⚠️ Motoyoshi-san moved to Ebisu in April 2022. The Aoyama restaurant was run by his former sous chef, Matoba-san, but closed at the end of 2023.
Tempura Motoyoshi (天ぷら 元吉)
⭐⭐⭐⭐
🍤 Tempura / 📍 Gaienmae
📓 Visits: 1 (2021)
Tempura Motoyoshi had been on my list for a very long time but I'd never made visiting a priority. I finally went for the first time in February 2021 for dinner. Prices have gone up over the years and there is now only one course available for dinner at JPY 19,000. A JPY 11,000 lunch is only served on Saturday and is fried by the sous chef. No English was spoken when I went. Some Japanese will help so you can express your preferences for the anago and rice dish.
Motoyoshi-san's techniques have evolved over time. He now uses liquid nitrogen to cool the flour before mixing it. He has even patented a number of techniques including a "Quick cooling device" used to cool the tempura quickly after cooking so it doesn't lose its crispness, his methods for frying sweetcorn, and frying sweet potato.
Compared with other tempura restaurants there are a lot more items in the course but the size of each piece is smaller. The selection of vegetables is more typical for a tempura restaurant. There are fewer rarer items and while the quality of ingredients is very good it's not to the same level of Sonoji (review here). Although everything that was served was very good, as I look back it was mostly the non-tempura items that were the amongst the best: the aori ika sashimi starter, the hotate sashimi with tempura bits, ponzu and myoga. The tsukemono were particularly good. The tempura itself really went into second gear several pieces in with an excellent, and more substantial, piece of sawara. Next was a particularly memorable trio of dishes consisting of tara shirako owan, nanohana onigiri tempura and fugu shirako tempura. This was followed by an excellent piece of amadai, the signature uni, and then a superb piece of renkon. Motoyoshi-san serves his anago with shoga. Although it wasn't the best anago I've ever had the ginger really worked. A very generously-sized kaiagedon was the final savoury dish. Dessert was chocolate ice-cream with fresh strawberries. The ice-cream was made a-la-minute with liquid nitrogen. While this was good theatre, the super smoothness of a liquid nitrogen ice-cream was lost by the Japanese-size portion and by serving it with fruit and a crunchy chocolate granita.
Do Motoyoshi-san's patented techniques improve the tempura? I couldn't say for certain. Sweetcorn was out-of-season when I went and I'm not really a fan of sweet potato unless it's soup. Motoyoshi-san clearly thinks he gets better results but, as I alluded to earlier, I'd expect the quality of the ingredients to make the biggest difference.
You can take home the bespoke chopsticks and napkin you used during your meal, which make a great personal souvenir if you're visiting Tokyo.
Tempura Motoyoshi has been one of the top tempura restaurants in Tokyo for years and has held one Michelin Star since the 2011 Guide. If you've never had greaseless tempura I highly recommend Tempura Motoyoshi.
📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1306/A130603/13035758/
❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.2
📱 Booking: 🟧 Bookings are taken by phone daily from about 11am for dates up to one month in advance. There's a calendar on their website that occasionally indicates availability.
📍 Location: B1F 3-2-4 Minami-Aoyama.
Map data ©2021 Google
📅 Visit February 2021
Aori ika
Hiroi mame
Ebi tama x2
Ebi x2
Asparagus
Shirao
Uddo
Kobashira norimaki
Ninjin x2
Makasagi
Fukinoto
Hotate sashimi with tempura batter, ponzu, myoga
Kogomi sansai
Sawara
Tara shirako owan
Fugu shirako tempura
Nanohana onigiri tempura
Amadai
Uni
Renkon
Anago
Satsumaimo
Tendon
Akadashi
Chocolate ice-cream, ichigo
💴 Damage: 21,890 incl. 1-2 drinks
⏱️ Time taken: 2h30m
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