Rakwon Paradise Microbrewery

Introduction
Location
Visiting Tips
Practical Tips
Anecdotes

Introduction

This is one of Pyongyang’s excellent microbreweries and well worth a visit for a relaxing beer or two in between sights.

Not to be confused with any other of Pyongyang's top breweries, such as the Taedonggang Brewery.

Location

It is located on the top floor of the Paradise Department Store.

To access the bar you need to enter a side entrance and take the stairs or lift to the third floor. 

Apart from the department store, you will also find Kenji Fujimoto’s Takahashi Sushi Restaurant in the same building. 

It’s also near the Changwang Health Complex, Air Koryo Ticket office, Pyongyang Ice Rink and Pyongyang Indoor Stadium where most tourists go to watch Mass Dancing.

Visiting Tips

It’s a small bar hidden away, you have to go through a side entrance, up some stairs or lift, pass through the main doors and then walk down a couple of corridors to get to it. 

They only served one beer here which is very delicious, refreshing and cheap, brewed onsite with the brewery on the other side of the glass windows. 

Apart from beer, they also make makkoli – a drink made from fermented rice and is Korea’s oldest drink.

They also serve various soft drinks and juices here for the non-drinkers and bar snacks such as ubiquitous peanuts and talpi (dried Pollack), a popular North Korean food. 

Beer is just 50 cents per glass here. 

Practical Tips

• They are open Tuesdays-Sundays, except the day after public holidays.
   
• The bar has limited capacity so it can easily be filled by one tour group.
   
• It’s always good to have your guides call ahead so the staff know you are coming – if you’re going a bit later in the day then they will ensure to stay open for you, and they can also let you know if they have space.
   
• It’s not possible to visit the brewery room, but if you ask nice enough they will turn on the light so you can admire their brewing tanks from afar.
   
• If the bar is full, then it is possible to enjoy a drink in one of the nearby restaurant rooms though it’s not quite the same drinking in a well lit restaurant room versus the lowly lit, moody bar.
   
• The staff prefer no photos are taken of them or their customers, so do ensure to ask before taking any photos.

Anecdotes

• The brass tanks behind the bar are just for decoration.
   
• The bar staff are friendly here, just don’t get in the way of them working or risk being scolded.
   
• Not only is it a contender for North Korea’s freshest beer, but this might just be North Korea’s most carbon-friendly beer as it has only moved ten feet from the tank to tap.

Interested in a tour to North Korea? 
Travel to North Korea with the only
North Korea travel experts, Koryo Tours 

North Korea Travel Guide PDF | Sign up to the mailing list | About Koryo Tours