Craft Beer Market Kyoto Porta

Craft Beer Market's Kyoto Porta branch was the chain's first bar in Kyoto, and it sits in the Porta underground shopping mall beneath Kyoto Station. The chain runs a string of bars across Tokyo, Osaka, Sendai and Kyoto, each built around a food theme, and here the theme is wood-fired pizza and Italian cooking from experienced chefs, paired with a carefully chosen craft beer list.

The taps follow the chain's daily-rotation format, and the day's beer list is published on the chain's website. Kyoto Brewing Company and other Kansai producers feature regularly alongside the chain's national portfolio of Japanese craft lagers, pale ales, IPAs and stouts. The proper pizza oven makes this one of CBM's stronger food concepts; a Neapolitan-style pizza with a lager or pale ale works particularly well, and the Italian dishes give it more of a restaurant feel than a typical station bar.

The open-plan counter faces the Porta concourse, so it never feels cramped, and it is easy to drop in for a single glass. Because it is in the underground mall, it can be reached without going outside from the Shinkansen, JR, Kintetsu and Karasuma lines; the chain's own page puts it a minute's walk from exit 6 of Kyoto Station. That makes it ideal before a train, on a rainy day, or as a first stop after arriving in the city.

It opens every day in line with the mall, from 11am to 10.30pm, with food last orders at 9.30pm and drinks at 10pm. Lunchtime is the quieter time for a pint, while evenings bring a mix of commuters and travellers, and tables can be booked online through the chain's site.