Tempura Niitome

Tempura Niitome (天風良 にい留)

⭐⭐⭐⭐

🍤 Tempura / 📍 Azabudai Hills

📓 Visits: 1

Niitome should not need an introduction.  Many consider it the best tempura restaurant in the world.  Indeed it was not only the #1 ranked tempura restaurant on Tabelog but, for a period of time, the overall #1 ranked restaurant for the whole of Japan.  There was no bigger news in 2022 that it would relocate to Azabudai Hills, the flashiest urban development Tokyo has ever seen, followed (after some delay) by a branch of Sushi Saito.  I visited the restaurant once in Nagoya and while it was good I didn't feel the tempura was next level like at Kusunoki so never made the JPY 20,000+ four hour round trip again.  But with a much shorter round trip I was looking forward to reassess, that was until I saw the price.  I don't think any meal is worth JPY 100,000+ and many of my foodie friends were of the same opinion.  A restaurant is first and foremost a business and Niitome-san can charge whatever he likes, but if you're charging twice as much as the other top three tempura restaurants in Japan I think your customer base is mostly going to end up being locals going once and not returning and affluent overseas guests.  If your goal is to make as much money as quickly as possible this will work.  If, with the customer-chef relationship said to be so important in Japan, you want a loyal and long-term customer base, it will not.  So I always believed this business model would fail and it didn't take long for the chinks to appear: first the invitation-only model moving to "send a request", then the release of seats on Table All, then the release of seats on Omakase and now (what I thought would happen eventually but not so soon), the availability of lunch and at half the cost of dinner.  At JPY 50,000 this is still the most expensive "lunch course" tempura in Japan but if you don't care about tsumami (I don't) there's never going to be a cheaper way to sample Niitome's tempura.

First up two shrimp heads which were large and some of the best I've ever had, benefiting from the resdidual oil that stopped them from being dry.  Next up the shrimp themselves.  A couple of things were noticeable here: first the incredibly short amount of time they were fried for, and second the small (i.e. not non-existent) amount of grease left on the paper.  Next a massive piece of aori ika.  Again, served rare and with a texture like moichi.  10/10.  After this, three ginko nuts.  These reminded me of the ginnan I had at Kusunoki some years ago (from another planet.)  After a thin but super fresh piece of kisu, kuromame, ayu and then satoimo, which was not for me.  Next a large oyster and then a large and very sweet piece of renkon.  After that two massive pieces of awabi.  The chef used two whole specimens for all eight diners.  10/10.  Maitake was next.  Many tempura chefs slightly burn their maitake to maximise the umami.  As with the renkon, Niitome-san does not.  This resulted in a mushroom that retained a lot of oil and had a "fresh" taste.  Two to go: first six lobes of akai uni from Yura on Awaji served on tempura nori.  Best eaten in one bite and some of the best uni you'll ever have.  10/10.  Before the shokuji, the anago.  This had an incredibly light texture.  I chose the latter of tencha or tendon, which was a little salty and ended up being slightly flabby.  You were not asked what size you'd like.  Tsukemono were not to my taste but the akadashi was superb.  The meal ended with a large portion of a very rich (and quite grainy) milk ice-cream.

I felt better about this meal than my Nagoya meal.  While writing this up (but not before) I checked my notes for my Nagoya visit and I had written "tendon bit salty and flabby"; I also noted one of the shrimp was a bit greasy and the highlight pieces were the aori ika, hamo (not in season during this visit), uni and anago.  So at least I'm consistent (and so is the chef!)  As I noted Niitome-san fries his tempura for noticeably less time than other chefs.  He also uses an oil that has a very neutral flavour, unroasted sesame, and is noticeably more achromatic compared with the oil in other restaurants.  (There's barely a whiff in the place.)  So many of the tempura are on the rare side.  This worked well with the aori ika, ginnan and awabi but I didn't feel it worked well for the shrimp or the maitake.

