Tempura Ise (天ぷら いせ)
⭐⭐⭐
🍤 Tempura / 📍 Minami-Oi
📓 Visits: ~4 (2013-2022)
Now the tempura
teishoku at
Miyashiro has stopped the quest was back on to find the best, cheap tempura lunch in Tokyo. Tempura Ise held a Michelin Star through the 2011-2014 Tokyo Guides and was regarded by some as serving exactly that. Lunch choices (prices inclusive) are currently as follows:
- Tendon at JPY 1,800 consisting of 2 shrimp, 3 fish and 4 vegetables
- Tempura teishoku at JPY 2,000 consisting of 2 shrimp, 3 fish and 4 vegetables
- Jo tempura teishoku at JPY 2,800 consisting of 2 shrimp, 3 fish and 5 vegetables and kakiagedon
I'd visited a few times in the past but it's a little out of the way for me to go very often. On all my visits I've had the jo tempura teishoku. All my notes are from my most recent meal.
I was first in the queue on a weekday. Three more people arrived 10 minutes before the scheduled opening and a further two 5 minutes before, at which point the restaurant opened early. There are seven, well-spaced counter seats and the last seat remained free while I was there. Previously a tatami room was available for extra seating and chef's wife attended to guests but it seems like chef operates the counter only on his own now. Everyone ordered the superior tempura teishoku so chef fried the tempura in batches of six. There was an inevitable lack of
omotenashi without a second hand and no conversation with any diners until a warm exchange at the end of the meal when one diner revealed he was another chef. Chef previously worked at
Ten Masa which now has branches in
Marunouchi and
Haneda Airport. The Kanda Sarugakucho main branch closed in 1985.
The best items in the set were the potato (well, everyone likes chips) and the kakiagedon. Prawns were fat and sweet but a touch dry in the kakiagedon, as was the
kisu. You can see the oil build up on the paper, which was not changed during the meal.
Anago and
hotate were quite oily but the oil is not at all strongly flavoured and the tempura was not heavy. Anago and kisu had an odour of ammonia, indicating they were not as fresh as they could have been. Chef mixes some barley into the rice to give it another dimension and the rice is excellent. Soup was either the weakest miso soup I'd ever had in my life or a non-clear clear soup (
akadashi would have been much better). Pickles were too funky.
Overall not nearly as good as I remembered it. How much of that is due to slippage in standards or improvements in my palate I don't know but this would be the last time I would go out of my way to visit Tempura Ise.
Homemade Ramen Muginae is within walking distance and one of the most highly-rated ramen shops in Tokyo, holding a Bib Gourmand since the 2018 Michelin Guide. So if you sign up in the morning for a slot in the afternoon you can have two lunches and tick off two restaurants! (Yes, I did :)
📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1315/A131502/13042563/
❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.75
📱 Booking: First come first served at lunch. No English spoken.
📍 Location:
3-29-8 Minami-Oi. 3 mins walk West from Omorikaigan station. Dedicated street-facing entrance.
Map data ©2022 Google
📅 Visit April 2022
Fukinoto
Shiitake
Snap pea
Jagaimo
Shin tama-negi
Kuruma ebi x2
Hotate nori
Anago
Kisu
Kakiagedon
Owan
💴 Damage: 2,800 inc. sencha (cash only)
⏱️ Time taken: 50m
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