Aoi Brewing Cafe The Bottom Line
The only thing that Aoi Brewing Cafe offers over other places in the area is its in the vicinity of the station and that it is open from 8am, perfect for the (early) morning drinker. Besides that, it’s got the usual requirements in a bar – free WiFi, some English menus, takeaway beers, and no table charge. However, the service is very slow and if it looks busy from outside, then expect a longish wait just to get a seat or even a beer. The whole place is non-smoking and there is a very limited amount of vegetarian options.
Aoi Brewing Cafe The Full Review
Having not booked a shinkansen for the journey home meant I had some spare time to kill in Shizuoka – when I say spare time, it was basically however long I wanted to wait for an unreserved seat on the shinkansen back from Shizuoka. It gave me time to walk around, pick up some souvenirs, and maybe find a beer or two in the morning. I had heard that Aoi Brewing Cafe was open early but from 8am – that’s bit early even for this hardened drinker.
Aoi Brewing Cafe is located within the JR Shizuoka shinkansen building as you walk out towards the east end of the tracks. As such, there is a lot of footfall and can get very busy – even at 8am it seems tourists, and perhaps locals too, want a drink. There is space for about 40 people inside, with the majority at tables dotted around. However, while there is no table charge and Aoi Brewing Cafe has free WiFi too, the service was really slow as there were only three staff on at the time, and none of them really seemed to be in the mood for serving customers. The problem is that you can’t get a table first, you actually have to order at the counter THEN get a table. So if you get a couple of really slow people ordering in front of you, take a deep breath and keep calm knowing that beer is coming.
As the name suggests, Aoi Brewing Cafe has 5 taps of Aoi Brewing and also a guest beer from time-to-time, with the beers coming in three sizes: glass (310ml) from ¥682, US pint (473ml) from ¥973, and the rare mass (1200ml) from ¥2037. There are also two beer flight options available: a 3 x 170ml option for ¥1,200 and a 4 x 170ml option for from ¥1,391. None of the prices include tax despite the weird pricing for each beer, so factor that in. You can also get some takeaway beers if your train is soon, with plastic pint cups available for the same price. There was no happy hour though.
Having had a massive buffet breakfast at the hotel meant I didn’t get to try any of the options at Aoi Brewing Cafe, but the majority of the options were meat based. Only some of the menus were in English, but there were plenty of pictures on the menu. Kind of a strange considering the amount of foreign tourists I saw walk past, and then get put off by the lack of English.
Aoi Brewing Cafe Details
Open: Daily 8:00 – 23:00 (L.O Food 22:00 Drink 22:30)
Happy Hour: None
Phone: 054-270-7769
Homepage (in Japanese): https://aoibrewingcafe.com/
Social Media: Facebook / Instagram
How to Get to Aoi Brewing Cafe
The closest station to Aoi Brewing Cafe is JR Shizuoka. It’s less than a minute walk from the gates.
2 comments
“…and then get put off by the lack of Japanese” – who gets put off by the lack of Japanese? You should better write this with a sober head…
haha – nice spot! Guess that teaches me not to drink at 8am in the morning. 😉