Liar

Hideaway wine bar and restaurant up on the hill behind Cerulean Tower in Shibuya. Excellent, hand-picked selection of mostly Old World wines.

Owner/sommelier Etsuro Yamamura opened Liar 13 years ago after working much of of his adult life as a civil engineer. Ten years prior to that he realized that his real passion was wine, and took a decade to learn as much as possible, travelling to world and studying wine and winemaking. When he finally decided he was ready to switch careers he opened Liar in its current location and has been sharing exceptional wine and food with his customers ever since.

Much of his cellar is visible from the dining room, and it's clear at a glance that Yamamura-san eschews the orderly. Bottles lay stacked high in large piles and fill the shelves on all sides of the two temperate-controlled rooms. The organization system? "It's all right here," he says, pointing to his head. "I know exactly where to find every wine in there."

The selection is impressive and, according to Yamamura-san, contains many wines you won't find anywhere else in Japan. Rather than offer a menu, he asks customers to describe the kind of wine they want to drink, then ventures into the cellar--tiptoeing above and jockeying atop the mountain of bottles--to fetch some matches.

Prices are reasonable, and you won't find many budget wines there. With Liar it's best to try what's offered within your budget without worrying too much about quality or condition. What you get is guaranteed to be good.