Best bars in Tokyo

1. Bar Benfiddich

An office lift on a Nishi-Shinjuku side street opens onto a ninth-floor room walled with jars of dried roots and house liqueurs. There is no menu. Owner Hiroyasu Kayama asks what you feel like, grinds botanicals from his family's farm in Chichibu, and builds the drink around your answer. Fifteen seats, No. 18 on the World's 50 Best Bars 2025.

• Getting there: Shinjuku west exit, 5 minutes; look for the Yamatoya Building sign.
• Best time: the 19:00 slot, booked via TableCheck, five people maximum.
• Order this: a flavour or a spirit, never a named cocktail.

Go if you want a drink built from raw plants. Skip it if you cannot book weeks ahead.

2. Bar High Five

Bartender Hidetsugu Ueno has worked this Ginza basement counter since 2008, and much of what the world calls Japanese bartending was taught by him. Ice is chiselled into a diamond in front of you. There is no menu: describe what you like, and the drink arrives without a drop out of place.

• Getting there: Ginza Station, 3 minutes, one floor below street level.
• Best time: the 17:00 opening; a phoned-ahead seat is held ten minutes only.
• Budget: about ¥2,500 a cocktail plus seat charge, and no parties over four.

Go for the classic Ginza ritual at its source. Skip it if you refuse to queue: Campbelltoun Loch in Yurakucho gives you a counter seat with no service charge.

3. Gen Yamamoto

Eight seats at one slab of Mizunara oak, no music, one man behind it. The course runs four or six small cocktails built from whatever Japanese fruit and vegetables are in season, paced like a kaiseki meal. It is closer to a chef's counter than to a bar.

• Getting there: Azabu-Juban Station, Oedo or Namboku line, 5 minutes.
• Opening hours: Tue–Sat 15:00–22:00, last entry 21:00; closed Sunday and Monday.
• Budget: ¥8,000–9,999 for the course, which is the only option.

Go to taste a Japanese season in glass form. Skip it if you want to sit and talk for hours.

4. Bar Trench

The friendliest room in Tokyo's top tier is a narrow, apothecary-styled bar in Ebisu, open since 2010. Bitters, amari and absinthe are the house obsession, and the absinthe list is the reason to come. The bartenders speak English and the menu is written down rather than whispered.

• Getting there: Ebisu Station west exit, 3 minutes.
• Best time: doors at 18:00, full after 21:00; go early or after dinner.
• Budget: ¥3,000–5,000 a head, no seat charge, 10% service on the bill.

Go if you want serious drinks without the ceremony. Skip it if you came for a quiet counter after 21:00.

5. The SG Club

Three moods stack in one Shibuya building: a loud ground floor called Guzzle with no cover charge, a speakeasy basement called Sip, and a cigar lounge above. The drinks reference the 19th-century Japanese delegation to the United States, which reads as a gimmick until the yuzu and shiso work lands. No. 23 on Asia's 50 Best Bars 2024.

• Getting there: Shibuya Station, 8 minutes on foot into Jinnan.
• Opening hours: Guzzle from 15:00 and takes walk-ins; Sip from 18:00, bookable.
• Order this: the Flirtibird of yuzu, shiso and plum salt, off the English menu.

Go if you are a group, or arriving without a plan. Skip the basement if you would rather not pay a service charge.

6. Shot Bar Zoetrope

Around 300 Japanese whiskies fill one wall of this third-floor room, plenty of them bottles that vanished from shops years ago and are still poured at fair prices. Silent films run opposite, in a space dressed by film art director Takeo Kimura. Owner Atsushi Horigami has collected nothing else for two decades.

• Getting there: Shinjuku-Nishiguchi Station 2 minutes, JR Shinjuku west exit about 6.
• Opening hours: Mon–Sat 17:00–23:00, closed Sunday and public holidays.
• Order this: the beginners' sampler of Suntory and Nikka malts, then a Chichibu pour.

Go to understand Japanese whisky rather than photograph it. Skip it if you start late: sixteen seats, door shut at 23:00.

7. Campbelltoun Loch

Nine seats in a basement under the Yurakucho tracks, several hundred bottles of Scotch, and a quiet owner who will reach down a 1970s independent bottling if you show real interest. Half shots are allowed, there is no service charge, and prices sit well under Ginza norms five minutes away. The regulars are whisky obsessives, not visitors.

• Getting there: Hibiya Station exit A4, 2 minutes; small sign, below street level.
• Crowd warning: nine counter seats, so two people is the realistic party size.
• Order this: halves, and build your own Campbeltown and Islay flight.

Go for a central Tokyo counter with no queue and no cover. Skip it if you are four people.

8. Buri (Tachigui Sakaba Buri)

A wall of one-cup sake stands lined up like a vending display, about a hundred of them from breweries across the country, several served frozen as slush. You stand shoulder to shoulder with Ebisu office workers and point at what looks interesting. It turns an intimidating list into a game.

• Getting there: Ebisu Station west exit, 3 to 4 minutes straight out.
• Crowd warning: standing only, no reservations, packed 19:00 to 21:00 on weekdays.
• Budget: ¥2,000–2,999 a head with the ¥490 cover and a few small plates.

Go to learn sake by drinking it cheaply. Skip it if you need a chair: Bar Trench is minutes away.

9. Albatross G

Golden Gai packs over 200 bars into 0.66 hectares, and density is the problem: some doors are regulars-only, others charge foreign visitors a premium once you are seated. This one posts its 500 yen charge on the sign outside and hands you an English menu. Inside: chandeliers, gilt mirrors and purple velvet in a corridor-width room, and a crowd that mixes locals with travellers.

• Getting there: Shinjuku-sanchome Station 6 minutes, Shinjuku east exit about 10.
• Crowd warning: give up your seat after two drinks, and never photograph the alleys without asking.
• Order this: a house infusion or hot sake, around ¥700 a glass.

Go for one honest Golden Gai stop, early on a weeknight. Skip the rest of the alleys: Nishi-Shinjuku is ten minutes west and pours better for the same money.

10. JBS (Jazz, Blues, Soul)

Over 10,000 alphabetised records line a second-floor room above the Dogenzaka noise, and owner Kazuhiro Kobayashi runs it alone: he takes the order, pours a 500 yen whisky, drops the needle, then props the sleeve up so you know what is playing. No cover charge, which is unheard of for a Tokyo vinyl bar.

• Getting there: Shibuya Station, 5 minutes; an unmarked stairwell to the second floor.
• Opening hours: roughly 19:00 to 23:00 daily, so confirm before planning around it.
• Budget: drinks about ¥500, cash only, no requests.

Go for an hour of records and cheap whisky. Skip it if you came out to talk.

11. New York Bar, Park Hyatt Tokyo

The Lost in Translation bar reopened in December 2025 after a 19-month restoration, its original design intact. A 52nd-floor glass wall over Shinjuku, Mount Fuji on a clear evening and live jazz from 19:15 make the best view-and-drink combination in the city. It is also the most expensive room here before you order anything: 3,300 yen a head after 18:30.

• Getting there: Tochomae Station about 8 minutes, Shinjuku Station about 12.
• Best time: 17:00 to 18:30, when the cover charge is waived.
• Budget: ¥2,500–3,500 a drink; no shorts, sportswear, sandals or sleeveless tops, over-20s only.

Go if you want the view and can be inside by 18:30. Skip it if you want a nightcap: Bar Benfiddich and Shot Bar Zoetrope are in the same Nishi-Shinjuku blocks and cost less for a whole evening.