Shunkeian Arakaki (旬恵庵 あら垣)
🍤 Tempura / 📍 Shintomicho
📓 Visits: 1 (2025)
It was a meal of several parts. Four appetizers, which were all up to the level of a good kaiseki restaurant and generously portioned. Next the vegetable tempura is served one by one. The quality of these were excellent, the highlight being Kumamoto asparagus (10/10). After the vegetables the fish are served consecutively. The ainame was the best and the shirao were good. I don't remember having saoyri tempura before and it was a bit dry, making me think it's not the best choice for tempura. I've had better kisu at places in the same price range and the anago could have been earthier. The shrimp did not have much flavour and one was served very rare with the batter not properly cooked through. The main problem was that even the daikon ororshii was not enough to reset your palate after fish after fish and the ebi tama were served grilled rather than fried, which I generally love, but here they were super salty. After the anago some welcome refreshment in the form of a strawberry sorbet which had pure strawberry flavour (9.5/10) and made me think of the same dish at Kusunoki, which is smaller than a marble. I chose tendon instead of tencha. Made with shiba ebi this was excellent (9/10). The tendon was served without pickles but with the richest akadashi I've ever had. I was not asked what size rice I'd like.
The chef is from Okinawa so the meal ended with Okinawan kokutou pudding and jasmine tea, or sanpin-cha as it is called there. The pudding was superb and the jasmine tea was a welcome change from the usual sen-cha.
The tempura are served on a drainer which I always think is a bit of a cheat because you can't see how greasy they are but (apart from that one shrimp) I felt the technique here was first class. The chef mixes salad and two kinds of sesame oil. There was no oily taste with anything.
I happened to be the only diner for this round so, once past the appetizers, the meal moved quickly. The chef mostly worked in silence and didn't react to compliments but answered any questions about the food and I felt like there was a big heart in there somewhere.
It was a shame about the sequencing and the quality of the fish, particularly the shrimp. If it had not been for that I'd have gone back.
📌 https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1313/A131301/13210026/
❓ My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐ 3.9
📱 Booking: 🟩 An easy booking by phone in Japanese only or via Pocket Concierge. No English spoken.
📍 Location:
3-5-10 Minato. 3 mins east from Shintomicho station Exit 7.
Map data ©2025 Google
📅 Visit April 2025
Sakizuke: Hotaru ika, urui sanbai
Suimono: Kogomi, noresore, tamago tofu, kuruma ebi
Otsukuri: Madai, Ezo awabi, aori ika
Su-zakana: Hamaguri, ponzu jelly, fruit tomato
Soramame
Kogomi
Asparagus
Shin-tama negi
Kuruma ebi x2
Ebi tama x2
Kisu
Shirao
Sayori
Ainame
Anago
Ichigo sorbet
Tendon (or tencha)
Tea
Kokutou pudding
Comments
Post a Comment