Beer Kobo Shinjuku The Bottom Line
Shinjuku offers up plenty of places to drink craft beer that are better than Beer Kobo Shinjuku; however,Beer Kobo Shinjuku is the best of the chain across Tokyo. The beers were slightly better tasting than I expected and were better than the other branches that I’ve been to – guess that’s saying something. But the prices for them being brewpub beers are on the high side, considering what is on offer. The whole place is non-smoking, has no table charge, but prices do not include tax. There was also an English menu available without even having to ask for one – very helpful considering that other places in the area had nothing.
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Beer Kobo Shinjuku The Full Review
Beer Kobo Shinjuku sees the Beer Kobo chain stretch its legs out into Shinjuku and the bustling area of the west side of the massive, and disorganised, station complex. It’s not the first Bakushu Kobo to be on the Yamanote like – the Takadanobaba Bakushu Kobo has the honours for being the first – but it is the first to open in such a busy area. It opened in November 2017 and since then, it has proven itself to be quite popular with office workers from the buildings above the bar.
Beer Kobo Shinjuku is located in the basement of the Nomura Building, which is conveniently between Shinjuku station and Nishi-Shinjuku station – and I got lost trying to find it. It’s kind of hidden away on the B2F but it is shop number 13 – there are plenty of maps inside the building so why there aren’t any outside is beyond me. Don’t be fooled by the benches outside as there is also space inside the shop for drinkers as well as being able to get a view of the brewery too. I was pretty surprised to see a brewery in this office building. After all, the logistics of all that sweet smelling wort and hops has to go somewhere. There is space for about 30 people dotted around various tables and benches in the bar, with the whole place being non-smoking as well as having no table charge and free wifi as well. Result!
There are 10 taps of beer on at Beer Kobo Shinjuku, with all but one being an in-house beer. Heck, the macro beer is Sapporo Edelpils – one of the best macros that Japan has to offer. The beers come in two sizes: small (210ml) from ¥480 to ¥680 and regular (410ml) from ¥750 to ¥1050; however, none of the prices include tax. This makesBeer Kobo Shinjuku both the cheapest place and most expensive place in the Shinjuku for the – quite frankly – mediocre beer at best. It’s hard to recommend what are essentially average homebrew beers over something like Watering Hole or YYG Brewery and Beer Kitchen which are just down the road from here. There was no happy hour nor any beer flights though.
The food at Beer Kobo Shinjuku is centred around fried stuff but don’t let that picture of the ribs on the back wall confuse you. I thought we’d be getting two racks of ribs for 1200 yen but alas, no. It was described as being much much smaller and as such, the staple BeerTengoku food of chips was ordered. The best thing was that all of the menus were in English – and came with descriptions too as well!
Beer Kobo Shinjuku Details
Open: Monday to Saturday 11:30 – 14:30 (L.O 14:00) / 17:00 – 22:30 (L.O 22:00)
Close: Sundays & National Holidays
Happy Hour: None
Phone: 03-6258-0885
Homepage (in Japanese): http://www.nomura-shop.com/shop/B2_beerkobo.html
SNS: N/A
How to Get to Beer Kobo Shinjuku
The closest stations to Beer Kobo Shinjuku are Shinjuku and Nishi-Shinjuku station.
[ezcol_1half]Directions from Shinjuku Station[/ezcol_1half]
[ezcol_1half_end]Directions from Nishi Shinjuku Station[/ezcol_1half_end]
