15 best urban breweries, wineries and distilleries in Tokyo with on-site restaurants and bars

In 2020, an 88-year-old sento facility in Sumida called Kogeneyu was revamped to preserve Tokyo’s communal bathhouse tradition while attracting younger locals. The upgrade featured a dual-purpose reception that serves as a taproom and DJ booth, with modern touches by artist Hiroko Takahashi. The project was so successful it became a catalyst for the renovations of two other bathhouses in the neighbourhood, as well as the opening of a new beer brewery, all of which are now managed by the same company.

Inspired by the simple joy of enjoying a frothy, ice-cold beer straight after a hot bath, Bathe Yotsume Brewery produces three house beers behind a counter with aesthetics reminiscent of an old-school bathhouse. Like its sister establishment Koganeyu, the brewery delivers music spun on vinyl curated by local DJs, but the majority of the space in the facility is reserved for beer production instead of baths and saunas. Offerings include 'Forest,' a Weizen that echoes the tranquillity of forest baths, 'Sunrise,' a gently sweet pale ale, and 'Shower,' an IPA with a sharp citrus bite. Non-alcoholic options are available, making the brewery a welcoming spot for families, non-drinkers, and beer lovers alike.

Everyone who’s made a few rounds in Golden Gai knows Open Book, a charming standing bar famous for its artisanal lemon sours and intriguing back story involving renowned Japanese writer Komimasa Tanaka. Fewer people are familiar with the famous bar’s recently opened sister establishment just a stone’s throw from Golden Gai.

Fitted with a kitchen and a mini brewery, Open Book Ha is notably larger than its Golden Gai counterpart, offering table and counter seating for those who want to enjoy a casual bite with a glass or two of the Open Book’s speciality beverage. Made with hand-peeled lemons sourced from Hiroshima and brown-sugar based shochu from Kagoshima, the signature lemon sours here are available on tap (¥900 per glass). The bar also ventures into seasonal shochu-based cocktails, substituting lemons with grapefruits based on availability.

Near Mejiro Station is this charming standing-only taproom with lavish murals of exotic birds. But the nifty space doesn’t just serve delicious beers on tap–it brews them, too. Inkhorn is a family-run business headed by Shun Nakade, who was inspired by his time abroad in the United States to start his own brewery in the heart of Tokyo.

Inkhorn boasts a transparent brewing space visible through expansive windows and is equipped with state-of-the-art tanks that produce around seven types of beer at a time. It takes roughly three weeks to brew each batch, with an additional five weeks of planning for new recipes, but Nakade takes pride in developing his menu to offer a mix of longtime favourites and new renditions.

You wouldn’t think there's space to fit a winery in the tightly packed cluster of shops in front of Tamachi Station, but Wineman has achieved an unlikely feat in a two-storey building that was once a yakitori restaurant. This wine shop crossed with an Italian restaurant (Antica Baceria Belli'talia) is hidden in a narrow back alley, with its storefront painted in a vivid shade of green. In an annex to the side of the building, you’ll see a small production room filled with enormous stainless steel fermentation vessels for making small batch wine in autumn and apple cider in winter. 

If you’re looking to stock up on a few bottles for your home, you’ll find a selection of Wineman’s wines and ciders in the shop upstairs, which also carries a wide variety of imported wines (primarily Italian) from indie winemakers with quirky labels. The second floor doubles as a casual dining space where you can sit around a long communal table and order a cheese platter and bowl of pasta to pair with a glass of red or white. 

Book Road is an urban winery that opened in the artisanal Kachikura area of Taito ward in 2017, contributing to the district’s rich manufacturing history. Here, chef-turned-winemaker Michiko Suai crafts her award-winning wines using 100-percent domestic grapes from Yamanashi, Nagano, and a contracted farm in Ibaraki. Despite its small 33sqm space, the winery produces a whopping 13,000 bottles annually.

