Japanese Sake Bar Hopping Tours

What a wonderful way to explore a city! Trey took us down some dark alleys and I loved it! It was exactly what I was looking for. Very small and intimate venues I never would have found or ventured into on my own. A true Osaka experience! Thank you!

A few days ago, we got to go on an awesome food tour by Keigo! Being brand new to Osaka, we wanted to book something a little more laid back than the usual tours in the centre and we absolutely loved this tour. I will try not to spoil too much of what you'll have, but I will say that we had some of the best food the week we spent in Japan there. Not only that, but all 4 locations were unique and really cool, too! I would definitely book this tour again in a heartbeat!

Another great experience with this team. Experiencing these tucked away izakayas and tiny bars with a knowledgeable guide is priceless. Gave us the courage to explore on our own the following night. Not to be missed tour!

If you’re interested in checking out Yatai food stalls in Fukuoka, this is the way to do it! It’s also a great first-night adventure in the city because Bruce is extremely knowledgeable and shares generously. My partner and I spent 4+ hours with Bruce, and we’d do it again in a heartbeat. We walked all over the city and stopped in three different Yatai stalls, eating tapas/pintxos style. Every bite of food and each drink we tried was delicious. It was a great intro to Fukuoka/Hakata, and a perfect way to visit the Yatai stalls, which could be intimidating to navigate for the first time on your own.

Absolutely amazing! Great food and lots of fun. Solid twelve out of 10!!

My wife and I were travelling around Japan for five weeks, and thought a food tour in Osaka would be a nice way to end our trip. This was definitely the best choice we could have ever made. The food choices were delicious and very generous portions- thankfully we were hungry . We loved the food locations we visited. These are places we would have missed on our own, especially our fourth and last destination- an absolutely beautiful spot . We loved both the atmosphere and the dessert. With just three people on this tour, we were able to experience a very enjoyable and intimate event. Our guide, Keigo was excellent!! He chose the food, the locations, and even made the best suggestions on which drinks to try. He was the perfect host who made this awesome food tour a highlight of our vacation!!

Dannik was an exceptional host full of humour, a great storyteller and local Osaka knowledge. From the moment we arrived we felt welcome with our fellow travellers and the owners of each establishment. Walking the laneways and stopping by for a drink in tiny bar Stand38 was a fun and unforgettable experience, as we met and drank with the locals.

Rika was a great guide! She was very informative, super nice and perfect English :)

Mimi was a wonderful guide! She took us to a variety of spots all around Shinjuku that felt authentically Japanese. Towards the end of our tour we had a bit of a mix up with the sake bar we were going to go to, but Mimi was able to pivot and she took us to a different sake place that she thought was even better and that we absolutely loved! She was so knowledgeable, kind and fun all throughout. I highly recommend this tour. 5 stars for Mimi!

We had a wonderful experience with Keigo! Definitely recommend it. We love to go on food tours to discover new dishes to try and get to know the culture a bit more. Keigo delivered on everything. We went to some great places and tried some new foods prepared properly, not tourist traps. We would have never entered such restaurants. Were ALL dishes on our liking, of course not. We are picky europeans :), BUT we did try them and some were winners. Here are 3 highlights, i'll leave the rest as a surprise to not spoil everything. 1. I bet you never ever eaten meat from the tuna's head, right? Keigo told us that it used to be the fisherman's take (similar with the chef's cut). It's more fatty, similar with fatty tuna (otoro). And it's a rare dish as less than 1% of the restaurants get access to this kind of meat. And it was delicious if you're into these kind of meats. 2. An amazing tartar sauce served with an equally great tempura tuna. While I believe tuna should be eaten raw to not lose its flavor (and it's blasphemy to do it otherwise :)), this dish delivered next level. 3. Tepaniaki style wagyu beef, prepared in front of us. A really awesome piece of meat. And this comes a day after we went to a high end kobe beef experience... in Kobe. The wagyu served here was AMAZING. Also, did I mention that we went to a 100+ year old building, very retro style for dessert? I already shared more than I should have. I'll leave you to discover the rest.

Hakata yatais are WHERE IT'S AT and there isn't a better person to show you the best places to try out than Bruce. I came to know about Bruce through a Youtube video he did for Japan byFood, so I was fairly sure coming into the tour that we'd be well taken care of. And Bruce did not disappoint! The thing about yatais is that their operational hours and days can be very unpredictable, so you need a tour guide who really knows the yatai scene and is not wedded to following a specific plan or script. Our tour was set for a Sunday night, so when we met Bruce, he explained that, although he had a plan in mind, there was a good chance we'd need to improvise along the way because it was a Sunday night. He proved to be right, as we needed to pivot right from the start because the madam running the first yatai he wanted to introduce to us did not set up for the evening. We ended up hitting a total four yatais, which included Ultra C (great oden), "Riverside Restaurant" (cozy izakaya serving some righteous ramen), Tomochan (grilled skewer goodness), and finally Bar Ebi-chan (literally an awesome bar sitting in the middle of the street run by a very professional couple). We chatted, ate, drank and laughed throughout the evening. Before we knew it, we'd been touring for almost 4 hours. Time flew by so quickly. A sign of a great tour and a great tour guide. We'll see you again, Bruce!

On the surface, this is an izakaya tour. In reality, it’s an Osaka history lesson, a culinary revelation and a bucketload of fun. Kevin’s level of knowledge and ability to get you into places that you’d have no hope of finding on your own guarantee Osaka will be the highlight of your Japan experience.