I was completely charmed by this lovely family-runTempura restaurant in Roppongi. Their tempura was somewhat different from what I’ve been used to. The batter is really thin and soft, lacking the crunchiness of other Tempura meals I’ve tried, yet it was deliciously different.

The father prepared our meal, while his wife served us. His son, who spoke English, worked in the kitchen. He told us he was sent to study cooking in Kyoto by his parents and has been a chef for 7 Years which is still short for Japanese standards. He is planning to take over the restaurant in the future.

There is no menu, so we just obliged with what the chef had to offer. Our first course was some other worldly anago (sea eel) sushi. Absolutely divine.

It was followed by some sashimi…

And a little surprise, some deep-fried bread with shrimp paste inside. It tasted oh so delicious. Now this dish was some crunchy perfection.

After that came the series of tempura. The usual shrimp, squid, fish and vegetables. If you take a close look at the pictures you might notice the difference of texture in the tempura batter.

 

At the end of the meal, we were presented with their famous ‘fish rice’. They steam your rice with a whole fish in it and then take the bones out and mix the fish meat in your rice.

For dessert, we had a very interesting waffle with some sticky mochi-like paste inside. This was prepared by the son who told us he created this dish without using any flour or egg. The key ingredient in this dessert was lotus and green tea. It was the perfect desert. Unique, light and refreshingly delicious.

So, if you are looking for some tempura with a twist, I would definitely recommend this restaurant.

Price : $$$

Address	4-11-4 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Telephone	03-3405-5866
Home Page	http://www.roppongi-yotaro.com (In Japanese)
Business Hours	5:30pm-10:00pm(L.O); Closed on Sun