Japan’s Best Bars: Hiroshima

1.  As Time

The Jekyll and Hyde of Hiroshima café bars - during the day it resembles an ordinary café where light snacks and lunches are enjoyed by 9-to-5 regulars. By night though the lights dim, classical jazz tinkles from the surround sound system and Mr Hyde comes strolling in. Regulars are moneyed movers and well-dress urban shakers who like fine wines and fine women, many of whom can be spotted sipping gins and Jamesons over cigarettes at the dark corner tables. We suggest coming here for a hot date though - it’s slick and stylish without being soulless or stuck-up. The interior is classy, the atmosphere moody, and the drinks mixed to perfection.

Address:
Hondori L bldg. 2F 2-3 Hondori, Naka-ku
Hiroshima

 

2. D Bar - Donbei Island

The coolest, classiest cocktail bar in town with drinks from all over the world, including the fashionable and once-forbidden absinthe. It’s all very dark, swish and sophisticated: waiters wear white aprons over elegant black dinner suits and hover obediently over smoke-filled tables where the credit card customers have gathered in conference. The most prominent light is a blue glow reflecting from bottles stacked high behind the bar. Every cocktail under the ‘Empire of the Sun’ is here for you to sample, at prices that seem to reflect costs required to courier the stuff. But then again, you’re paying for elegance. Regulars come early to get a seat.

Address:
39296 Fukuro-machi Naka-ku
Hiroshima, 730-0036

 

3. Flat Blue Spot

Ok, it’s mostly a day-time spot where ice cream, coffees and cakes are more popular than martinis and margaritas, but they do make a mysterious ‘calpis and vodka’ cocktail special that’s so sweet and smooth we forgot to even ask what calpis is. Your setting is typically sino-sleek - an airy open-plan space with much steel and high glass, perfect to people-watch or laze away afternoons reading on the window-side sofas. Even better though, there’s a second floor terrace outside where parasols provide shade from the Hiroshima heat and those calpis go down a treat in the sun.

Address:
44378 Fukuromachi Naka-ku
Hiroshima

 

4. Grog

A chic new minimalist cocktail bar with a ten-seater counter and intimate 4-seater tables where long-glass alcohol and short sharp shots are the name of the game. It’s trademark dark in that hip Japanese sushi box kind of way, with tall windows to look out onto the street life outside and smooth mirror lighting adding space age atmosphere from behind the bar. Good for some low-intensity romance or a late drink at the end of the night.

After all, what self-respecting cocktail barfly could refuse somewhere with a name like this.

Address:
Town Shintenchi Building 5F 5-21 Shintenchi, Naka-ku
Hiroshima

 

5. Qoo

If gazing at gorgeous girls in designer labels pouting over their colourful cocktails is your thing you’ll be queuing to get into qoo. It’s a cosy cocktail lounge and cafe furnished in interior decor magazine shades of black and white minimalism. The bar is the place to be based, but you’ll also like the second floor café known as ‘Space’, where additional schools of style-slave babes lean back on comfortable sofas ordering cocktails and cakes.

The prices may be sky high but one look at around at the gorgeous peoples Mecca and we reckon you’ll think it’s worth it.

Address:
Manzoku-ya Bldg. 2F 5-6 Horikawa-machi, Naka-ku
Hiroshima