Beer Butterfly The Bottom Line
With Beer Butterfly’s confusing pricing system for beers and food, how much you pay and if it’s right is going to be hard to guess, but at least the taplist makes up for the confusing prices. The tap list is nice and varied though so there is definitely a beer that you can pick from. I’d definitely go again if I’m in the area but then I doubt I will be in the area again any time soon. The whole place is non-smoking though it does have a table charge and prices seem to include tax.
You could maybe swing a cat in here.
Beer Butterfly The Full Review
We’ve seen numerous bars come and go in the three years BeerTengoku has been running and Pirates of Sumiyoshi was one of them. It was on our list of places to go to as they were active in their craft beer listings and social network, so naturally we were (slightly) disappointed when we heard they had closed. Beer Butterfly is the phoenix bar – born in October 2016 out of the Pirates of Sumiyoshi’s ashes though Beer Butterfly owners didn’t want to use the name, instead opting for a clean break.
Beer Butterfly is located in the Sumiyoshi area of Tokyo, less than a couple of minutes from Sumiyoshi station on the Toei Shinjuku Line and Tokyo Metro Hanzōmon Line. The shop front looks like it’s a ramen store but flip the curtains out of the way and you walk into somewhere that looks like an old ramen shop. There are two bar areas – the front is located where the taps are and has space for about 5 or 6 people with another bar behind in front of the kitchen area with space for about 5 or 6 people at the counter. With a small table located under the stairs, be prepared to be packed in. There is a ¥300 table charge too, but we didn’t get anything for that, or maybe we just forgot? Not the best experience really. The whole bar is non-smoking both inside and outside the front door.
Beer Butterfly has 12 taps of craft beer on, with a heavy leaning towards domestic beers, and also some beers from Kirin too, so you can come with your non-craft beer drinking friends. The beers come in three sizes: small (250ml) for ¥500, medium (375ml) for ¥750, and then large (460ml) for ¥900. The menu lists the prices with and without tax, with the prices including tax in red, which kind of helps things out. If you order something from the soichi (switch?!) menu, then you get ¥50 off the price of a beer too. They also do takeout beers in plastic cups if you want something for the train ride home. There didn’t appear to be any happy hour nor any beer flights either. There was very little English on the menu, with a quick name of the beer style in English, so good luck there.
We didn’t get any food at Beer Butterfly mainly because we weren’t offered a menu of any kind, nor did there appear to be anyone cooking there either, with the one bar man trying to tend the bar before disappearing upstairs for a bit, then coming back down again. From the pictures we’ve seen though, the food tends to be more towards the deep fried cuisine that Japan offers so we’ll update this review next time we go there.
Beer Butterfly Details
Open: Weekdays 17:00 – 24:00 (L.O Food 23:00 Drink 23:30) Saturdays 15:00 – 24:00 (L.O Food 23:00 Drink 23:30)
Closed: Sundays and National Holidays
Happy Hour: None
Phone: None
Homepage (in Japanese): http://www.beerbutterfly.tokyo/
SNS: Twitter
How to Get to Beer Butterfly
The closest station to Beer Butterfly is Sumiyoshi station on Toei Shinjuku Line and Tokyo Metro Hanzōmon Line. Take exit B1 and the bar is across the road from you.
