A note on the words: hitsuji means sheep, and the shop’s name, Hitsuji Aisu, is a play on it. A masu is the small square wooden box traditionally used for measuring rice and for drinking sake. Achar is the South Asian pickle. Shinobazu Pond is the large pond in Ueno Park. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
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Shinobazu Brewery Hitsuji Aisu on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
I want something good to eat today too. This is Hangover Meshi. Thinking of a light lunch, I went hunting around Ueno for somewhere you could drink from midday. The one that looked promising was Shinobazu Brewery Hitsuji Aisu, a craft beer and lamb restaurant. As the name says, it is over by Shinobazu Pond. It is a lively, jumbled area full of drinking places, but at lunchtime, naturally, few of them are open.
There seems to be a good deal of craft beer and plenty of snacks, so I decided to order loosely around what they recommend.
Here is the first beer. Served, of all things, in a masu — a stylish touch.
Shinobazu Brewery’s own craft beer. There is something like a brewing tank inside the shop, and it seems to be made there. Since it carries the shop’s name it is clearly their pick of the list. Fruity and very easy to drink. At this rate I could have gone for the large.
Achar means the Indian pickle, more or less. A dish of soft-boiled egg made into achar and served with a mayonnaise made with sesame oil. The red is not chili but paprika. The soft-boiled egg wearing the smell of cumin is delicious.
This is the snack the staff recommended above all: prime lamb carpaccio. It looks elaborate, too. The raw egg in the middle is a nice touch. Roast lamb with an onion and nut sauce over it, eaten by breaking the egg in the center as you go. Sliced to exactly the right thinness, tender and delicious. I see — it does go with beer. Lamb is meat you eat for its aroma, and I have the feeling it suits a fruity beer well.
It is the sort of dish that takes a while to come out, so it might have been wise to order other things alongside it.
They said it had only just been opened — a wine of barley, or something to that effect. It said limited to 60 liters, so I ordered it. Is this really 150 ml? Perhaps because the glass is large, it looks a small amount. As described, it does have something of sherry about it. An unusual sort of wine.
One more beer, then, and that was the end of it.
So: craft beer brewed in the town of Ueno, and lamb dishes. Perhaps it is better used as a bar? The interior is stylish by Ueno standards, so it might work for the first drink of an evening when the atmosphere matters. I wonder whether it takes on a different character at night. If the chance comes I may well drop in again.
Shinobazu Brewery Hitsuji Aisu (Beer hall / Ueno-hirokoji Station, Ueno-okachimachi Station, Keisei-ueno Station)
Tabelog lunch rating ★★★☆☆ 3.4
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
