A note on the words: mala is the Sichuan numbing-spicy flavour; da ji pai is Taiwan’s giant fried chicken cutlet; lu rou fan is Taiwanese braised pork on rice; xiaolongbao are soup dumplings; and tonjiru is Japan’s homely pork-and-vegetable soup — which is what this hotpot turned out to taste like. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
Ikebukuro Nettai Yoichi (Tobu rooftop beer garden) on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Drinkers, thank you for waiting. It is Hangover Meshi time.
“Let’s hit a beer garden today!” — it is getting to be that season. The rooftop beer garden of the Tobu department store is running this year as an event called Ikebukuro Nettai Yoichi (“tropical night market”). Is it this every year? Just this year? Who knows. Either way, straight up we go, and drinking we shall!
And on walking in — a shock.
We were the only customers there!
An accidental private hire — lucky, I suppose, but also a little lonely?! Beer gardens are supposed to be rowdy! Granted, it was still the rainy season, but can a place really be this empty? Well — perhaps weekdays are simply like this!
One lone gas burner sitting there! But hey — when do you ever get a whole beer garden to yourself? Luxury!
We took the plan with hotpot, all-you-can-drink, and two stall tickets per person.
The tickets can be used to play the Taiwanese festival games (though with nobody else around it felt rather awkward!)…
…or to pick up small bites at the food stalls (likewise deserted!). Since it was just us that day, we handed the tickets straight to the staff and they went off to make things. When it is busy, this is presumably where the exchange happens^^
The alcohol-free drink list is solid too!
And this is the beer-pouring machine. Press the button and it does the whole thing for you.
After the run-through of explanations, out come the pot, the meat and the vegetables! We had the pork mala hotpot set: pork, chicken, a vegetable platter and two stall tickets included —
— for 5,480 yen. Cheap!
Not quite the pot I had pictured! Is a mala hotpot not usually that divided thing, herbal broth on one side, fiery mala broth on the other?! This is evidently the mala side only. One sip of the soup and — no heat whatsoever! Feather-spicy.
That is a bold way to cut a cabbage! Bring me a knife and I shall do it myself?!
Everything went in, and in it all simmered!
This… is tonjiru, is it not?! (Japanese pork-and-vegetable miso-style soup, for the record.)
It had so little punch that I asked whether they had any chilli condiment on the side — and they did, and they brought it.
Yes — with some heat added it is actually rather good. The flavour itself is genuinely fine; it is only that the look and the mood do not quite match the name! And as the drinks go in, you stop noticing entirely. No problem at all.
Mm. Tasty.
The da ji pai collected from the stall. A shame to cut a proudly giant fried chicken cutlet — but cut it we had^^
Also on tickets: lu rou fan. Ultra-mini! A single-bite lu rou fan.
And fries, also for a ticket. Of all the ticket items, this one delivers the most satisfaction!
All the ticket food had arrived, but the portions are small, so we ordered a whole extra set!
Into round two of the tonjiru!
All in all, having the place to ourselves was fun! We drank plenty and ate plenty!
Once the real heat arrives I suspect this place gets packed. An empty beer garden is a comfortable one: no queue for the beer machine, and it never runs dry. If you do not need the noisy crowd, a weekday around June is the way to lounge here. The food, to be honest, is not the point — and yes, the hotpot is basically tonjiru! — but it tastes fine, and as a place to gather your gang it does the job!
May you meet something good to eat today too.
Ikebukuro Nettai Yoichi (Tobu rooftop beer garden) (beer garden / Ikebukuro Station, Higashi-Ikebukuro Station, Toden Zoshigaya Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.0
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