Tastings are conducted on milk crate tables outside the cellar door, where about six types of wine are available to try for ¥300 each. Book Road hosts winery tours on Saturdays and Sundays at 2pm, accommodating up to eight people per session at ¥1,000 each (reservations required). Additionally, the winery offers a variety of monthly events, from wine tastings to pasta-making wine parties.

This sleek sake pub in the up-and-coming neighbourhood of Kabutocho is operated by a celebrated brewery from Wakayama prefecture. With nearly a century of sake production experience, the brewery offers a wide selection of Wakayama's finest here, from sparkling sake to honey-citrus liqueur made with local yuzu. Beyond the bottled offerings, however, this Tokyo outpost takes things one step further with a seasonal selection of doburoku, which is brewed on-site. 

Delightfully rich, creamy and brimming with a refreshingly tangy flavour, doburoku is an unfiltered rice wine with a slightly lower alcohol percentage than sake that has been filtered and aged. Doburoku requires a licence to brew, but it’s easier to produce than sake in that it requires less space to make and is subject to fewer regulations, allowing brewers to get creative with ingredients for a variety of flavour profiles. Heiwa Doburoku Kabutocho fully embraces this freedom by infusing their batches of doburoku with produce like basil, lychee and blueberries while bringing sake enthusiasts closer to the brewing process. 

A few minutes’ walk from Kiyosumi Shirakawa Station, keep a lookout for the beer keg that marks the spot for Folkways Brewing. You’ll find it tucked into the first floor of a nondescript apartment block. The interior is simple and sophisticated, with concrete floors and a long timber bar counter, and the vibe is homely and welcoming – just the type of place where you're likely to meet friendly locals over a cold glass of craft beer. To the right of the bar, you’ll see all the gleaming brew tanks and equipment.

Brewer Daisuke Furusawa has a precise palate, and his lineup of pale ales, IPAs, porters and more (from ¥800) is both delicious and creative. Furusawa collaborates with local suppliers for special releases, like a beer infused with leftover grapes sourced from a local wine producer, or a brew made with cacao nibs from a neighbourhood importer. 

Tokyo’s first gin distillery is in an unlikely spot: in the fancy yokocho (food hall) in the Toranomon Hills complex. Fitting into the uber-modern vibe of Toranomon Yokocho, the sleek distilling setup sits in the middle of a bar, behind a futuristic-looking glass enclosure. 

The Toranomon distillery’s gin uses local shochu and spring water from Okutama River, with limited-edition seasonal releases featuring botanical infusions like lavender, mandarin flowers and ume (Japanese plum). Head of production Teppei Ichiba trained at the revered Tatsumi Distillery in Gifu, so you know you’re getting a refined tipple. You can choose whether to have it on the rocks, mixed with soda or tonic – and if you’re unsure what to get, ask the staff for a recommendation. If you’re a fan of what you try, you can pick up a bottle to take home – each features a catchy label.

This Toranomon eatery is the brainchild of some of Tokyo’s sharpest operators. Transit, who are responsible for a string of much-loved venues including Ginza’s Modern Greek restaurant The Apollo, have tapped renowned interior designer Masamichi Katayama and his Wonderwall studio to create this casual restaurant complete with in-house craft beer brewery from August Beer.

Down in the B2F basement of Toranomon Hills Station Tower, Wonderwall’s future-facing design for Dam incorporates sleek surfaces and strip lighting (thankfully not overly bright) in place of the retro stylings usually associated with artisanal brewing. Illuminated text above the counter bar spells out a quotation from writer and noted drinker Ernest Hemingway (‘I drink to make other people more interesting’), while a series of sizeable photorealistic portraits by painter Kotao Tomozawa look out over seating from within open-faced booths.

Founded in 2016, Fukagawa Winery is so committed to making wine in the city that it grows grapes on the rooftop of a nearby supermarket. Although the crop doesn’t yield enough to produce wine, it’s used as the yeast starter in the fermentation process. Head down the narrow path to the back of the building, where you’ll find a compact restaurant with windows looking into the production room. 

