Sake bar guide

The best sake bar in Europe. Sommelier Antony knows his stuff, and the list reflects it. Aramasa and Niizawa sit alongside breweries you won’t find anywhere else. Everything available by the glass, which is rare at this level. The setting matches the ambition: refined, quiet, and built for focus. This is not a place for casual drinking, it’s for exploring. Expect precise pours, proper glassware, and a team that understands how to guide without overexplaining. If you want to understand what top-tier sake looks like in Europe, this is where you start.

Technically a Japanese restaurant, not a sake bar. But if you love Aramasa, it’s worth knowing that they pour it by the glass. Nichi Nichi is also features available. The selection is tight but intentional, leaning towards producers with a strong identity. What makes Ojijo stand out is the balance: serious sake, without the formality. You come for dinner and end up exploring the list. The staff knows what they’re serving and are happy to guide you through it. A good example of how sake fits naturally into a modern dining experience.

A craft sake and raw bar in Bugis with a list of around 15 sakes that rotates almost weekly. When something sells out, it’s replaced with something entirely new. The sommelier and team taste everything before it goes on the menu and write their own tasting notes, which shows. The range covers a lot of ground: traditional yamahai and kimoto styles, muroka nama genshu, aged koshu, and more experimental territory. The food earns its place. Fresh sashimi flown in multiple times a week, binchotan grill in the back. Intimate space, counter seating, you can talk to the team. Worth going more than once precisely because it’s never the same list twice.

The sake list is organised by flavour profile rather than grade Fruit & Flowers, Earth & Umami, Rice & Minerals, and a section called delicious weirdos. Order from that one first. Courtney Kaplan built the best sake programme in LA here, focused entirely on small craft jizake breweries you won't find anywhere else on the West Coast. They also run a sake club if you want the selection following you home

Hidden beneath a Midtown office building on East 43rd Street. The list runs to over 200 sakes, which in lesser hands would feel like a catalogue. Here it works, because the staff know it. One of the oldest serious sake bars outside Japan, and still the most comprehensive.

Opened in 1993. A basement on East 9th Street in the East Village, marked only by an On Air radio sign designed to confuse the uninitiated. Graffiti walls, red lanterns, punk on the speakers. The list is shorter than you'd expect from somewhere this serious, which is the point. More people who work in sake came through here first than anywhere else in the world outside Japan.

One of the most comprehensive selections you’ll find outside Japan. They have 150 sakes from all 47 Japanese regions, with 30 rotating labels added every month. Food pairings available and worth exploring.

Sarah Stein ran Nomu until it closed, then channelled everything into this: importer, distributor, shop and bar in one space. Open Friday to Sunday only. Her co-founder, has spent years building direct relationships with breweries across Japan. Between the two of them the selection reflects what they actually believe in, not what sells. Aramasa by the glass, one of the very few places in Europe where you can drink it without a reservation at a fine dining restaurant or knowing someone in Tokyo.

Born out of Otemba, the importer, as a way to bring more people into sake culture. It works. The food holds its own alongside the pours. Don’t leave without trying the Abe. The atmosphere is more relaxed than most sake-focused spots, which makes it easy to stay longer than planned. The selection leans towards expressive, modern breweries, with enough range to keep things interesting. It’s a place where newcomers feel comfortable, but there’s still enough depth for enthusiasts. A good entry point into the scene, without feeling like a compromise.