Purple Taste: Hoppy Bar ホッピーバー @ Icon Village

There's The Public Izakaya by Hachi and there's Hoppy Bar. Physically, both are just opposite one another and by the same parent company. Hoppy Beer (bottled) is available at both joints. There's differentiation in food offered, and you can't cross-order. If you want kick-ass sized tori karaage, that'll be Public Izakaya.

There's counter seats where one needs to remove shoes, or bar seats and alfresco seats where one need not. The bar area was rather warm and so was the outdoor area.

Liked the decor of the place and service staff were friendly and more than happy to make recommendations on drinks and food.

bar seats view

Started with lemon chu-hi, which is a simple shochu lemon soda mix. Friend had draft beer.

Suntory Kaoru Premium (@$9.80++) and Lemon Chu-hi (@$10++)

For food, we tried the beef stew, an ebi mayo and some yakitori. The beef stew was served with some toasts. The bread was crisp and fluffy, and we used it to mop up the stew. The majority of the beef was too tough and that was disappointing. However, the flavour of the stew was thick and good with a touch of spice.

The bartender handed us a plate of edamame and said, "As a service." Lovely gesture to surprise guests with complimentary food. Later, we observed that a guest who came later and was seated next to us, was given complimentary fries.

ビフシチュ(beef stew) @$13++

scoop it up

The Ebi Mayo turned out to be one large fried shrimp, served with an onsen egg. The waitress advised us to break the egg and use it as a dip. Hmm, ok but rather unnecessary as the prawn was already doused with a substantial amount of creamy mayo.