Tempura Kitagawa

Tempura Kitagawa (天ぷら北川)

⭐⭐⭐⭐

🍤 Tempura / 📍 Ebisu

📓 Visits: 1

Tempura Kitagawa (owned and operated by chef Naohiko Murata) opened in January 2025.  I'd been watching Tabelog scores and these had been decidedly mixed, generally high but from reviewers with no track record, or otherwise generally low from reviewers with more track record.  What swung me hitting the reservation button (and I'd have done it months earlier if I'd looked properly) was the mention that the fish is from Sasue Maeda.

Shizuoka has established itself as a proper destination for food in Japan and the main reason for that is the fish supplied to restaurants by Sasue Maeda.  The two main reasons for the quality of the fish are the source: Suruga Bay is the deepest bay in Japan and the ikejime techniques Maeda-san uses to lock in the quality.  I'd highly recommend watching this English-subtitled film about Naoki Maeda if you want to know more.

After a small appetizer the "business card" is presented in the form of the first tempura, amadai from Sasue Maeda.  It tasted overcooked to me.  There was no signature firmness in texture you get with Maeda-san's fish and it tasted slightly old.  The second Maeda-san fish is what we'll generously call a "tribute" to Naruse, a copy of the signature rare aji.  I could see from the residual oil and flabby batter it wasn't right as soon as it was set down.  Again no firmness and no clean flavour like at Naruse, but nonetheless still a delicious piece of fried fish.

Things quickly improved with ebi tama and then the sweet and fat shrimp itself.  The hotate was excellent: fat, sweet, rare in the middle and no hint of ammonia.  It was as good as a tempura hotate as I've ever had.  The anago was also memorable: thick, crisp and earthy.  The vegetables were all at least good or very good in quality.  The signature 20-month aged Red Moon potato was much better than the aged potato I had at Tempura Taku at the end of last year.  Kyoto shin-takenoko was outstanding.  The gobo was delicious and the large piece of aka nasu no slouch.  The chef fries the tempura at lower than usual temperature so the fukinoto was not as good as the piece I had at Shunkeian Arakaki (review to come) a couple of weeks earlier: the leaves not crisp, the bud a little slimy and the whole thing falling apart as you ate it.  A choice of tendon or tencha to finish and (thank you) a choice of sizes.  The chef used sakura ebi, which were nice and crispy, and a lighter than usual tare but which was quite salty.  Akadashi was flavoured with sansho, which is not to my taste.  Pickles were highly vinegared, which suits my palate.  They need to upgrade their choice of rice.

The technique could be improved.  The chef spent a year at Tempura Kondo but is mostly self-taught.  Some of the pieces were quite greasy, in particular the mehikari and takenoko but I still enjoyed them.  The oil (100% unroasted sesame) was completely changed twice in the meal.  The batter is generally very thin.  There was a good balance of fish (6) and vegetables (5).  The vanilla ice-cream was so good that I forewent my planned post-meal trip to Gelato Bravo.

Despite the many problems I'm rating this higher than Tempura Asanuma.  Asanuma-san has better technique, and you'll get a couple more pieces in the set there but the tempura is very conventional and the quality of ingredients is good but there's less that is outstanding.  The main reason I haven't been back to Asanuma is because (this will sound strange) he hasn't raised prices.  I know what I'm going to get if I go back and I'm waiting for a step up in the quality of ingredients before I do.  (For the avoidance of dobut, if you haven't been and you can actually get a booking, you should definitely go though).

Going back to the fish.  So how can it be so different if the supplier is the same?  The first reason is technique, and Naruse's is one of the best.  The second is that Naruse gets two deliveries of fish from Maeda-san per day.  The fish from Sasue Maeda that arrives in Tokyo is always at least a day old.  You can also bet that this restaurant is near the bottom of the pecking order of the catch.

All the foodies are going to lament that this is nothing like Naruse or Nakamura and they'd be right, so he's going to suffer in that regard.  But put the name of the fish supplier aside and just regard this as the best superior tempura experience in Tokyo that is easy to book and is a fraction of the price of many others.  As long as the prices don't go up too much I'll probably go back, and I'll bet the chef's technique will have improved.

📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1303/A130302/13303769/

❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.2

📱 Booking: 🟩 An easy booking via TableCheck.  Murata-san doesn't speak English.  Okami-san had a few words.

📍 Location: 

B1F, VORT Ebisu VI, 1-17-15 Ebisu Minami.  5 mins uphill from Ebisu station metro Exit 1 or JR West Exit.  B1F multi-tenant building.
Map data ©2025 Google

📶 Free WiFi? ✅ Yes

📅 Visit April 2025

🥢 Noresore, bafun uni
🐟 Shiro amadai
🐟 Ebi tama
🐟 Ebi
🥕 Asparagus 
🥕 Red Moon jagaimo 
🐟 Aji
🥕 Gobo
🥢 Mozoku 
🐟 Mehikari 
🥕 Shin takenono 
🐟 Hotate
🥕 Fukinoto 
🥕 Aka nasu
🐟 Anago 
🍚 Sakura ebi tendon
🍲 Akadashi, pickles
🍨 Beni-haruka, vanilla ice-cream 
🍵 Sencha

💴 Damage: 22,500 (18.5k + 2 drinks @ 1700)

⏱️ Time taken: 2h20m