Tokyo Eats - Ten-Ichi Ginza Honten

If you ask someone to name Japanese food, chances are after mentioning sushi and sashimi, they will say tempura.

Tempura is a Japanese dish of seafood or vegetables dipped in batter then deep fried. Although now synonymous with Japanese cuisine, it was actually introduced into Japan by Portuguese traders in the 1500s and then took off from there.

Past guests of the restaurant

While doing research for tempura-ya in Tokyo to visit, Ten-ichi Ginza was one of the few names that were consistently mentioned as having top quality tempura. The restaurant has been around for a very long time and has an A-list of past guests, including Clinton, Chirac, Gorbachev, Rockefeller and Sinatra, so I figured it couldn't be too far wrong.

The main branch of Ten-ichi Ginza is located just off the main strip in Ginza in a non-descript building. Stepping inside, you feel like you've been transported to the Edo period. Everything looks like it was from another era, with old wooden paneling on the walls, rough cut stone paving and traditional booths.

The restaurant is built around a number of small rooms, each with a large, red, U-shaped bar-table surrounding a tempura fryer. There are three options for the meal, being one of the set menus (basically a tempura degustation), a tempura lunch box or ordering tempura a la carte. Given I had traveled all the way to Tokyo, the only reasonable option was a tempura degustation!

Instead of commenting on each dish separately, I'll give some broad comments about the meal and dishes before we get to the photos:

• The tempura chef batters, fries and presents each dish in front of you one at a time (as opposed to cooking and giving you everything all at once). This lets you fully appreciate each piece of tempura without it going soggy while you are eating something else.
• They were very generous with their daikon and tempura sauce!
• As you can imagine, each piece of tempura was excellent and far better than any tempura I've tried in Australia. The batter was very delicate, crispy and did not feeling at all oily. 
• The seafood/vegetables were very fresh and were perfectly cooked on the inside (a lot of tempura I've had in Sydney, particularly prawn tempura, has been overcooked). 
• I loved the prawn heads! They were so crispy and light, and had more intense prawn flavour than normal prawns! If only they served this in packets like prawn crackers.
• The prawn tempura and shrimp kakiage at Ten-Ichi have now completely ruined Sydney's tempura and kakiage for me. We liked it so much we had seconds!
• The scallop tempura was still slightly raw and translucent on the inside - brilliantly cooked.
• When you are done with your tempura, the staff take you to a little Japanese both for hot tea and dessert. For dessert, you have your choice of Japanese melon, papaya or mango. I picked the melon, having heard so much about Japanese melons (and seeing the price of said melons at Takashimaya).
• The slice of melon was huge but still incredibly sweet and juicy. It was so good it was actually one of the highlight of the meals!

It can be hard to imagine a menu comprising deep fried food to be fine dining, but Ten-ichi definitely meets those standards. The produce was fresh, tempura was superb and the overall experience at Ten-chi was excellent. It was definitely one of my favourite meals in Tokyo. Thanks for the recommendation Gorbachev!

Tempura sauce with shredded daikon

Prawn heads

Prawns

Shiitake mushroom

Fish

Asparagus

Hotate (scallop)

Ginkgo nuts

Eel

Pickles

Shrimp kakiage

Inside the kakiage

Extra prawns

Melon