Salt Peanuts jazz club, located near Ekoda and Shin-Egota stations in Tokyo, Japan (website, map).
Salt Peanuts is a Tokyo jazz fan’s paradise, loved by Tokyo insiders for years and formerly less well-known but now experiencing a boom with appreciation and visits from new customers.
This newfound increase in business has likely been spurred through word of mouth and its long-lived golden reputation. Also surely playing a part is a recent increase in online blogs, travel sites, and listings in prominent guidebooks such as Time Out (see their 2024 Best Jazz Bars in Tokyo article).
Surprisingly, there’s also been a fresh interest in jazz and jazz bars in the last few years that is often suggested to be the result of increasing jazz coverage in popular culture as with the 2023 movie Blue Giant.
In any case, Salt Peanuts is an excellent live jazz destination and a bargain in many ways. Not only does this spot offer an atmospheric setting, a great schedule with both up-and-coming and veteran musicians, and plenty of bar snacks, but it’s also a great bargain in terms of cost. Salt Peanuts is one of the least expensive places to hear real live jazz in Tokyo, and is one of the few places to resist raising menu and admission prices for many years.
First impressions at Salt Peanuts reveal the spot to be comfortable with at-home casualness (but not without rules). A cool industrial style is exhibited in the stylishly distressed metal tables, vintage bar, and aged gates. One wall is strikingly illuminated with a fantastic mural. The other walls sport favorite LPs and CDs (played before and after the live music), a TV used for certain sporting events, and even the master’s beloved bicycle hanging behind the stage area.
The concept of all-you-can-eat peanuts is another draw at this unique spot where Salt Peanuts definitely lives up to its name. Incidentally, the name is a reference not only to the plentiful bar snacks but is a reference to the famous bebop tune “Salt Peanuts” by Dizzy Gillespie and Kenny Clarke, as jazz musicians and fans know. The snacks at Salt Peanuts include peanuts (naturally), crescent-shaped rice crackers (mix with peanuts for the much-loved kaki no tane or kakipi), banana chips, giant corn or corn nuts, wasabi peas, and other crunchy, sweet, or spicy Japanese snacks.
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