IR Second House, or as they style themselves I｜R Second House (still yet to work out how to do the vertical bar on an English mac), is an upmarket craft beer house located near Shirokanedai station in Minato-ku, Tokyo. I had the best intentions of going in a sober state; however, I had met up with some friends in Transit a few hours beforehand and was feeling slightly worse for wear on a Friday night during a mini-craft beer crawl across Tokyo. Our short bar crawl involved a lot of walking and getting lost, but I was adamant we were going to make it as a group here, simply due to the Y Market Brewing beers on tap that night.
Turning up at around 8pm on a Friday night to a craft beer bar in Tokyo is hazardous – you’re never guaranteed a seat at the bar, let alone at a table, but IR Second House had plenty of inside and outside seating to go around. As soon as one of our group members heard that outside was for smoking, then our decision was made for us: inside it was. A shame as the outside area was a wood deck with some comfortable sofas and soft romantic lighting, but understandable, smoking really does affect your taste buds when drinking craft beer.
IR Second House has a total of twelve taps on, though on our night, only eight were on with the majority of them being domestic craft beers and a couple of import beers as well. One of the impressive things about ordering craft beer at IR Second House is that the size and style of beer dictates what kind of glass it is served in, with the medium sized IPAs we ordered coming in IPA glasses as designed by Spiegelau and Sierra Nevada and the pints served in UK pint glasses. Prices were reasonable as half pints (264ml) cost ¥650 and pints (568ml) cost ¥1050 with taxes included in the price. There is also a nomihodai, aka drink as much as you want, or can in some people’s case, at ¥4000 for two hours. Morishita-san, the owner, also has a great understanding of how beers should be served and was more than happy to accommodate our requests of beers with minimal head and a strong opinion of the craft beer market in Japan.
Due to the our slight intoxication, the food we ordered was mere finger food though Morishita-san did talk to us about the menu and how it is paired up to work well with the beers on tap. There is also a BBQ course plan on offer too though you do have to cook things yourself and there is a strong risk of burning yourself if you do that and the nomihodai plan too.
IR Second House One Paragraph Review
IR Second House is a definite go-to place on our list of bars at BeerTengoku though the prices may deter some people as well as the location. The beer sizes and variety more than make up for that. If you’re in the Meguro vicinity or on the Toei Metro or Namoku line, then get down there. The only problem for us is that the outside area is the main smoking area – a shame in the warm Spring and Autumn months.
IR Second House Details
Open: Monday to Saturday 11:30 – 23:00 (Food L.O 22:00 Drinks 22:30), Sunday and national holidays 11:30 – 22:30 (Food L.O 21:30 Drinks 22:00)
Phone: 03-6721-9253
Homepage (in Japanese): http://www.ir-secondhouse.tokyo/
Social networks: Facebook
How to Get to IR Second House
The closest station to IR Second House is Shirokanedai on the Tokyo Metro Namboku Line and Toei Mita Line. You can either take exit two, then turn right and walk towards Meguro for about three minutes OR take exit one, cross the road and turn left and IR Second House is on the junction of Shirokanedai (白金台).
