Cafe & Craft Beer Dining SOUL BIRD, located near Daimon / Hamamatsucho station, opened up in March 2015 and I’ve been eager to get there since but time has not been on our side. The bar is located in the central business district of the area and the previous time I went, I got coerced into going into DevilCraft Hamamatsucho, just down the road from it. So, I had a day off without the family and knew what I was going to do. All I needed to do was get there before the local offices emptied for lunch and Cafe & Craft Beer Dining SOUL BIRD filled up.
Small panoramic of Cafe & Craft Beer Dining SOUL BIRD.
Cafe & Craft Beer Dining SOUL BIRD is easy to get to and well sign posted, with small boards leading you up to the bar that has both inside and outside seating though in rainy season, the outside seating is always a gamble. Getting there for opening, at 11:30am, meant that I was able to get a seat, though within 30 minutes, the main inside area had filled up with office workers coming in for some lunch and some liquid refreshment. The bar was open to the cloudy skies and in the back, highlights of the Kirin cup were being rerun for the audience, although with all the chitter-chatter going, I doubt anyone was really watching.
There were ten taps of domestic craft beer and if you’re not sure where each one comes from, there is a giant blackboard map of Japan that is shaded in to represent the prefectures on tap and also the beers from those prefectures on tap too. The tap list can be found on their Facebook page and is updated daily. Beers come in two sizes: medium (280ml) at ¥750 and also large (450ml) at ¥950 with both prices including tax, so no surprises there. There is also a beer tasting set that gets you three 180ml glasses for ¥1,200. It would have been rude to sit and drink one large glass, so I had to share the love around the Japanese breweries.
The lunch time specials at Cafe & Craft Beer Dining SOUL BIRD vary daily and the loco moco is THE special meal there. So much so that when the people at the next table came in, they asked for the loco moco without evening looking at the menu. For those who don’t know what loco moco is, it’s akin to a fried egg on top of a hamburger on top of rice. But this was so much nicer than that, with a salsa cheese topping and purple bean rice. Along with a Minoh Pale Ale, for an extra ¥500, it was polished off and sat well.
Cafe & Craft Beer Dining SOUL BIRD One Paragraph Review
Cafe & Craft Beer Dining SOUL BIRD has a great, chilled out atmosphere and a decent selection of taps at a reasonable price. The selection of beers is wide and varied, with ones that I haven’t seen elsewhere so get down and try it out.
Cafe & Craft Beer Dining SOUL BIRD Details
Open: Monday to Friday Lunch 11:30 ~ 14:30 Dinner 17:00 ~ 24:00 Saturday 11:30 ~ 15:00 Cafe 15:00 ~ 17:00 Dinner 17:00 ~ 23:00
Closed: Sundays and National Holidays
Phone: 03-6450-1639
Homepage (in Japanese): http://www.craftbeer-cafe-soulbird.tokyo/
Social Network Lines: Facebook / Twitter
How to Get to Cafe & Craft Beer Dining SOUL BIRD
The closest station is Daimon on the Tokyo Asakusa Line or the Toei Oedo Line. Take exit B1 and it’s about a two minute walk north of there.