From 2pm to 5pm, you can get 20ml (¥200) or 50ml (¥300) tastings. The regular menu kicks in at 5pm, with Italian-inspired dishes and full glasses and bottles of wine on offer – but if you can’t decide, you can still get a flight of three wines for ¥1,600.

This distillery makes inventive, quality spirits from food waste. Tokyo Riverside Distillery is run by The Ethical Spirits & Co, which hit the headlines in mid-2020 with Revive, a gin made by distilling leftover Budweiser beer that was going to waste during Japan’s first state of emergency. The product roster has expanded since then, but the company is still focussed on gin for now, with plans to release its first whisky in 2022. 

In front of the gleaming 500L copper still on the ground floor is a streetside counter where you can buy all the company’s unusual but wonderful spirits, including a silky smooth gin made from cacao husks. Instead of a free tasting, the shop offers a free whiff – staff will spray each spirit onto a pad for you to smell, just like at a perfumery. If you’re looking to get more than a sniff, head upstairs to Stage, the venue's bar and restaurant. It serves cocktails made with different Ethical Spirits gins and herbs from the building’s rooftop garden.

Originally opened in 2015, Spring Valley Brewery is back after a period of renovations with a revamped interior and elevated concept. On the first floor, the casual pub ambience is enhanced by a new visual display behind the beer taps, showcasing the colour of each beer to hint at the boldness or lightness of the flavours. Alongside the standard selection of seven craft beers available year-round, patrons can now enjoy a rotating lineup of 12 to 15 brews. This includes SVB-exclusive beers and guest offerings from domestic breweries. Signature beers like the crisp and bitter 496, the rich and fragrant After Dark, and the raspberry-infused Jazzberry remain the highlights here. For a diverse tasting experience, the ¥1,200 beer flight is recommended.

A significant transformation has taken place on the second floor, which now sports a more upscale decor. Deep-hued upholstered chairs coupled with marble floors and tabletops lend the space a 20th-century art deco glamour, yet the focus remains steadfast on the craft beer selection.

You’d never guess there was a fully equipped distillery tucked away under the Yamanote Line tracks just north of Akihabara Station, but this venue from Hitachino Brewing is full of surprises. The Ibaraki-based craft brewery behind the popular Hitachino Nest beer started distilling its Kiuchi Whisky back in 2016, and this is the best place in Tokyo to get a taste.

The 14 whiskies on offer – seven malt, seven grain – start at ¥750 per glass and vary widely in age, cask and flavour profile. There’s a sense of experimentation here which you just don’t get from a bigger distillery. If you’re feeling adventurous, opt for a tasting flight of three different whiskies (¥1,280). While the whisky all comes from the company’s main distillery in Ibaraki prefecture, you can also sample gin, liqueurs and other spirits that are distilled on-site (from ¥750). And of course, Hitachino’s beloved beers are on tap, too (from ¥750).

A former warehouse, this spacious brewery on the canals of Tennozu Isle feels worlds away from densely packed inner-city Tokyo. It’s one of the few places in Tokyo where you can sit outside on a terrace and sip your craft beer with the canal stretching out in front of you. The bar is set amongst the large copper brewing tanks, and from these tanks comes a range of Californian-style ales and porters. The attached restaurant serves up American diner fare: choose from steamed clams, wagyu burgers, buttermilk fried chicken, pork spareribs, Louisiana-style crab cakes, and much more.

Tokyo Hachioji Distillery became the first craft spirit distillery to open in the Tama area when it launched last year. The Hachioji Distillery focuses on the traditional method and taste of classic London dry-style gins, but gives itself an edge by using local botanicals like Japanese lemon peel and natsumikan (summer oranges). 

Currently, the distillery offers two types of speciality gin: the Classic Tokyo Hachio Gin and the Elderflower Tokyo Hachio Gin. The former is a zesty, citrusy spirit with floral notes of chamomile and elderflower. The latter, however, has more pronounced notes of elderflower and has a lower alcohol content of 40 percent, making it easier to drink for the uninitiated.