Tucked away in the back alleys of Azabu‑Juban, Bar Gen Yamamoto is a serene, meticulously crafted cocktail experience. With just eight seats at a single counter carved from a 500‑year‑old mizunara oak slab and no background music or décor to distract, you're invited to focus entirely on the tasting. A sole bartender — Gen Yamamoto himself — serves a curated omakase tasting menu of 4, 6, or 7 small-format cocktails, each choreographed around seasonal, local fruit and carefully chosen spirits. The experience lasts around 90 minutes, during which Yamamoto explains each ingredient and technique — in both English and Japanese — turning cocktail service into culinary storytelling. His approach is more chef than shaker: using fresh tomatoes, figs, yuzu, chestnuts, ginger, apple and even sake lees or herb infusions to evoke vivid flavours, each glass served in unique hand‑blown stemware with a delicate floral garnish. There’s no menu. You simply choose how many courses you’d like, and the rest is in Yamamoto’s inspired hands. Drinks are petite and balanced, rarely overly boozy, making even six cocktails manageable. The ambience is hushed and meditative — a “little church‑like,” according to reviewers — and the act of visiting feels like stepping into a ritual of taste and mindfulness. This isn’t a bar for heavy partying — it’s an immersive shrine to taste and seasonal craftsmanship. It opened in 2013 after Yamamoto returned from bartending in New York, and it quickly became globally renowned for inventing the cocktail omakase concept.
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