Cocktail Bar Near Me in Ginza: Bar High Five's No-Menu Basement Counter

Bar High Five has no drinks list: since 2008 Hidetsugu Ueno's bar has built every cocktail from a conversation, and since October 2015 it has done so in the basement of the Efflore Ginza5 building at 5-4-15 Ginza. Anyone typing cocktail bar near me at exit C2 of Ginza Station is about a minute's walk from the door, according to Yahoo Maps. Tabelog lists a ¥1,000 seating charge, doors open at 5pm Monday to Saturday, and the bar has turned down advance reservations since May 2015.

The official map page gives the address as Efflore Ginza5 Bldg BF, 5-4-15 Ginza, and Tabelog puts the door 112 metres from Ginza Station. A March 2026 reviewer placed the bar near the Sukiyabashi crossing, and a May 2026 column in Australian Bartender describes reaching it down a side alley and a quick elevator ride. Older listings that still give 7-2-14 Ginza, fourth floor of a Polestar building, describe the original room, which the bar left in 2015.

Inside there are 22 seats according to Tabelog, 12 along the counter and 10 at tables, with no private room. The World's 50 Best described the same arrangement in 2020: a row of barstools at a pared-back timber counter, a handful of tables for groups of up to four, and a backbar heavy with Japanese and Scottish whiskies. The official map page carries one cheerful line for anyone circling the block, which reads: call us before you get lost too long.

Ueno tells the story himself on the bar's staff page. When Star Bar Ginza opened on 14 December 2000, it was just him and master Hisashi Kishi behind the counter, after a long stint at a members-only bar. He admits he expected to spend his life watching Kishi's career, then opened High Five on 4 July 2008, American Independence Day. The name, he explains, is the English for the gesture Japanese call a high touch, something you only do when things go well.

Head bartender Kaori Kurakami joined in June 2010 and, according to the same page, qualified as a venenciadora recognised by a Spanish government body in 2011. She also learned throwing, a technique said to be born in Cuba and refined in Barcelona, and uses it for a Bamboo cocktail that guests praise for its aroma. The staff page lists Ueno as the current chairman of the Nippon Bartenders Association, and he still judges and demonstrates at cocktail competitions abroad.

There is no printed list to hide behind. The 50 Best profile explains that Ueno and Kurakami learn a guest's likes and dislikes over an evening by making drinks, pouring tastings and asking questions, so the second round tends to land closer than the first. The room has been entirely non-smoking since 1 April 2020, a change the bar announced on its home page in line with a Tokyo ordinance, so smokers need to step outside.

Expect company from far away. A Tabelog reviewer in October 2025 found the room about 90 percent full with every other guest from overseas, and a March 2026 visitor counted around ten staff working a small space, many of them greeting guests in English first. Japanese bar-hoppers still drop in on Ginza crawls, as one February 2026 reviewer did, and Ueno's own greeting promises that famous visiting bartenders may be drinking on the next stool.

Standards behind the counter are strict. In his May 2026 postcard for Australian Bartender, Brendan Scott Grey of Tigerfish, who has worked in Ginza for four years, watched an apprentice spend two hours trying to make ten identical Manhattans in a row, matching flavour, dilution and appearance. The apprentice never got past three. Grey's verdict was that the bar ignores fashionable fermentation tricks and offers classic cocktails refined through years of dedication.

The ¥1,000 seating charge covers snacks that TableJourney, updated in May 2026, says are replenished through the evening. Menu entries posted by users on Yahoo Maps list cocktails from ¥2,000 and whisky from ¥2,000, so one drink plus the charge starts at ¥3,000. Tabelog's average spend runs ¥6,000 to ¥7,999 a head, while 2026 Tabelog reviewers logged ¥5,000 to ¥5,999 for two or three rounds of cocktails.

Start with fruit. The official menu page lists seasonal cocktails built on passion fruit, strawberry, golden kiwi, kiwi, golden pineapple, tomato and organic local lemon, and calls its fresh-fruit Piña Colada a crowd favourite. A regular who reviewed the bar again in July 2026 singled out a mango Piña Colada and a white peach drink as superb, after a December 2025 visit that brought a short pear cocktail and a long muscat grape one.

For a house signature, the Full Bloom on the official list mixes Japanese whisky or dry gin with sakura liqueur, maraschino and homemade roasted tea bitters, and 50 Best notes it is served only in Japan. The Ceremony layers matcha and green tea liqueurs over Japanese whisky. The White Lady is the calling card, and DIME priced it at ¥1,650 in December 2017, two years after the move to the basement. Kurakami's own specials are named after paintings by Van Gogh, Millet and Gauguin.

A notice dated 17 April 2015 is still on the home page: from May that year the bar stopped taking advance reservations, and the only phone service is a quick call just before you arrive to ask whether seats are free. The concierge site TableEx lists a request service with a ¥1,000 booking fee and spend from ¥6,600 including tax, but the bar's own page has not changed its rule. Arriving near the 5pm opening gives the best odds of a counter stool.

If the room is full, walk to Star Bar Ginza in the basement of MODERNS GINZA at 1-5-13 Ginza, the counter where Ueno trained. It takes phone bookings on +81 3-3535-8005, charges a ¥1,100 cover and opens every day from 5pm, Sundays included, when High Five is dark. Skip High Five altogether if you want a hushed, Japanese-speaking counter, because reviewers in 2025 and 2026 describe a room of travellers with staff who open in English.

Make the bar the last stop of a Ginza day. Kabukiza, five minutes from exit A7 of Ginza Station, runs its Kinshu October Grand Kabuki from 2 to 20 October 2026, with Part 2 starting at 2:30pm and Part 3 at 6pm, and the theatre keeps single-act seats for anyone short on time. An afternoon at Part 2 leaves the evening free for an early stool before the counter fills with travellers.

Ginza Six at 6-10-1 Ginza keeps its shops open from 10:30am to 8:30pm and its restaurants from 11am to 11pm, which makes it an easy place for dinner before drinks. Inside, the Ginza Tsutaya Bookstore opens a solo painting show titled Dawn on its art wall from 17 October 2026. From there, walk back toward the Sukiyabashi crossing and look for the Efflore Ginza5 building, where the bar waits below street level.

Bar High Five, Efflore Ginza5 Bldg B1F, 5-4-15 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0061. Telephone and fax +81 3-3571-5815. The official site lists hours of 5pm to 1am Monday to Saturday, with last entry at midnight, and the bar closes on Sundays and national holidays. It also posts one-off changes online, such as the inventory closure on 1 July 2026 and a 7pm start on 24 January 2026 because of a daytime event.

Tabelog lists JCB, AMEX and Diners cards plus the d Barai QR app, and TableEx adds cash. The whole room is non-smoking and there is no parking. The ¥1,000 seating charge applies to every guest. En Primeur Club rates the dress code as smart casual, which suits the polished wooden counter and Ginza address. Ginza Station on the Ginza, Marunouchi and Hibiya lines is the closest stop, and exit C2 brings you out almost at the door.