Virtù

Keith Motsi, a Zimbabwean-born bartender who trained in Europe, built Virtù as a continental grand-hotel bar rather than a Japanese one: marble, low light, a long counter, a room that hums rather than whispers. The distinction is real. A Ginza counter bar is a place where conversation drops below the ice; this is a place where it does not.

The drinks list is built around a theme that changes periodically, and the house style leans into aperitif culture, fortified wines and bitter flavours, executed with Japanese precision but without the ceremony. Ask for the current list rather than a classic and you will get the point of the bar. If you want a classic anyway, they are made properly.

The room is high up in the Otemachi tower with the city on several sides, so there is a view, but it is not the reason to come and it is not sold as one. Come before dark if you want it; the sunset window is the busiest part of the evening and the one that most benefits from a reservation.

Awards for hospitality sound like a euphemism for not much. In this case it translates into several specific things that make the bar unusually easy to use.

The staff read a table. A pair on a first night in Japan gets a different conversation from a group of drinks-trade visitors, and neither is patronised. Non-drinkers are taken seriously – the zero-proof list is a real list, built with the same technique rather than being fruit juice with a garnish. And the English is fluent, which removes the low-grade anxiety that makes a lot of visitors avoid Tokyo’s best bars entirely.

Practically, this is the bar to choose when you are two couples, or with colleagues, or when somebody in the party is nervous about Japanese bar etiquette. Benfiddich is the more extraordinary room and it is a poor choice for four people who want to talk.

Expect Tokyo hotel-bar prices: a cocktail here costs several times what it costs in Golden Gai, and there may be a service charge on top. That is the deal with hotel bars everywhere and it is not a surprise worth resenting. Cards are taken without question, which is not true everywhere in Tokyo nightlife.

Otemachi is the financial district, directly north of Tokyo Station and on the edge of the palace moat. That makes this an unusually good evening anchor for a central day: the Imperial Palace East Gardens are a ten-minute walk away and close as early as 16:00 in winter, so a drink afterwards is the natural continuation.

It is also the district of Hoshinoya Tokyo, the ryokan-format hotel a few streets away, and of teamLab Borderless at Azabudai Hills, which is fifteen minutes by taxi and closes far earlier than the bar does.