天ぷら 梵 — Restaurant in Otaru

Stumbled upon this gem as another restaurant we originally wanted to visit denied us entry due to their early closing time, which was incorrectly captured on Google maps.

We were actually happy things worked out the way it did as this was one of the best tempura meals we had in Japan. We were lucky to enter without reservations as there was a sign saying reservations only. This was totally understandable as the restaurant could seat only 9 people. That bring said, it felt more cozy than cramped. The couple don't appear to speak much English however our limited Japanese was enough to order and communicate successfully. There is also an English menu available, however many of the more popular a la carte items were all posted on the wall written in Japanese only.

We had ordered the Seafood tempura bowl set along with many a la carte items such as scallops, oysters and mentaiko. Everything was beyond delicious and cooked right in front of you.

During our visit, all the other guests appeared to be locals so we knew we were in for a treat. Highly recommended this place outside of all the tourist trap...

Food was good and reasonably priced. Unfortunately the service did not match the food quality. We had a reservation at 11:30am and were late by 15 minutes, which we apologized for. The place was 20% full (see picture) and remained that way the whole time we were there. However, the chef pointed at his watch multiple times to rush us to order and finish our food. We were in and out within 25 minutes. Since the food was tempura only, this meant that we had to eat the burning hot tempura very quickly.

This severely impacted our experience negatively. We would totally understand if the restaurant was busy,...

There is no sign in english or japanese that booking is recommended. We went twice to this place (group of 3 people) because we really wanted to try the food. At dinner time we went 1 hour before closing time and they sent us away because there "was no more rice". We tried again the next day at lunch time. We lined up 30 minutes before opening time and the chef sent away all the people in line outside with us (the line was 13 people) because nobody had a reservation. Make sure you reserve a seat...