Ahiru

wine · Counter Ahiru Store is the bar that essentially invented serious natural-wine drinking in Tokyo. The Yoyogi-Uehara room — sibling-run, fewer than fifteen seats, daily-baked bread on the counter — pours a tight rotation of mostly French natural producers that the family has been buying directly for over a decade.

The bar takes no reservations, queues form before six, and the service is patient with foreign visitors despite the famously chaotic ordering system. It ranks first because Ahiru is the bar every other natural-wine room in Tokyo measures itself against, and because the combination of bread, charcuterie and an honest pour at honest prices remains the city's clearest expression of what a wine bar can be.

For the full ranking, see our editorial round-up of the 10 best wine bars in Tokyo, the broader Tokyo wine bars guide, and our category index of wine bars worldwide.