Akasaka-Mitsuke is not known for being a drinking area besides some izakayas, it’s a mostly business district with a few hotels in the area and of course, Hooters. Yona Yona Beer Kitchen is around the corner from Hooters and is probably a better choice for food, drink, chilled out atmosphere, well everything in fact besides Hooters girls, but if you’re going there for that then enjoy. If you hadn’t had guessed, Yona Yona Beer Kitchen is the tasting bar for the Yo-Ho Brewing range of beers and features their beers and collaborations exclusively on tap.
Spacious and woody
How I long for lazy afternoon drinking on warm spring days until late in the evening. Those days were relaxed and fun with not a care in the world until the realising of work the next day from 8am. Yona Yona Beer Kitchen might not be the solution to my problem, but the relaxed nature did help iron out the problems from the day that had just passed. With it’s wide open bar and spacey tables, it was very easy to sit down and chat area, though trying to find the menus was an issue until the bar staff told us that they were in the drawers in front of us. A small problem but it wasn’t until some joker decided to put all the menus in the same drawer. Ah, the crazy things we get up to at BeerTengoku
A wide selection of beers and styles on tap.eerTengoku.
If you haven’t tried any of the Yo-Ho Brewing range, then either you have escaped their reach from Lawson’s and other stores, such as Seiyu, as the ubiquitous Yona Yona Ale can be found pretty easily now. There were around 15 taps on, including the Boku Beer Kimi Beer collaboration with Lawson’s and also the Amazon collaboration Getsumengaho, along with Yona Yona Real Ale and Tokyo Black on hand pump. Beers come in three different sizes: small (¥450 ~ ¥530), medium (¥680 ~ ¥780) and pint (¥900 ~ ¥980) along with a three-beer tasting set of three small beers for ¥1,280 though you can’t choose the limited edition beers or the barley wine in that. Frustratingly, prices do not include tax so add 8% on to everything.
With such a wide choice for us, it was a case of starting off with something we didn’t know much about which was the Karuizawa Kogen Seasonal 2015 American Wheat Ale. Not bad, wheaty but nothing to powerful. Next up was the Getsumengaho, something I’ve wanted to try for a long time as it’s usually only available from Amazon.jp. Glad I tried it but I won’t be ordering six cans of it anytime soon. Then came the big gun of Aooni IPA which seemed so much more ale like when drunk from the pump than from a can. To finish it all off was Yo-Ho’s barley wine Hare no Hi Sennin, which is usually priced at ~¥3,000 yen a bottle. It was good stuff and would definitely pick up a bottle if it wasn’t ¥3,000.
The food at Yona Yona Beer Kitchen was based around oven baked foods, such as rotisserie chicken and sausages and while tasty, it was expensive for what it was. The spicy quarter chicken was three measly pieces that tasted more like curry powder than of anything else. The sausages were pretty tasty and for ¥1,800 you got three different kinds but at that price, and not including tax, it seemed a tad on the expensive side. The chips though were moorish and ended up devouring them and burning my mouth at the same time.
Yona Yona Beer Kitchen Akasaka-Mitsuke One Paragraph Review
If you are looking to try the Yo-Ho Brewing range and are unable to find the cans, then Yona Yona Beer Kitchen would be a worthwhile trip. For those of you who are looking for some early drinking in Tokyo, then Yona Yona Beer Kitchen is a good choice. It’s a nice relaxing place, but things get pricey quickly, even without a table charge, due to the lack of tax in price. If you can get the Yo-Ho Brewing beers in cans, then give Yona Yona Beer Kitchen a miss. It’s still a better choice than Hooters around the corner.
Yona Yona Beer Kitchen Akasaka-Mitsuke Details
Open: 11:30 ~ 23:00 with the lunch menu finishing at 16:00 (L.O Food 22:00 / Drinks 22:30)
Phone: 03-5510-4789
Homepage: http://www.yonayonabeerkitchen.com/akasaka/
How to Get to Yona Yona Beer Kitchen Akasaka-Mitsuke
The closest station to Yona Yona Beer Kitchen is Akasaka-mitsuke Station on the Tokyo Metro Ginza and Marunouchi lines. The closest exit is number 10.
