Sakana Bar Grill

A trendy looking seafood restaurant that opened on the first floor of THE ROPPONGI TOKYO building.
A solid addition to Roppongi area. Surprisingly, there really isn’t a place like Sakana bar — an affordable priced western style seafood restaurant — in this area. Sure, there are many Izakaya in the area serving affordable seafood, but they all have this Japanese feel — lots of smokers, loud, tight space. Here, with the high ceiling and big windows, it feels spacious although they only have 40 seats. Their food won’t blow your pants off, but good enough to enjoy inexpensive wine with friends.
ATMOSPHERE: Sitting in this grill restaurant, you can forget that you are in Japan. The Décor — with white tiles, open kitchen, and visible second floor wine cellar — makes you feel like you are in San Francisco or New York City. The place is not too quiet like a French restaurant, but not as loud as Izakaya.
FOOD: With a name like Sakana Bar Grill, you better order some grilled fish. Their signature items are catch of the day whole fish grilled. Great for sharing, so I recommend going here with 3 – 4 people, although its probably nice to go as a couple on a date as well. Seafood Ajilo 1006 Yen was okay, but not great. I felt that it lacked substance, although the leftover oil for dipping the bread was nice.
WINE: Cheap. 4 whites and 4 reds, and a sparkling offered by glass all below 700 Yen. Please, please, please do not jack up the price in the future! It is a very new restaurant, so I am so scared that they have inexpensive alcohol prices to lure the people in, then when they become popular, jack it up. Many bottled wines are 2000 to 3000 Yen range.
Draft beer (Suntory Super Malts) — 626 Yen
Sangria — 594 Yen
Bottle of Yellow Label Champagne 7560 Yen!!!
NAME: Could be a bit confusing. It could be written as Sakana Bar Grill or Sakana Bal Grill. There is another sister branch near Ebisu Station called «Sakana Bal» without the word «Grill». Their sign is written in Katakana, so if you don’t read Japanese, make sure you look at photos on Unilocal first.
SMOKING: All seats are non-​smoking, but there is a catch. They have a standing area inside the restaurant for smoking. The fume certainly reached our table. Perhaps when the weather is warmer (we went in January), they will move the smoking area to outside.
TABLE CHARGE: 300 Yen per person.
PRICE: 3 of us spent 14,000 Yen. That is under 5000 Yen per person. Not bad.