Eats · August 19, 2026

Craft Beer House BAKU, Naha: three IPAs, a lamb menchi katsu and a ¥5,730 bill

A craft beer bar on the second floor in Kumoji, Naha: three IPAs, a hibiscus sour ale, an ¥880 lamb menchi katsu and ¥5,730 for two on a Thursday in March 2026 — and what the menus say in English.

Two beer glasses on paper coasters on a dark wooden counter, one pale gold and one deep red-brown, against a black tiled wall

Craft Beer House BAKU — クラフトビアハウス麦BAKU on maps — is on the second floor of the UD Kumoji Building at 3-9-21 Kumoji, Naha. We went on Thursday 5 March 2026, our first evening in Okinawa, and paid ¥5,730 (about $38) for two: four craft beers, one lamb menchi katsu, and the otoshi. At ¥150 to the dollar, the rate we use here.

We do no sightseeing in Okinawa. None. We fly in, drop the bags at the hotel, and the question that matters is where the beer is. A friend who knows beer had sent us here before, the selection was good, and we had been telling each other we should go again. So we went again, straight out of the hotel, without a reservation.

We had already been drinking on the flight, which is not an argument against one more.

Fourteen lines, three not pouring

They put us at the counter as soon as we walked in. The tap list arrives as a laminated sheet headed “Today’s On Taps”, and the night we sat down it had fourteen beers on it, three of them stickered 準備中 — not pouring yet — which left eleven of the fourteen pouring.

A laminated tap list headed Today's On Taps, held up at the counter, with two columns of beers in Japanese and English and prices for three sizes — The tap list on 5 March 2026. Sizes across the top: L 473 ml, M 375 ml, S 280 ml. Prices tax included.

Sizes run S 280 ml, M 375 ml, L 473 ml, priced per beer, and everything is tax included. The beer rows are bilingual in a useful way: brewery, where it is from, style and ABV are printed in Roman letters (most beer names too), with the tasting notes underneath in Japanese. Okinawan breweries fill the left column, including a best bitter called Ryukyu Pride that the sheet lists as a collaboration between the bar and an Okinawan brewery.

In the bottom-left corner of the sheet, starred and hand-lettered, is Orion The Draft from ¥700, under a line telling you to start there. We did not. More on that at the end.

Two IPAs to open

We opened with an American IPA from Fill Brewing in Okinawa, ¥950 for a small, and a red IPA called Redstart from Inkhorn in Tokyo, ¥1,100 for a small.

Two beer glasses on paper coasters on a dark wooden counter, one pale gold and one deep red-brown, in front of a black tiled wall with small model lockers and stacked beer crates — Fill Brewing's American IPA on the left, Inkhorn's Redstart on the right. The counter is decorated with miniatures.

One sip and we looked at each other. “Yes. That cat-pee smell. There it is.” We are aware of how that reads. For the two of us, that catty note on an IPA is the highest compliment available, and a bar that has it on tap has already done the hard part.

The otoshi, and the thing to order

The otoshi — the small dish you did not order and pay for anyway — was simmered beef tendon, with a dab of yuzu kosho on the side. Gentle and warm, which is not what you expect a beer bar to hand you first.

Two small dishes of stewed meat and pale simmered vegetable with a dab of green paste, on a dark wooden counter with chopsticks on shisa-shaped rests — The otoshi: simmered beef tendon, yuzu kosho on the side. The chopstick rests are shisa.

Then the lamb menchi katsu, ¥880 (about $5.90) — a minced-lamb cutlet, crumbed and fried, sitting on shredded cabbage. We split it, and the lamb came up at us the moment it opened. Coarsely minced, properly meaty, nobody hiding the animal in breadcrumbs.

A round crumbed and deep-fried cutlet, golden brown and whole, resting on shredded cabbage in a dark square dish — Lamb menchi katsu, ¥880. This is before we cut it open.

It went perfectly with the hazy IPA — Truth, from Break Edge Beer Works in Hiroshima, ¥1,100 small. A Japanese beer write-up calls this cutlet the house signature (checked July 2026), and we would not argue.

For the last glass we went sideways: a hibiscus sour ale from Novoru Brewing in Miyazaki, ¥1,150 small, heavy with berry aroma. A good way to finish, standing in for a digestif.

We forgot to photograph either of those two. That is what four beers looks like.

