About eight minutes' walk from Shibuya Station, in the Jinnan corner of Shibuya in Tokyo, The SG Club is a cocktail bar that takes its idea from the samurai of Japan's 1860 embassy to Washington, sent to swap treaty papers, and imagines them coming home and opening a bar. The building has a casual bar on the ground floor, a darker one in the basement, a members-only cigar lounge on the second floor and, since 2025, an eight-seat tasting counter on the third. The bar's own tagline is "A fine place to sip or guzzle," and the two main floors, Sip and Guzzle, are named for those two styles of American drinking.
The SG stands for Sip and Guzzle, and also happens to be the initials of Shingo Gokan, who moved to New York in 2006 without much English, worked his way up to head bartender at Angel's Share, won the Bacardí Legacy global final in 2012 and then opened Speak Low in Shanghai, named after the winning drink. The SG Club opened on June 16, 2018, as his first bar in Japan, and has since been No. 10 on The World's 50 Best Bars (2020), No. 3 on Asia's 50 Best (2021) and the Best Bar in Japan two years running. His New York offshoot, Sip & Guzzle, was named No. 1 in North America's 50 Best Bars this year.
Guzzle Upstairs, Sip Downstairs
Guzzle, at street level, is a long wooden bar under a coffered ceiling with stools down one side and booths along the wall, about 25 seats in all, and the bar describes it as "a vintage West Coast feel, and a touch of Edo-period Japan." Guzzle is walk-in only with no cover or service charge, it serves mocktails and takeaway cocktails, and it doubles as the waiting room for the basement.
Sip, in the basement, is the floor you book. The bar calls it "a discreet basement bar inspired by New York gang clubs and samurai culture," and downstairs that comes out as dark wood, low lamps, leather booths, kimono-pattern paper and ukiyo-e prints on the walls, with a shoeshine chair on the stairs for anyone who wants one on the way down. Sip also seats about 25, at tables close enough together that getting out of a booth takes some planning, and it adds a 10% service charge. The second floor, Savor, is a members-only cigar lounge, where the drinks are meant to change with the cigar from the first third to the last.
What to Drink at The SG Club in Shibuya
Each floor has its own menu. Guzzle's two signatures are the Parmigiano Sour, made of PISCO, SAUTERNES, EGG WHITE, LEMON, PARMIGIANO REGGIANO and served with the cheese grated on top, and the No.1 Cup: BOMBAY GIN, ONE CUP SAKE, EARL GREY, CITRUS, SPICE, SODA. In the basement, Sip's signature is the Tomato Tree (roku gin, tomato, dill, elderflower, mastic).
The 2026 menu at Sip adds two drinks you can only get there, the Crimson Koji, made with the bar's own SG Shochu KOME (the rice version), red rice sake, koji-fermented strawberry, red bell pepper, saffron and hibiscus, and ¡Qué Guava Estás!, a mix of Patrón silver, guava, corn, tomato and yuzu-kosho. The opening menu in the summer of 2018 had a collaboration with the Wagyumafia sandwich shop, Woodford Reserve washed with Kobe beef fat, and beef is back on the list in a wagyu Old Fashioned called Charlie Brown Loves Wagyu that comes with a piece of dried beef. The bartenders explain each drink as they set it down (useful, when the spec includes corn and red bell pepper).
The 50 Best puts the average cocktail at about $16, drinks in the basement cost more than the ones upstairs, and with Sip's service charge a night there usually runs ¥4,000 to ¥8,000 ($27 to $53) a person. Order the truffle popcorn while you decide.
Getting a Seat at Sip
At The SG Club itself only Sip takes reservations, on TableCheck, at either 6pm or 7:30pm, for parties of up to five (two at the counter) and with a 90-minute limit when it's busy. You won't be seated until your whole group has arrived, and same-day bookings can't be made by phone. Without a reservation, line up at the door and expect 20 or 25 minutes on a weekend, sometimes with a drink at Guzzle while you wait. Guzzle and Sip are both open 6pm to 1am, and The SG Club closes on the fourth Monday of the month. The third floor, Sangai, is a separate booking with eight counter seats and a ¥16,500 ($110) omakase of five cocktails.
Our reviews of Bar BenFiddich in Nishi-Shinjuku and Bar High Five in Ginza cover two Tokyo bars that work without a menu at all, and our guide to the best bars in Tokyo has more. At The SG Club, start upstairs with the Parmigiano Sour.
Photos: The SG Club / SG Group
