Bar NERV – An Evangelion fans dream boozer!

Located in the slightly-seedy Dotonbori area, I’d seen the sign for Bar NERV many times and not given it much attention – I tend to put the blinkers on as I cut through past the various host and hostess bars. The other day I checked it out with my buddy and Evangelion aficionado @marfil – we were not disappointed!

As the name suggests, Bar NERV is an Evangelion theme bar, inside the decor is packed with homages to the long-running series, including large photo montages, Seele Monoliths, various angels and even an impaled Lilith on the wall!

The bar is lined with a crazy amount of toys that any Evangelion collector would be envious of! There were many Askua, Mari and Shinji toys, and we even spotted the odd Fuyutsuki and Pen Pen figure too 🙂

There’s an extensive cocktail menu, all named after characters and items from the show. Pictured are our first drinks of the night, Marfil chose LCL(left) which tasted like a nice mix of Amaretto and other flavours I couldn’t identify, and I chose the “Ikari Shinji” which was probably coloured blue in reference to Shinji’s plug suit, it tasted like Blue Bols and Lemonade, refreshing! Later on Marfil tried the Asuka cocktail too, which was very sweet – lots of grenadine, I personally just moved onto beer.

So by now we were feeling a bit peckish, and decided to order a “Zeruel pizza” – the name of the 10th or 14th angel depending on which version of Eva you watch. Anyway, what would a Zeruel pizza be exactly?

Woah!

Quick! Stab it in the core!!! Aside from the black dye(most likely squid ink) this tasted pretty good, and we defeated Zeruel no problem. I’d like to see some of the other menu items too, if this one is anything to go by, they will be AWESOME.

So that’s Bar NERV, it’s a little strange this place isn’t in Den-Den town where it would fit right in, but that area does close down relatively early. If you love Evangelion I’d definitely check it out, drinks start at ¥650 and food ¥350 – there’s also a ¥350 table charge per person.

Update: Sadly since this post was published Bar Nerv ceased trading, I believe there’s a branch in Nagoya which is still open.