A note on the words: Koenji is a small, bar-dense neighborhood on the west side of Tokyo, and KoKoN is written with the characters for old and now, the first of which the shop sign turns back to front. Craft sake is the loose name for new brews that step outside the legal definition of nihonshu, such as one made with fruit. Doburoku is unfiltered sake, thick and cloudy with the rice solids left in. Nukazuke are vegetables pickled in a bed of fermented rice bran. Chawanmushi is a savory egg custard steamed in a cup, and otoshi is the small dish you are served and charged for when you sit down, which is not a scam but the cover charge. Happy Taro, Noguchi Naohiko Sake Institute, Nichi Nichi and Shin Tsuchida are the names of the breweries and labels poured that night, and Yamada Nishiki is a rice variety grown for sake. Muroka nama genshu, printed on one of the bottles, means unfiltered, unpasteurized and undiluted — sake at full strength. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
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Sake Bar KoKoN on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
You can book a table at Sake Bar KoKoN on AutoReserve (English)!
Hello, this is Hangover Meshi. Well then — the night in Koenji is a long one… and so the second stop was Sake Bar KoKoN.
A bar given over entirely to sake, apparently, which must be paradise for anyone who loves the stuff^^ Inside, tall chairs run around the counter. There were a few other customers already, chatting away happily with the staff, so they may well be regulars^^
The sign is cute lol
The character for “old” being turned back to front is rather stylish too.
All sorts of sake are lined up here, so I decided to pick out the interesting-looking ones and work through them!
Straight out of the gate, an extraordinary craft sake lol
Or rather, I chose it myself lol It is a thick, sludgy doburoku — and what is more, they make it with strawberries lol
I love strawberries, so once somebody says strawberry there is nothing for it but to drink!
Thick as it is, one mouthful and…!
It is wonderful lol Or rather — is this even alcohol? The scent of strawberry, the sweetness and the acidity spread out softly.
There is no sake character to it at all. It is sweet and good, so you drink it straight down. A dangerous sort of drink, like Kahlua milk lol
To strike gold with the very first thing I picked lol
A small masterpiece of the otoshi kind — chawanmushi!
Carrying on drinking with nothing at all to eat would have me on the floor, so: salt, salt.
They are nukazuke, but only lightly pickled and not very salty, so you can crunch your way through them. Delicious.
One picked from the crisp, clean end of the list.
A softly fruity nose. An easy sake to drink.
Crisp and clean and refreshing indeed! Perhaps it is the acidity that gives it that sharp edge.
This one is also from the crisp, clean end.
An aged sake, with umami and body.
Sake really does taste completely different from one bottle to the next, does it not. Working through a lot of different labels a little at a time like this is such fun!
And so, having had a great deal of sake, out we went! I did drink rather too much, but in the end not one of them could match the impact and the sheer quality of that first Happy Taro lol Ichigoya Hana by Happy Taro is wonderful, so why not give it a try! Mind you, the list here will probably change as well, so whether you can still drink it at this bar is anybody’s guess^^
Sake bar KoKoN (Japanese sake bar / Koenji Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.3
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
