There are a lot of hoops to jump through at Uchida, but is this 80-year-old pub worth the hassle?

When the weekend rolls around, do you like meeting up with a friend and grabbing a drink or two? Hey, what a coincidence! So do we!

And when you and your friends are choosing where to knock back a couple cold ones at, do you find yourself gravitating towards places that have a long, long list of rules for customers to follow? No? How about places that require you to get up vey early in the morning and start drinking before noon? Hmm…not so crazy about that either, huh? Well, in that case the Japanese pub Uchida, in Tokyo’s Tateishi neighborhood, might not be the place for you.

To be honest, we weren’t sure whether or not Uchida would be the place for us either, but despite its strict customer conduct codes and bizarre operating hours, Uchida has been in business since 1946. You don’t last eight decades in the restaurant business by pure luck, especially in a market as competitive as Tokyo, so we figured there must be something that makes it worth it to set an early alarm and navigate Uchida’s byzantine web of etiquette expectations, so that’s what we set out to do.

Let’s start with the schedule. Even on weekdays, Uchida shuts down pretty early, closing at 7 p.m. On weekends, though, the place is only open from 10 a.m. to noon. That doesn’t mean you can just roll up at 10 and expect to get in, though. Because of Uchida’s popularity, customers start showing up to put their names in the queue for seats long before the restaurant opens. Some die-hard fans show up before 6 a.m., and when we arrived at 7, there were already more than 30 people who’d gotten there before us.

The Uchida (宇ち多゛) shutters are still closed in the early morning, but staff are stationed around the back of the restaurant to give out numbers to aspiring customers so that they don’t have to stand in line for the hours waiting to get in. You don’t get a piece of paper or text message, though. The staff simply tells you your number verbally, and it’s up to you to remember it. They’ll also tell you what time you should come back and wait outside for your number block to be called, which in our case was 9:20 a.m.

So if you’re headed to Uchida on the weekend, you’re going to have some time to kill, which is actually good, because it’ll give you time to review the many rules the restaurant has. What kind of rules? Well…

● All photography other than pictures of food/drink is prohibited.
● Placing your phone on your table or the counter is prohibited.
● Please refrain from using your phone as much as possible.
● Refrain from talking with others as much as possible.
● Do not eat with your elbows on the table/counter.
● Shoulder/backpacks must be removed and carried in the hand/in front of yourself when entering/exiting the restaurant.
● All party members must be present in line in order to be admitted (no lining up and having your friends join later).
● Dining time is limited to one hour.
● Customers who have already been drinking elsewhere will not be admitted.

Granted, that last one shouldn’t be a problem at 10 a.m., but the rest are pretty strict. Then there’s Uchida’s ordering system. Uchida’s specialty is motsu, or pork/beef organ meats, and they offer them both grilled and boiled. There’s a rigid protocol to how customers have to place their orders. If you’re ordering grilled motsu, first, you call out the cut you want…
● reba (liver)
● shiro (intestine)
● abura (fat)
● hatsu (heart)
● nankotsu (cartilage)
● teppo (rectum)
● kobukuro (uterus)
● tan (tongue)

…followed by your desired seasoning…
● tare (sauce)
● shio (salt)
● miso
● suyaki (plain)

…and finally how you want it cooked.
● futsu (standard)
● wakayaki (tender-cooked)
● yokuyaki (well-done)

If you’re ordering boiled motsu, you also start by calling out the cut you want, but next you have to say nama. Ordinarily this is the word for “raw” in Japanese, but at Uchida it’s what they call boiled motsu. Last, you pick your seasoning type, with the options this time being…
● osu (vinegar)
● shio (salt)
● amaino (sauce)
● shoyu (soy sauce)

So, for example, an order for grilled motsu could be “reba miso yokuyaki,” but not “miso reba yokuyaki.” Likewise, “nankotsu nama shio” is a valid boiled motsu order, but “nama shio nanjkotsu” is not.

▼ A plate of tan nama osu

After you enter the restaurant and are shown to your seat, the staff will ask what you’d like for your first order. This is the one and only time they’ll do that. From that point on, if you want to order anything you need to just call out what you want.

Since photos of anything other than the food and drinks are prohibited, we can’t show you much of the interior, but rest assured that it’s an old-school, down-to-earth environment, the kind of place where the ambiance comes from the weathered counter’s decades of history, rather than trendy furniture or fancy decorations. Uchida’s prices feel like a throwback too, with two-skewer orders of roast motsu or plates of boiled motsu for just 250 yen (US$1.60). A small bottle of Kirin beer is 500 yen, which is a good deal, but for half that price you can get Uchida’s flagship beverage, umewari.

This is a cocktail of Takara-brand shochu and ume (Japanese plum) syrup. It’s very strong and very sweet, and something you’re unlikely to find in other Japanese pubs. Looking around, we saw that almost every other customer ordered at least one glass of umewari during their meal.

▼ Ume syrup being added to the shochu to make umewari

But despite Uchida’s decidedly blue-collar vibe and encouragement of not just day drinking, but morning drinking, this is not a rowdy establishment. Remember, customers are asked to refrain from conversation, and the non-order chatter was at a minimum. Instead, customers were quietly focused on the drinks and food in front of them. That doesn’t that the mood is hostile or oppressive, though, and part-way through our meal, in a quiet voice, the patron seated next to us informed us “If you don’t order the kashira (head) motsu soon, it’ll sell out.” Armed with this insider information, we managed to get in an order of “kashira shiro wakayaki” while it was still available.

As further proof of Uchida’s lack of desire for booze-filled boisterousness, and of the pub’s penchant for rules, remember how we said the umewari is a strong cocktail? Uchida has a rule that first-time customers are not permitted to order more than three glasses of it, and they might even cut you off before that. When a woman seated near us tried to order a third glass, the staff authoritatively refused, telling her “Keep it at two today,” apparently concerned that the cumulative alcohol content would be more than she could handle.

▼ Shiro tare yokuyaki

Uchida has one more special drink on its menu, the 300-yen hachi budoshu, a honey-sweetened wine, which we also ordered. It was surprisingly smooth, and we drank it down very happily.

▼ The Uchida storefront during operating hours, and as much of the interior as we can show

All in all, a morning visit to Uchida makes for a uniquely special experience, one unlike any we’ve ever had before, and there was even an added bonus when it was all done. Because of how each customer’s seating time is limited to one hour, when we left the pub, so too were a number of other customers. Once again able to converse freely, everyone exchanged greetings, and after chatting for a bit, we all went out for an afternoon round at a different nearby pub.

So yes, Uchida is worth getting up early for, and also, after drinking in the morning, probably going to bed early that night too.

Restaurant information
Uchida / 宇ち多゛
Address: Tokyo-to, Katsushika-ku, Tateishi 1-18-8
Open 2 p.m.-7 p.m. (Tuesday-Friday), 10 a.m.-noon (weekends, holidays)[
Closed Mondays

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