Allez Allez Du Vins
If you like wine, European foods and enjoy a lively atmosphere, you’ll find the wine cellar style dining bar, Allez-allez du vins, very appealing. The staff are quite easy-going and know a lot about the wines they have available- you can even wander through the wine cellar they have at the side of the restaurant to choose your bottle. Some customers seem to prefer to choose their wine by browsing the fully stocked collection.
Of course, if you prefer the traditional method of choosing wine, there is a huge selection and a wide variety of wines to choose from on the menu. A selection can also be brought to you if you simply specify red or white. From this assortment, all the bottles have clearly written price tags on them so you don’t exceed your budget. Most bottles cost around 3,000 yen and glasses are around 700 yen.
If your Japanese is limited, not to worry, the only vocabulary you might need to remember is “Amai” meaning sweet or “sawayaka” for refreshing. Many other wine descriptors like dry, light, heavy seem unnecessary to translate as they are readily understood.
For food, Allez specializes in Galette dishes- a kind of crispy, savory French crepe. We enjoyed three of the varieties of Galette on offer- one with egg, another with salmon, a third with goat’s cheese & ham and then some of us tried the escargot. The taste was somewhere between an eggy crepe and a buttery pancake, it wasn’t at all greasy like I had imaged and all of them were completely delicious, even the snails. The galette really was a perfect accompaniment to good wine. Members of our group also enjoyed duck salad which they said was very nice and I enjoyed the sweet pear crepe for dessert. If you just order drinks, you will be given some lovely homemade foccacia bread and simple side dish like dried figs.
Fortunately, Allez is in an easy to navigate area of Nagarekawa which is usually a maze of bright neon lights and busy with bar staff and drunk people once the sun sets. Allez-allez du vins is quite an easy location to find even for first timers to the area- head two blocks from the Mitsukoshi department store located on the main Aioi-dori road, turn left at the second corner, when you see Family mart on the right, turn left and head down the stairs. You can’t miss it. There is seating available at tables, sofa booths and along the bar for 50 people, more if you don’t mind standing. There are two tables outside for seating in warmer weather months.
Hours: 18:00 (6pm) to 3am almost everyday. The bar is open till 3am Mondays to Saturdays and stays open till 11:30 on Sundays and holidays, there is no scheduled day off.
All major credit cards are accepted. Reservations are accepted for larger groups, but walk-ins are also welcome, group reservations can add an all-you-can-drink deal for all members to pay a flat fee and drink as much as you like within a set time limit (usually 1~2 hours). Staff speak a tiny bit of English and are very easy to communicate with. The menu is in French, English and Japanese. This wine-bar is a smokers-paradise, there were no non-smoking areas when we went.
Open: 18:00-03:00 Monday to Saturday, 18:00-23:30 Sundays and Holidays
Address: 1-14 REX MB basement 1F Nagarekawa-cho Naka-ku, Hiroshima city
Telephone: (082) 249-2123
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