What it cost

Fill Brewing (Okinawa) American IPA, small: ¥950
Inkhorn (Tokyo) Redstart red IPA, small: ¥1,100
Lamb menchi katsu: ¥880
Novoru Brewing (Miyazaki) hibiscus sour ale, small: ¥1,150
Break Edge Beer Works (Hiroshima) Truth hazy IPA, small: ¥1,100
Otoshi (simmered beef tendon)
Total: ¥5,730

Those five priced lines come to ¥5,180, so the remaining ¥550 covers the otoshi. The menus print a ¥300-per-person cover, which does not quite square with that, and we don’t have a breakdown of the rest.

Four craft beers and a good plate of food for ¥5,730 between two people is a bill we were happy to pay. It came in under a restaurant dinner, in a room where we could sit at the counter and talk nonsense for the evening, which is the whole point of the way we travel.

Would we go back

Yes, and it is the first place on our list for the next Naha trip. We already knew the beer was good; this visit was about confirming it and finding the lamb.

One thing left undone. Reading up afterwards, this is described as the longest-running craft beer bar in Naha — pouring since at least 2015, taken over by a second-generation owner in 2020 who trained at a well-known beer bar in Shimbashi, Tokyo — and what Japanese beer writers keep mentioning is the seven-to-three pour and the claim that it is the best Orion The Draft in Okinawa (sources checked July 2026). Orion is the local lager, and we walked straight past it to drink Hiroshima hazy IPA. Next time: the Orion first, then the IPAs.

If you like this shape of evening, we wrote up a similar bar in Sapporo — same idea, different island.

Practical bits

A laminated food menu headed FOOD MENU in hand lettering, with a left column of fried dishes and a right column of smoked dishes, the dish names given in English above the Japanese — Food menu, front. On this sheet each dish has an English name above the Japanese.

Where: 2F, UD Kumoji Building, 3-9-21 Kumoji, Naha, Okinawa.
Hours from the shop listing we recorded in March 2026: Tue–Fri 17:30–24:00, Sat 16:00–24:00, Sun 16:00–22:00, closed Mondays. Hours change; check before you walk over.
Reservations: we walked in on a Thursday evening without one and were seated at the counter immediately. Whether they take bookings, we didn’t check.
English: the beer rows on the tap list carry brewery, style and ABV in Roman letters (most beer names too), and on the front of the food menu each dish has an English name above the Japanese (the dry-snack block on the back puts it in brackets instead). Descriptions and tasting notes are Japanese only, and so are the non-beer drinks at the bottom of the tap sheet — point at the line. Whether they have a separate English menu, we didn’t check.
Cover charge: the menus print an otoshi of ¥300 per person. Prices are tax included.
Beer sizes: S 280 ml, M 375 ml, L 473 ml, priced per beer. Our smalls ran ¥950 to ¥1,150, which is about $6.30 to $7.70 at the rate above.
Food prices from the menu we photographed, 5 March 2026: local chicken karaage from ¥420, fish and chips from ¥890, the basket the menu marks as the house number one from ¥1,380, lamb menchi katsu ¥880, Okinawan pork sausage ¥800, thick-cut suchika (salted pork) ¥790, fries ¥580. Smoked things — quail eggs, duck, pig’s ear, house bacon, pork tongue, camembert — ¥560 a piece, or as platters: three kinds from ¥1,080, six from ¥1,880, the full set from ¥2,380.
Not only beer: at the foot of the tap sheet, in Japanese only — non-alcoholic beer ¥600, house-made plum liqueur from ¥680, jasmine-tea or green-tea shochu highballs ¥600, and sours at ¥650 to ¥700 (passion fruit, shikuwasa, and a no-sugar one made with Okinawan green lemon). A line under them says there are bottled beers and ciders too, mostly from overseas, and to ask the staff.
Cards: we didn’t check. Smoking: we didn’t check. How touristy: we didn’t note it.

The reverse side of the laminated food menu, headed in Japanese hand lettering, listing small plates and recommendations with English names and prices, three lines covered with sold out and coming soon stickers — The back of the same sheet: pickles, jerky, lamb taco, garlic toast. Three lines stickered over — one sold out, two not ready yet.

The bar is a room with a counter, a black tiled wall, model lockers and toy beer crates set along the back of it, and eleven of the fourteen listed beers pouring the night we came. We flew to Okinawa and spent the first evening indoors at that counter, telling each other the beer smelled like a cat. Correct decision.

Facts checked 2026-08-19. Prices, hours and menus are what we saw on our visit; they change. Nothing here was sponsored or comped.