If you like wine, European foods and enjoy a lively atmosphere, you'll find Allez-allez du vins appealing. Although they lack a non-smoking section and the decor is slightly chintzy, it is a good sized venue and a fun place to enjoy a few drinks with friends. The staff are welcoming and know a lot about the wines they have available, you can wander through the wine cellar they have at the side of the restaurant if you like- as some customers prefer to choose wine by browsing their collection. If you prefer a selection to be brought to you, just say red or white, and they will bring as assortment to your table. All the bottles have clearly written price tags. Most bottles cost around 3,000 yen and glasses are around 700 yen. The only vocabulary you might need to remember to enjoy choosing your wine 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, we enjoyed 3 varieties of Galette, a French style savory crepe, with egg, salmon, cheese, ham and escargot. The taste was somewhere between an eggy crepe and a buttery pancake, all of them were delicious; a perfect accompaniment to good wine. We also enjoyed duck salad, a sweet pear crepe for dessert as well as the foccacia bread and dried figs they gave us when we ordered drinks.
After dark, Hiroshima's busy drinking district, Nagarekawa, is a maze of bright lights, bars stacked up high inside of buildings and people bustling in and out to their favorite bars. Fortunately, Allez-allez du vins is quite an easy location, two blocks from the Mitsukoshi department store located on the main Aioi-dori road.
The bar is also directly across from a brightly lit Family Mart convenience store, so finding it is pretty simple. 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. 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. 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, but are very easy to communicate with, the menu is in French, English and Japanese.
