An Ebisu listening bar where the Negroni is built to the tempo of whatever vinyl is on the deck.
Bar Track sits on the second floor of an Ebisu side-street building, a four-minute walk from Ebisu Station's west exit, and has been one of the more written-about Tokyo bars on the Asia bar-press circuit since opening in 2014. The owner-bartender, Takuma Watanabe, came out of Bar High Five and runs the room as a jazz listening bar with a serious cocktail counter behind it.
Asia's 50 Best Bars has listed Track in its extended ranking through the late 2010s and 2020s. The format is unusual for Tokyo: a single L-shaped counter facing a wall of vinyl, with the cocktail-build tempo deliberately matched to the side currently playing. The Infatuation Tokyo noted in a 2024 feature that the bar “treats music selection with the same care as ice carving, which is the highest compliment a Tokyo cocktail counter can be paid”.
A narrow L-shaped counter seats around 10. The back wall is shelved with vinyl, jazz heavy, with detours into Brazilian and Afrobeat. The room runs warm in tone, low in light, and Watanabe usually selects the records himself between rounds. Google Maps reviewers (n=410) consistently note that conversations are encouraged but not loud; the bar's tempo asks you to listen as much as drink.
Order the Negroni (¥1,800), the Watanabe-trained build that Class Magazine singled out as “the cleanest Negroni in Ebisu”. The Track Old Fashioned (¥1,900), made with a rotating selection of Japanese whiskies, is the second order. Skip the long-format tropicals; the room is built for stirred classics. r/cocktails regulars consistently mention the seasonal Daiquiri as a sleeper, especially with whatever stone fruit is in season.
Industry-heavy from 11pm onward. Tabelog (n=240) reviewers note that the room shifts from a cocktail counter to a hospitality-after-shift hang somewhere around midnight. Best window for a first visit is 9pm to 11pm on a Tuesday or Wednesday; counter seats are almost always free at that hour and Watanabe is more available to talk through the night's vinyl programme.
The bar is reservation-friendly but walk-ins are usually accommodated before 10pm. The room has a ¥500 cover charge with a small seasonal snack, and card and cash both work. r/cocktails regulars note that the building's stairwell is unmarked from the street; the only signage is a small wooden plaque at the second-floor landing. Bar Track shuts on Sundays and during the first week of January, and Watanabe occasionally closes for guest shifts at sibling bars in Hong Kong and Bangkok, the Instagram is the only reliable source of closure dates. The bar accepts foreign cards and the English-language ordering is unproblematic; menus are bilingual. The room runs a strict no-photography-of-other-guests rule, posted in English at the entrance. Smoking is not permitted at the counter, in line with most Tokyo cocktail rooms post-2020. The vinyl request culture is informal: a polite ask between rounds is welcomed but the operator's selection takes priority.
Bar Track's official Instagram (verified May 2026); The Infatuation Tokyo; Class Magazine; Asia's 50 Best Bars editorial; r/cocktails; Tabelog reviews (n=240); Google Maps reviews (n=410).