Services: 10/10
Scale: [1=poor ---- 5=average/standard ---- 10=outstanding/exceptional]
Ever thought of tempura as just another deep-fried dish, try one master class tempura joint in Japan and your thought will never be the same. For this trip, we did pop by Tempura Yokota (天冨良よこ田) in Roppongi area and we were not disappointed. The place is located on the 3rd floor of a small building which is within a few minutes walk from Azabujuban Station. There is no lunch service at Yokota.
At Yokota, there are 2 tempura counters which can accommodate around 10 pax max at the same time: one run by Chef Tsuneo Yokota and the other one run by his son, I believe. The style of tempura is kind of elegant in my humble opinion: light batter, crisp but not crack, and aromatic with combination with different type of oil. To compliment tempura, sauce also plays an important part. There are 3 types of sauce given here: salt, curry powder, and sauce with grated daikon. Indeed a piece of lemon wedge was also given to add another dimension. In term of service, all of them were fabulously friendly and helpful. Very limited English but enough to go along the course.
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| Tempura Yokota (天冨良よこ田) @ Roppongi, Tokyo |
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| Chef Tsuneo Yokota performing |
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| simple but beautiful tableware |
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| different type of sauce |
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| classic salad with sesame dressing |
The first to arrive was
Prawn Head (8/10). Very nice and crisp. There were 2 pieces. One dipped into lemon juice and the other one to go with curry powder. Then the
Prawn (8/10) was followed. At first, we expected it to be super crisp like in other places. But it turned to be crisp but soft. This is to be dipped with all sauce biting bit by bit to find out your preference. Next was
Squid (10/10). Top of the class indeed. So tender and tasty. A bit of lemon to go along and it was like heaven. Moving on to milder range of ingredients.
Baby Corn (9/10) was the next service. Sweet and fresh. This was the one for curry powder. Contrasting pretty nicely. In a short while,
Lotus Roots (9/10) were served. This was another sweet and crisp thing but not as complex as baby corn. Both lemon + salt and sauce + daikon seemed to pair wonderfully.
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| Prawn Head |
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| Prawn |
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| Squid |
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| Baby Corn |
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| Lotus Roots |
Next was my favourite kind of tempura:
Silver Whiting (10/10). Mild in flavour. Smooth and tender texture. Super fresh and perfect with lemon or salt.
Asparagus (9/10) was too delicious. I love the fact that batter was used very lightly with this one but crisp. It did not overshadow the unique character of asparagus. Then it came the
Scallop or Hotate (10/10) which is one of the crowd's favourite. It sure did not disappoint us. Perfect doneness with excellent quality. Big in size and fresh in mouth. Sweet. Firm but tender texture. A light touch of salt was more than enough for this piece. Love it.
Ginkgo and Green Pepper (9/10) was the next combination. This one was best with salt or curry. In my view, it is all about whether ginkgo and green pepper are your kind of ingredients. If so, it is delicious, I promise. As for
Shiitake (8/10), it was all about aroma. It was cut in halves. The first half was meant for non-dipping. I believe this way you get to sense the uniqueness of shiitake. Then the second part can be dipped into any favourite choice of yours. There were also minced prawn filling inside shiitake.
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| Silver Whiting |
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| Asparagus |
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| Scallop |
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| Ginkgo and Green Pepper |
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| Shiitake |
For the next one, it was
some kind of fish (10/10) that I was not able to get name of ingredient correctly. What I know is it was a holy one. The fillet was denser than silver whiting. Texture wise, it was more like red snapper for me. The tail part was super crisp too. It was so nice with curry.
Anago (10/10) was also great. So crisp on the batter layer. But so soft and smooth inside. Juicily sweet too. Either sauce with daikon or curry are the recommendation partner. Then the 2nd shrimp was served. This time it was meant for going with any favourite dipping as experienced previously. To finish the course, I opted for
Ten-Cha (10/10). This is boiled rice served with green team and prawn tempura. It was so refreshing. There was a small piece of wasabi to go with ten-cha too. It was served along with a small portion of condiments. This lovely dish just washed away those confusing thing in the mouth we had tasted before Pear
Sherbet (9/10) completely completed its task as dessert.
In short, Tempura Yokota is one of the top tempura restaurant in Tokyo and it is one of its kind. Excellent quality of ingredient, unrivaled skill, and lovely service. Thank god, we found you.
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| some kind of fish???? |
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| Anago |
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| another prawn |
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| Ten Cha |
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| finish with green tea |
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| Pear Sherbet |
Tempura Yokota (天冨良よこ田) @ Roppongi, Tokyo
