What the Dickens

Is a bar in Ebisu, which is near the infamous Shibuya. Ebisu is full of restaurants and bars, many of which are hidden away in the upper floors of what look like office blocks of prefabricated buildings that infest Tokyo.

You walk down the main street of Ebisu, which in the evening bustles with people looking for a place to feed. Then you walk past a small Japanese bar, and turn into a dark corridor, which is an entrance to one of these featureless prefabs, at which point a lift door greets you stopping you from going any further. There are some stairs off to the left of the lift, but they look very dark and menacing, and there are a prohibitive number of steps between the ground floor and the intended target; my chicken lungs will never forgive me if I tried (thinking about it makes me wheeze).
The lift is rather small, but someone has made the effort to try and make it at least seem less Closter phobic by cladding the walls with mirrors. When you get to the 5th floor, there is a dark and heavy wooden door about 1.5m ahead, and you can already feel the bass from the lift shaft. Opening the heavy door, the music gets louder and you are greeted with more darkness, and the general sounds of people having a good time. And you have arrived at ‘What the Dickens’.

Not only does this bar/pub have the feel of a nice old pub in the UK; with the strange and random wall decorations: but it sells Pints of beer, ale, and Guinness, not to mention pub food; they do a Sunday roast, how cool is that?! This is not, however, my only reasons for my liking of this place. There is GOOD live music; something which is desperately lacking in the majority of British pubs that I go to. Coupled with the great atmosphere, it’s a great place to just turn up to, even if you have no idea who will be playing.

It’s packed on Friday and Saturday nights, so it’s a good idea to get there at a sensible time to get some breathing space or better yet, my favourite spot at a table by the balcony which overlooks the stage.

I seriously recommend going. This place *rocks*.

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