Tempura Hiromi — Restaurant in Kamakura

We decided to give the shop a try when we saw the praises on their tempura: neither soggy nor oily. It turned out that their tempura was so delicious.

In terms of tempura, I am most impressed by their shrimp tempura and the one where perilla wrapped the yam. The latter one sounds so simple, but it is a smart combo and elevates much of the flavour of yam. (Unless my memory did not do justice to the wrap, I would insist that this is the smartest root vegetable tempura found in the region. If the yam was not wrapped up by some different material, it could easily absorb the oil and become oily.)

Speaking about service, the shop owner seems to be a well-educated madam. She served us hot tea, hand towels, all typical, but was very knowledgable in explaining their dishes.

The shop gives a feeling of (very traditional) literati, with all the walls hanging traditional paintings and calligraphies. The madam kindly took time to walk me around each of the works, and I thought the shop deserved the calligraphic comments they put on the wall: good wines, good people, good food. The great painting next to their cashier is one that mimicked the scene of “松下問童子 言師採藥去” in one Tang poetry.

At last, I think some Chinese comments might be helpful to convey the spirit of the shop and they are as...

This place is old and very known. However the quality of the food didnt hold up to that. The eggplant tempura for example was just fried as a whole instead like normally cut in between and than fried out flat.

So it all just tastes like vegetables with some tempura around it but the real Umami didnt come through. Those of you who had the chance to experience that know what i mean.

Apparently they source their vegetables from local farmers though.

I mean what should i say, they do just do a fine job with what they are putting out. But it misses the finesse, the tastyness so that you would not forget the dish so easily. Well i only remember that it was...

Everything was absolutely delicious. We had the 6000yen course served at the counter right in front of the chef. This was my first experience with a meal where the chef is cooking your next items by monitoring your progress. There was salt, itty bitty limes juice, and tempura sauce + grated daikon available for dipping the tempura items. The scallops were the best I've ever had, and none of the seafood tasted in the least bit fishy, just sweet and tender, and that is including eel which I had never previously tried. As featured in the guidebook Local Focus Kamakura, which is always spot-on with the restaurants...