This is a part of a 3 part series of ‘An Indian travels to Japan 2023’.

Food type – Tempura specialist.

Menu selection: Omakase, Chef decides what he/she will feed the guest (vegetarian & / or non-vegetarian)

Address: 3 Chome-31-8 Shinjuku, Shinjuku City, Tokyo 160-0022, Japan

Contact details: +81 3-3352-1012

Instagram: NA

Facebook: NA

Reservation site:

Website: https://www.tunahachi.co.jp/en/index.html

The trip to Japan was organized by avid traveller & foodie, Neil Patil , Veena Travels. We paid for this restaurant directly

Description:

We have had tempura in Asian restaurants in India. Except a few, we have never really enjoyed it.

• It has to be eaten immediately after being served. So tempura in buffets will be suboptimal.
• We avoid eating deep fried foods in general as we are ageing. However we do not blink to have fried food if it is calorie-worthy in terms of taste/texture/flavour.

While we were looking for interesting restaurants in Tokyo, we got to know that there are tempura specialists!!!

So after a full day of different activities we decided to go to this restaurant. When we reached the location as per Google, we found a restaurant. We went & wanted a seat for 2. It was 8pm & they said they were shut already. Yes, restaurants in Japan start shutting from 8 pm onwards.

So we found another place to eat that night & went back to tsunahachi at 7:30 pm next evening. When we reached the same place, we just thought of asking the name (everything in every eatery was written only in Japanese. No English).

Oops, we were in an adjacent restaurant. So we went to the right one & you know what, we realized that this one (where we originally intended to come) is open till 9 pm!!!

Anyway, we walked in, waited for about a minute & were given a coveted counter table next to live kitchen.

We got to know during the trip that tempura is made in sesame oil when heated at 180 degree. Hence it’s not common to make tempuras at home.

At the restaurant we realized that the outer coating of tempura was way lighter & thinner than what we have had in India. The tempura here felt less like a deep fried oily thing. Infact, I could not imagine having dinner with say 10 different kinds of pakoras but here we were eating a full dinner with just tempura made from different kinds of ingredients.

Attention to detail was at its best possible – ideal temperature of food, way of plating, bite size that is appropriate & does not compel the guest to widen jaws like a crocodile, what the food is to be paired with (our tempura chef actually told us separately for each variety, whether to dip in soy / salt / wasabi salt with every different kind of tempura he served us).

A card kept on our table explained in English how to eat a tempura,

Here is what we had …. Chef decided the omakase menu for us

Jumbo prawn head tempura – Super crisp. Just eat it all as it is, like a soft shell crab. Never experienced it before.

Jumbo Prawn tempura – had it in India before. This one was light years lighter.

Fish tempura was really good. Loved the juicy & flaky fish .

Aubergine tempura was so cool. Juicy, soft, flavourful aubergines with a super thin crisp layer. Very different to a besan batter fried aubergine called ‘beguni’ of West bengal.

Baby carrot tempura was the only one which we did not like as much. Did not dislike as well. It was OK for our tastebuds.

Eel fish tempura was so cool. Crisp & thin outer coating & juicy flavourful eel inside. Pure love. We had this with a bowl of rice.

Scallop tempura was a real favourite as the scallops were excellent & that I have a deep bias towards scallops.

WE did not even imagine that Oyster tempura existed & yes it was simply fabulous. Juicy & just the right texture.

We ended the meal with rice & a bowl of hot miso soup

What an experience

What a meal

This meal also broke a bias in our mind that an entire meal of deep fried food can be outstanding as well……. Just needs a genius to plan & execute it well.

We enjoyed some sake along with the dinner. Loved it