Norah : The Bottom Line
Norah follows the tried and trusted formula that its siblings The Office in Ebisu, Tokyo and Biajuku Laundry in Fujisawa, Kanagawa and Beer Juku Maribana Sancha in Sangenjaya, Tokyo have. There’s a decent range of beers on tap across a variety of styles at a range of prices. If you’ve been to either of those three places then you know what you’re going to get at Norah.
Norah : The Full Review
So it seems that Product of Time, the parent company behind Norah et al, are onto a good thing, with this place having opened in January 2022. You could walk into any of those places and there are two things in common – the design of the beer menus behind the bar, and also the paper menus that get handed out to customers. That’s not to say that Norah is a bad thing at all – there is definitely a need in the Musashi-kosugi area for relatively cheap craft beer bars with a variety of beers on tap.
Norah is located in Musashi-Kosugi, but this time it’s on the south side of the station, which makes it a little bit out of the way compared to other craft beer places in the town. Still, it’s only a few minutes walk and it is located in a nice little shopping arcade where kids can play in the park, and people can stroll down along the road.
Norah : Atmosphere & Interior
Norah opens out onto the street, with a few seats outside, something to take advantage of when you have a nice blue sky day. Inside of Norah, there are two floors, with the ground floor having space for around 14 people along the counter and then some space upstairs on the second floor, that I didn’t get up to. The good thing is that there isn’t any table charge and the whole place is non-smoking, so feel free to grab one of the four seats by the front door and enjoy the sun.
There was some football being played on the day I went – some European football game, but the TV was well hidden and I couldn’t really hear the commentary from the TV.
Norah : Beer & Tap Information
Like other branches of Product of Time, Norah has a very familiar feel to the beer list and the menus – the blackboards up above the bar displaying some basic information about the beers, and the paper menus with the beer list and a small infographic about how each beer tastes. It’s quaint and useful for those who don’t know the difference between a helles and a kölsch, but more experience drinkers may eschew its usefulness.
The beer menu is a tad confusing when it comes to order but it has been split into standard (“easy” to find beers), special (slightly “harder” to find) and rare (“uber” difficult to track down) with beers coming in two sizes: small (240 ml) at ¥680, ¥790, and ¥1130 yen for each category of rarity, and then pint (473 ml) at ¥1030, ¥1160, and ¥1480. The rarity is indicated by a small symbol on the paper menu, so you are at least aware of how much you are going to pay. There wasn’t any beer flight on offer, nor any happy hour either. The beers were well poured though with just a touch of head on the beer.
Norah : Food Information
The food at Norah is based around Japanese izakaya items, so salads, fried food, yakitori, oden, and the such. The food is really delicious though the portion sizes do leave a lot to be desired for. The menus are all in Japanese, so while you can get away with some rudimentary Japanese, there were no English menu options nor English speaking staff. There are some vegetarian options as well, besides the basics of salad.
Norah : Details
- Open : Weekdays 15:00 – 24:00 (L.O Food 23:00 Drink 23:30) Weekends + Holidays 12:00 – 24:00 (L.O Food 23:00 Drink 23:30)
- Closed : N/A
- Happy Hour : N/A
- Phone : 044-299-9366
- Homepage (in Japanese) : N/A
- Social Media : Instagram
