Ebisu Food Hall

Tasteful food hall with great outside seating, people watching

Ebisu Food Hall is described by owners as a "New York-style food hall." In all honesty I've no idea what such a food should look like at its authentic best but, for me, Ebisu Food Hall is a pleasant treat. It's not as as large as the term 'hall' might make one think (although looking at the homepage now it says that 117 can be seated) and there are only 4 stores / vendors here so it's not a place to come for variety of choice. In fact, for most people it's probably about coffee and tea, beer and wine. One of the vendors serves coffees, teas, beer and some snazzy donuts. There's a bar / tapas joint. Some store that's selling sandwiches, and a deli counter. The deli counter here offers some reasonable platter-style sets for around 1,000 yen where you can choose from 2 - 3 deli servings which are served with bread and salad (+ soup for about 200 yen more). At time of trying the servings were generous enough and tasty (although the staff looked like they couldn't be bothered). Mostly though, I think Ebisu Food Hall is a nice place for an easy coffee or beer in some smart-casual surroundings. The hall is all calming woods and soft lighting with a crew of customers that seem to be Ebisu trendy or have their heads stuck behind novels and MacBooks. The best feature for me though is the seating out front which fronts a broad slab of pavement providing optimal people watching (which has always been quite fun in painfully presentation conscious Ebisu). On a balmy evening or bright afternoon this would appear to be a great place to kick back with your drink and what the world go by. (I think the food hall is an easy option if you're going solo.) The toilet situation is a bit of pain here as there really isn't the capacity to deal with a hall of people all full of their liquid orders. All, the prices are perhaps a little on the high side, but then this is Ebisu so for the area it's probably what you might expect. Oh, and you can leash your pets near some of the seating outside. Anyway, I can really recommend this place for coffee and / or beer, especially if you can get a seat outside when the weather suits. Ebisu Food Hall is just a minute's walk west of JR Ebisu station along Komazawa-dori. Exit 5 or 3 if you're arriving at the metro station.