Tempura is seafood and vegetables in a light batter, fried in hot oil until barely crisp. A counter chef fries piece by piece and sets each one before you at its peak. Eaten with tentsuyu dipping sauce or simply a pinch of salt.
What it means
The technique arrived with 16th-century Portuguese traders, but Japan made it its own — refining the batter to a near-transparent crackle and elevating it to kappo haute cuisine. It's a lesson in Japanese restraint: the cook's skill is to add almost nothing, so the ingredient sings.
Why it's wonderful
Great tempura is shockingly light — no grease, just a clean crunch giving way to sweet prawn or tender vegetable. At a good counter, the rhythm of fry-and-serve is half the pleasure.
Founded in 1924, this beloved tempura institution fries seasonal seafood and vegetables in pure sesame oil piece by piece — the accessible Ginza branch sits atop Matsuya department store.
★ Wagyu sirloin and tiger prawn tempura in rice-flour batter
A ten-seat counter beneath a canopy of cherry blossoms where every course — even the wagyu and prawn tempura — is fried in rice flour: fully gluten-free and halal.
★ Julienned carrot kakiage and prawn / anago tempura
A two-Michelin-star Ginza tempura counter celebrated for exceptionally light frying and its signature julienned-carrot kakiage. Courses are built only on seafood and vegetables (no meat), making it naturally pescatarian; the wheat-flour batter means it is not gluten-free.
★ Old-school Edomae tendon, sesame-oil-fried tempura in dark sweet sauce
An 1887-founded Asakusa institution near Senso-ji serving old-school Edomae tendon, its tempura fried in sesame oil and lacquered in a dark sweet sauce.
