Wiz Craft Beer and Food opened in July 2015 and is a place I’ve been meaning to visit for a while now, but a trip to the UK and sick kids meant that it wasn’t possible until one bright, sunny Saturday in September. Again, the mini-bar crawl bug caught me, grabbed me, and made me drink too much at three different bars with Wiz Craft Beer and Food the second stop.
For some reason, I decided to take the most awkward possible route from Ueno to Awajicho as I was suffering from 3G woes on my phone and was left wandering around trying to find the bar. Wiz Craft Beer and Food is located between three different stations: Ochanomizu, Shin-Ochanomizu, and Awajicho and in hindsight I should have walked from the first option, though the second is much closer. Heck, you could even walk from Akihabara and stop in at Hitachino Brewing Lab on the way. There is a choice of outside and inside seating though inside does have an unusual selection of music going on.
There are over thirty taps of craft beer at Wiz Craft Beer and Food with the majority of them being domestic craft beer from across Japan though it’s hard to walk into Wiz Craft Beer and Food and not think of the styling being influence by the Craft Beer Market chain, with white tiles behind the taps that had the names, international bittering units (IBU) and abvs of the beer written on them in pen. It’s becoming a common sight now but seems a bit identikit in the long one.
The beer menu at Wiz Craft Beer and Food encompasses a wide range of styles and tastes from Japan with pilsners to weizens and dark lagers to stouts and everything between. There is also a happy hour on during the evenings where all beers on the menu have ¥200 off. Happy hour during the week is on from Monday to Thursday 17:00 ~ 20:00 while on Saturday it is on from 14:00 ~ 19:00. Cheap enough as it is, that price doesn’t include tax and the amount of head on the beers can’t be adjusted regardless of your preference. A damn shame as some of the craft beers coming up had about 80ml of head on top. Prices outside of happy hour vary are 420ml servings ranging from ¥780 and 240ml servings starting ¥450.
Wiz Craft Beer and Food also specialises in food sourced from various parts of Japan, with Yamagata pork belly a particularly popular dish according to Naruoka-san. However, I couldn’t look past the nachos and at ¥900 they could have been bigger but they were tasty and were quickly eaten before other company turned up to join me.
Wiz Craft Beer and Food One Paragraph
Wiz Craft Beer and Food is a great place to try new beers – during happy hour but outside of that, I would probably end up going somewhere else due to the prices. While the bar is non-smoking, besides the tiny booth right in front of the kitchen area, the lack of inclusion of tax in the prices and large head sizes meant that the evening could get pricier than it should be quickly. Go for happy hour and enjoy the range of cheap beers.
Wiz Craft Beer and Food Details
Open: Monday to Friday 11:30 ~ 15:00, 17:00 ~ 23:00 Saturday 11:30 ~ 23:00 Sunday and National holidays 11:30 ~ 22:00 (L.O Food 1 hour before closing / drinks 30 minutes before closing)
Happy Hour: ¥200 off 17:00 to 20:00 / 14:00 to 19:00
Phone: 03-6206-8805
Website (in English / Japanese): http://wiz-craft.com/
Social Network: Facebook / Twitter
How to Get to Wiz Craft Beer and Food
There are three different stations to get to Wiz Craft Beer and Food but the closest is Awajicho on the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line. Come out of exit A3, turn back on yourself and take the first right. Walk straight and Wiz Craft Beer and Food is on your left when you get to Awajicho Ni-chome (淡路町二丁目) junction.