Craft Beer Market Toranomon

This is where Craft Beer Market began. The company still calls Toranomon its 'memorable first store', and from this ground-floor bar in Nishi-Shimbashi, opened in February 2011, the chain went on to make craft beer affordable and approachable across Japan. It sits in the heart of a dense office district, on the ground floor of the S.A. Grace Building at 1-23-3 Nishi-Shimbashi.

The draught list rotates daily and leans on Japanese microbreweries, with Baird, Coedo, Kinshachi and Aquila appearing regularly alongside lesser-known regional producers, so it is a good place to sample the breadth of Japanese craft in one sitting without hunting down individual taprooms. Pricing is the chain's selling point: glasses have been ¥690, there is a ¥300 table charge in the evening, and all-you-can-drink plans for groups start at ¥5,500. The kitchen's theme is classic beer snacks, from izakaya bites to Western-style tapas, designed to be shared over a few rounds.

It is firmly a weekday spot. The bar's own page lists a lunch service from 11.30am to 2pm and dinner from 5pm to 11pm, with last drinks at 10.30pm, and it is closed on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. Evenings fill quickly with the after-work crowd, so reservations, taken for two or more through the bar's online booking link or by phone, are worth making for a group.

Getting there is easy: it is two minutes on foot from Exit 1 of Toranomon Station on the Ginza Line, four minutes from Uchisaiwaicho on the Toei Mita Line and about eight minutes from the north gate of JR Shimbashi. It suits office workers, visitors staying around Shimbashi and Toranomon, and anyone who wants an inexpensive introduction to Japanese craft beer.