Bee’s Knees
Writes the logistics pages. Works to one rule: a price comes from the company that charges it.
UpdatedBee’s Knees is the bar most often named when people ask about cocktails in Kyoto. It is done in prohibition-speakeasy style – an inconspicuous entrance, a dim room, drinks made slowly and precisely – and it is on the downtown side of the river near the Kiyamachi strip.
We cannot tell you when it opens. The bar does not publish its hours in any form we could verify, and the third-party listings that claim to know disagree with one another. Nor does it publish prices. That is the honest position, and we would rather print it than repeat an opening time somebody guessed.
At a glance
- Hours
- Not published. The bar does not maintain a reliable public listing, and third-party sites disagree with each other
- Prices
- Not published. Expect a Japanese cocktail-bar price per drink, plus the seating charge that is normal in the format
- Format
- Speakeasy styling – unmarked frontage, small room, classic and original cocktails made slowly
- Where
- Off the Kiyamachi and Pontocho strip in Nakagyo, on the downtown side of the Kamo river
In this guide
The hours problem, and how to work around it
This is not unusual among small Kyoto bars. Many run without a website, update nothing, and open when the owner opens. Aggregator sites fill the gap by scraping whatever anybody once entered, which is why you will find three different closing times for this bar across three sites, none of them sourced.
The practical approach is the one locals use. Kyoto’s cocktail bars broadly run evenings into the small hours, so you are looking at somewhere between six and eight in the evening as a realistic earliest, and late as a closing. Walk past, look, and if it is dark go to the next one – the Kiyamachi and Pontocho block has a dozen good bars within five minutes of each other, including L’Escamoteur.
If a fixed plan matters to you – a particular night, a group, a specific time – pick a bar that publishes its hours. Sake Bar Yoramu states 18:00 to midnight, Wednesday to Saturday, and means it.
What the bar is like
Small, dark, seated, and quiet by the standards of a drinking street. The speakeasy format in Japan is less a theme than a set of working conditions: a low-capacity room, a bartender who makes one drink at a time, no music you have to talk over, and an expectation that you will sit rather than stand.
The house style runs to classics made properly and originals built around Japanese ingredients – yuzu, sansho, shiso, local spirits. Asking the bartender to make you something based on what you like is the normal and correct way to order, and produces better results than working through a list.
On price: expect a Japanese cocktail bar to cost meaningfully more than a European one, and expect a seating or table charge on top of the drinks, which is standard practice and not a scam. We are not printing figures because the bar does not publish any.
A note on the rankings
You will see Kyoto bars described as being on Asia’s 50 Best Bars. Be careful with that claim: no Kyoto bar appears on the Asia’s 50 Best Bars list for 2026. Some have appeared in the wider Discovery directory, which is a listing rather than a ranking, and some appeared on earlier editions of the main list. A page that tells you a Kyoto bar is currently ranked is repeating something out of date.
That is worth saying because the ranking is doing a lot of work in how these bars are sold to visitors, and because it is exactly the kind of claim that survives in travel content long after it stops being true. Judge the bar on the drink.
Practically: this is a district to arrive in after dinner rather than a destination in itself. Eat in downtown, walk the Kiyamachi canal, and take whichever door is open.
Frequently asked questions
What time does Bee's Knees open?
The bar does not publish its hours, and the listings that claim to know contradict each other. Kyoto cocktail bars generally open in the evening and run late. Walk past and look rather than planning a specific time.
How much are the drinks?
Not published. Expect Japanese cocktail-bar prices per drink plus a seating charge, which is standard in this format and not a surcharge on foreign visitors.
Do you need a reservation?
The room is small, so a large group without a booking is unlikely to be seated together. Ones and twos generally get in if there is space.
Is Bee's Knees on Asia's 50 Best Bars?
No Kyoto bar is on the Asia's 50 Best Bars list for 2026. Some appear in the separate Discovery directory, which is a listing rather than a ranking. Any page telling you a Kyoto bar is currently ranked is out of date.
Where is it?
Off the Kiyamachi and Pontocho strip in Nakagyo, on the downtown side of the Kamo river – the part of Kyoto that stays open after the temples close at five.
Further reading
Official sources
- The World’s 50 Best Discovery – Bee’s Knees, Kyoto – Discovery directory entry. The Discovery list is a directory, not the ranked Asia’s 50 Best Bars list
- Asia’s 50 Best Bars – The current ranked list, which contains no Kyoto bar