 15 seats at the bar counter and kitchen combined, with about 10 tables for groups to sit at. The bad news is that Craftman Gotanda has the dreaded table charge (¥324) and it wasn’t written anywhere before we walked in.

Craftman Gotanda Menu
How can someone choose from this many beers?
Craftman Gotanda Beer 1
Y Market Noirheads
Craftman Gotanda Beer 2
Shiga Kogen No. 10 Anniversary Review here https://beertengoku.com/2015/06/shiga-kogen-no-10-anniversary-ipa/:
Craftman Gotanda Beer 3
Atsugi Honey Review: https://beertengoku.com/2014/12/atsugi-honey-ale/
Craftman Gotanda Beer 4
Ooyuki Kurooka
Craftman Gotanda Beer 5
Baird Yoru no Teikoku IPA (Evening Teikoku IPA)

The beers at come in two main sizes: small (~250ml) for ¥530 and regular (~400ml) for ¥830 but guess what? Neither of those prices include tax so make sure you add on 8% to that cost as well. For somewhere that promised to be cheap, without even getting a beer, I had spent almost ¥1200 on the evening. The beers though are well-served with each beer being poured at gas levels that suit the style of beer so no over-carbonated stouts or flat IPAs. The beers do suffer from the large head problem though and the staff wouldn’t top the beers up either. There is also a beer flight (150ml x 3 glasses) that costs ¥1,050 which includes any beer on the menu, including the speciality beers too.

Craftman Gotanda Food 1
Not your usual karaage.
Craftman Gotanda Food 2
Let us burn this in honour of the craft beer gods.
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Craftman Gotanda had quite a varied menu of food with both non-vegetarian and vegetarian dishes available if you can read the menu. None of the menus we had on the day were in English nor were any provided. Not a problem if you can read kanji but it could be problematic if you can’t. The food varies from small finger dished to full on meals but we stuck with the pickles and kaarage which turned out to be deep-fried chicken drumsticks.

Craftman Gotanda Details

Open: Daily 17:00 to 25:00

Phone: 050-7534-7688

Homepage: http://craftsman-craftbeerbistro.jp/

SNS: Facebook / Twitter

How to Get to Craftman Gotanda

Craftman Gotanda is located about five minutes from the West Exit of JR Gotanda station and about two minutes from exit A2 of the Toei Asakusa line.

Direction from Toei Asakusa Gotanda Station

Directions from JR Gotanda Station

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