Are you going to spill my pint?

When I first heard about Beer Saurus, I was very excited. Craft beer and dinosaurs. Together. In one place. It’s like being back in childhood, but with craft beer instead of Kia-Ora.

Sadly, I think there’s been a opportunity missed here, because while the outside of the building is dinosaurily welcoming…

Outside Beer Saurus

…inside the dinosaur theme is carried on only by a mural at the back…

A lone dinosaur at the back

…and a few dinosaur things dotted around. It’s not enough, dammit. The bar is called Beer Saurus – it should roar dinosaurs!

Disappointment with the lack of dinosaurs aside, I turned my eyes to the beers.

Craft beer is a relatively new addition to Beer Saurus, and in addition to Heartland, Hoegaarden White, and Belle-Vue Kriek, there is only one craft beer tap. On the night I was there it was Bear Republic XP Pale Ale, priced at 1300 yen a pint. Condition and taste were good, though I’d have preferred a little less head. The current guest beer is listed on this page.

While the taps may be lacking, bottle selection is certainly not. Two fridges packed with beers such as Coronado Islander, Racer 5, Green Flash West Coast IPA, Rogue Dead Guy Ale, Pilsner Urquell, Fuller’s Golden Pride, Brooklyn Lager, Delirium Tremens, Samichlaus Classic – the list goes on. It’s a pretty decent range with something for everyone. Anchor Liberty was 950 yen a bottle which is reasonable, the Southern Tier IPA a tad expensive at 1300 yen.

At the time of writing there’s a discount coupon here which gives 10% off when you spend more than 3000 yen per person, which would bring that Souther Tier IPA to a more reasonable 1170 yen. There’s also a happy hour from 6-7pm where all draught beer is half price – that would have made the XP Pale Ale less than 600 yen a pint when combined with the 10% coupon. That must be the cheapest pint of craft beer in Tokyo!

Restroom "tap" - now that's class!

Beer Saurus is open seven days from 6pm until 4am. As well as beer, there’s an extensive food menu – pages and pages in fact. Although it was all in Japanese and a bit of a struggle, the food I ordered was pretty good – one of the better bars I’ve been to for food.

There’s a map on the Beer Saurus website but it’s very vague. Follow the Google Maps link here instead. From Ikebukuro station, come out C6 on the west side and walk straight down the main road to the crossing shown in the first photo. Phone number is 03-5992-8217. The bar is not non-smoking, unfortunately, and there’s a charge of 300 yen per person.

My opinion? This bar needs more dinosaurs. But if you can get past that, you’ve got a bar making the effort to try craft beer. Yeah, there’s only one craft beer on tap at the moment – but there’s a superb happy hour price and it’s backed up by a varied range of bottles, and good food. It’s surprisingly hard to find good beer and decent pub food together, and for that reason alone, Beer Saurus is somewhere I like. Even if there are not enough dinosaurs.