Of course I was seated at the far end of the counter.  This is often called the "gaijin corner", but it's actually the "customers not known to the chef corner" and nothing to do with the race of the diner.  That said, Niitome-san talked throughout the meal but barely made eye contact in my direction.  I also noticed one guest was left-handed but Niitome-san consistently failed to re-orient her pieces.  A first-world problem for sure but quite surprising at this level.  Another major reason I did not return to Niitome Nagoya was due to Niitome-san consistently picking out the smaller pieces of tempura for me.  Apparently this is not a problem exclusive to me as I've heard the same thing from others who have been.  On this visit, this was much less of a problem, but I just wish he would treat everyone equally, rather than hovering over each piece for a second while he decides which one you're worthy of.

Cold tea is charged (2,000 yen or 4,000 yen for a small glass) as is water (1,100 yen for a bottle).  The cheapest non-alcoholic drinks are ginger ale (500 yen) or beer (800 yen).  They'll be an assistant behind you for your whole meal who can't wait to serve you your next drink.

I can't tell you first hand how it compares to dinner because I haven't been and I don't intend to go but my understanding is the dinner consists of around 5 tsumami (sashimi, chawanmushi, etc.) and maybe a couple more pieces of tempura.  One thing of note was that no matsutake were included though they were in season and they were on chef's Instagram story preceding my visit so my guess is they're only included at dinner.  Other than that there was no compromise on the quality and size of the ingredients.  I generally prefer tempura fish but you could argue there was an imbalance in this lunch with only 5 vegetables served (of which 2 legume) and 9 seafood.

If I could go back for lunch in a year or two at the same price I would.  I still feel 50k is overpriced for 14 tempura but could justify it as a once a year or once a two year blow-out and omakase at a top sushi restaurant or top kaiseki restaurant can easily cost 50k now.  There was always going to be a price rise with the Tokyo move (about 42k for dinner and 28k for lunch, prior).  Note also that he's gone down from ten seats to eight, and the fit-out, including maybe the most beautiful counter I've ever seen (Kimoto's is the most impressive, but Niitome's is the most beautiful), all has to be paid for.  

Is it the best tempura restaurant in the world?  It's definitely one of the best.  Is it twice as good as the other top places?  No.  No photos are allowed inside the restaurant.  I'm not sure how looking at a photo of a fried shrimp in a meal costing 50 or 100K is going to tell you how good it is so fine.  Tabelog posting and SNS is also "prohibited".  Most people are going to respect this and even if he rescinds this policy my guess is that, due to the massive difference in price, Naruse is going to remain the #1 Tabelog tempura restaurant.  Naruse has higher quality fish but it's not a typical tempura course comprising your favourite shrimp, uni and anago.  Kusunoki has rarer ingredients, with its virtually oil-free tempura has an arguably superior technique and I like the fact the chef seasons each piece, rather than leaving you to guess.  Edomae Shinsaku is a "drier" tempura, but this results in a tempura with more umami.  The technique at Sonoji is less good. So the top 3/4 are quite different and which is the best will come down to which style of tempura you prefer.  tl;dr: If you can get a lunch seat here and can afford it I'd recommend it.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1307/A130704/13290812/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.9 (food: 4.94, value: 4.3, service: 2.75)

📱 Booking: 🟧 Dinner is a fairly easy reservation via Table All if you don't mind paying the extra fee.  Lunch and dinner bookings via Omakase are a more elusive, with seats released irregularly and visible to some users but not others.  Drinks menu is bilingual.  Niitome-san does not speak English but his assistant can help with translations.

📍 Location: 

Azabudai Hills Garden Plaza D.  Take the 'K' lift/escalator to street level, exit the building and turn right.  Entrance down the side of Nishikubo Hachiman Jinja, opposite the bus stop. 3 mins from Kamiyacho station Exit 5.
Map data ©2024 Google

📶 Free WiFi? ✅ Yes

📅 Visit Autumn 2024

🕛 Lunch 50,000

Ebi tama x2
Ebi x2
Aori ika
Ginnan x3
Kisu 
Kuromame
Ayu
Satoimo
Kaki 
Renkon
Awabi 
Maitake 
Uni
Anago 
Tendon (or tencha)
Akadashi
Tea
Milk ice-cream

💴 Damage: (50k + drinks at around 4k + 10%)

⏱️ Time taken: 2h25m