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Drunk Bears in Kita-ku, Osaka

Staff Rating:

Umeda Station

Kita Ward, Chayamachi, 10−12 NU茶屋町 B1F

[see on the map]

As a part of our search for the best pizza in Osaka, of course we wanted to try one of the only examples of “Chicago” style pizza in Osaka. We personally showed up and had a pizza at Drunk Bears at Umeda. Below we tell you what we found – and what we didn’t find.

The proper name for this business may be Drunk Bears Nu Chayamachi (that is how they list themselves on Google maps). If you have ever been, you would think “craft beer” was part of their name – the signs imply that Drunk Bears should be a real part of the craft beer scene in Osaka. I can tell you: it is not a craft beer bar. And, while I did enjoy the pizza, I can’t say they really nail Chicago pizza either (it was tasty, though). I did have a good time, and I’ll probably go back, so we give it a friendly “thumbs up.”

You’ll find the Drunk Bears pizza restaurant in Kita-ku, very close to Osaka Station. That station is a chaotic mess of sprawling, inter-connected nonsense. But if you’re in the right part of it (on the north-eastern side, not far from Hankyu department store), as you walk across the street to the east, you can begin to see the signs for Drunk Bears.

They are in a nice building, on B1. From the street, you will see all these suggestions of “craft beer” and signs pushing you downstairs. You’ll have to wander down to B1, but it’s there.

Now that you’ve found it, let’s get back to their claims about beer:

They really play up the craft beer, which is a mistake. As soon as I arrived, I took a seat at the counter, and I started looking for “list” of craft beers – but there isn’t one. Behind the bar they have six taps, total. And the lovely American woman that helped me order explained they actually have only two beers on tap; Asahi and some hazy IPA. They also had four random high-octane IPAs in cans.

The rumor is that they stopped carrying beer on tap because they don’t sell enough of it, so the kegs go bad (and nobody wants a stale beer). I can imagine the downward spiral for their reputation as a “beer bar in Osaka”: Not enough beer drinkers to finish the kegs, so you stop carrying them. So then beer drinkers come in for “craft,” and then they only find “Asahi” and no-name IPAs in cans, so they stop coming, Drunk Bears sells even less beer, and keeps fewer choices in stock. And finally, we end up with review like this one – which is somehow still positive, even though, it’s not a beer bar.

If Drunk Bears is not a beer bar, how about their claims of pizza? We can confirm, they do indeed serve pizza.

As for the pizza: There were a few choices, and I chose the options with meat on it. While you can find pizza with meat toppings in Japan, they tend to be a little light, not enough meat. Drunk Bears offered a pizza with sausage on it, and I wanted to try it.

My notes say is was “great” and that it “definitely qualifies as Chicago.” As I type of this review, I feel like I should probably take that down a peg or two. The crust was relatively thin, and crispy. Then, a layer of meat. Ground sausage (which was solid), and then some other kind of meat, thinly sliced, that was almost like… a hotdog?

I distinctly remember something like “hotdog meat.” And if you have any kind of memory of a pizza with hotdog-like meat on it, there no way you can honestly say it was “real Chicago pizza.” I asked about that meat – and it was some kind of Japanese sausage. And it tasted good to me, but was a non-standard choice on a pizza. Not bad at all, but definitely unusual.

“Like, I don’t know if that sounds good, but it was, very good.”

That’s what my notes say. When it comes to real Chicago pizza in Japan, the best I have ever tasted comes from the chain of Devil Craft pizza shops in Tokyo. Devil Craft – wow; that is a crazy good pizza. As for Drunk Bears, I’d go back.

Drunk bears actually has two “sides” to it – there is literally a Drunk Bears “bar” just outside, a few steps away, almost like a separate “party room.” The “pizza side” of Drunk Bears may not have much beer, but they have a full bar, so you can get a cocktail. My first trip to Drunk Bears was on a Sunday night in January. For that night, the place was pretty empty.
Maybe on a Friday night that place can “get going?” I don’t know.

As I had my pizza (and my can of random IPA) at Umeda’s Drunk Bears, the music was pretty good. I heard “Take a good look at me now” by Phil Collins, some U2 choruses of “I still haven’t found, what I’m looking for,” and only slightly more modern “I could be your ruler, RULER” by Lorde. Good tunes, all around.

After my pizza, I set off on foot to try to find some better options for craft beer bars near Osaka Station. That night after Drunk Bears, I tried Malto (which was… so-so). And then, I drifted over to Fuji Rock, which was quickly one of my favorite beer bars in Osaka. That was a good formula – get started at Drunk Bears, and then switch spots for a little more adventure.

I had a really good time, that night. Good pizza, but I think it was the staff that helped make a good impression. The night I was there, there was an American woman behind the bar that was warm and inviting. And the guy that made my pizza, again, hit a chord (great guy). I liked them both, very much. Who knows if they’ll be there when I go back, but I suspect part of the shine of that night was all about them.