House of Beer One Line Review
Yes. Usually it’s a paragraph but we don’t need that much to review this place. Avoid. Avoid like the plague. Don’t even suggest it to your friend. Your enemies though would love this place. With the bar being fully smoking, and high prices that get even higher after 7pm due to a ¥500 table charge, your wallet will feel the pain. The menus are all in Japanese and there is no WiFi either.
House of Beer Full Review
Panaroma. Excuse the taps.
It’s not often I go out drinking in Ebisu, simply because it is an area of izakayas and coffee shops that doesn’t pique my interest. The Yebisu Garden Palace is a great shopping area or an area for dining on dates though we always pine for craft beer whenever I come here. Go one stop north on the Yamanote and you have Shibuya and its plethora of craft beer bars. Go on stop south and you have Meguro with craft beer bars. Go either way on the Hibiya line, and you also end up with craft beer bars in Nakameguro and Hiro-o then Roppongi. Yet Ebisu is seriously lacking. House of Beer managed to entice me with its craft beer board outside.
Don’t let the sign confuse you. Most, if not all, of these beers can be bought at Seijo Ishii for cheaper.
The premise from House of Beer is that it represents beers from all over the world though with fifty different kinds of beer, that is less than one beer for every four countries around the world. With them promoting Asahi Extra Cold and six draft beers, I was excited for the draft beers and what they had on tap. Without any information on the board outside, and without a clearly labelled website, it was a guessing game for myself and my friend who happily tagged along.
This is 6pm. On a Friday night. In Tokyo. On pay day.
And what a disappointment it was. On a Friday night at 6pm this place was quiet besides two people who were “eating a late lunch” and chatting away with the barman who seemed disinterested in serving us. Never have I been so disappointed with a craft beer bar that I wanted to up and leave within the first five minutes but my friend and I persevered, finally managing to get a “regular” glass of the Hitachino Nest Falconer’s Flight, a limited edition brew. It’s great to see Kiuchi Brewery spreading out their brewing techniques, perhaps due to the Hitachino Lab in Akihabara, but it was a good beer. What was not good was the size or the price for it. ¥1,200 for about 350ml, also known as the regular size. Even with 20% off due to happy hour, it was too expensive for my liking and we decided to move on to the bottles. What’s even worse is that after 7pm, there is a table charge of ¥500 per person, though I guess the only good thing is that prices do include tax.
Now if you follow us on Twitter, you would have seen the response to this picture from House of Beer. And if you don’t, why not?! (@tengokubeer by the way). The prices for bottles made us baulk so much that my drinking buddy asked for the bill and tried to make leave. Almost ¥900 for a can of Yona Yona Ale that can be bought at a convini for ¥280. I understand that the location and atmosphere requires an increase in price, but when it’s cheaper to get the Yamanote line around to Tokyo station and then buy a pint of Swan Lake Pale Ale for ¥800 yen, you know something is wrong We made our excuses and left.
House of Beer Details
Open: Monday to Thursday 15:00 to 01:00 (L.O 00:30) Friday and Saturday 15:00 to 03:00 (L.O 02:30) Sunday 15:00 to 24:00 (L.O 23:30)
Happy Hour: 20% off beers from 17:00 to 19:00
Phone: 03-6303-2825
How to Get to House of Beer
Walk away. Don’t go near it. Ok, you want to drink the Kinshachi Aka Miso Lager then. House of Beer is about a five-minute walk from JR Ebisu west exit or Tokyo Metro Ebisu station exit 1.
