Thistle — Restaurant in Nagoya

The quintessential Japanese bar experience with a professional bartender in his atelier against a backdrop of single barrel / independent bottles of scotch single malt whisky.

Yoshida-san, the proprietor and bartender, is a veteran in the local Nagoya bartending scene with over a decade of experience bartending at the much-loved Bar Barns down the street. He opened his own bar- an ode to Scotland and its single malt heritage- right before the pandemic in 2019.

The selection is carefully curated with offerings at various ages from a variety of independent bottlers from Japan and abroad. Somewhat unique to the Japanese bar scene are the exchange of bar-picked barrels where bars share their own bottlings with one another. A sort of commerce / taste-sharing among whisky fans.

I had the chance to try a Kanosuke from the recent 2023 Whisky Lovers festival bottling, an amazing 9yr Chichibu from Bar Barns, and a plethora of older bottlings from Springbank, Highland distilleries used for blending, and more.

Cocktails were also great here with an offering of house-created specials and classics executed at a high level.

I could go on and on but I recommend just going.

It’s not yet gained the notoriety among its peers being a newer bar, but this is one to keep an eye on for the future.

The English-speaking level isn’t high, but there were other travelers using google translate back and forth to communicate. You will be fine. Just sit back and enjoy...

We were so grateful we could get in here! Call ahead with your hotel or someone you know. This was helpful. If you have more than four you might need to request the back room. The staff was incredible and so nice. Keisuke Fukuda was our bartender and the cocktails were outstanding!! Get the basil grasshopper. And the fruity sour. The old fashion is great and has guava in it. A must visit! Open all the days. Thank you for your...

This is the best bar I've been to in Japan! We had such good drinks and service, I couldn't ask for more. The staff kindly recommended some peaty whiskey for us and provided excellent cocktails. We couldn't speak fluent Japanese, but they were very patient with us and we coversed as best we could. We really appreciated how kind and patient they were with us. I would go here every week if i...