San-Sada — Restaurant in Tokyo

Let me clear up some issues with Google reviews for this restaurant. They're either really good or really bad. The reality is that people don't (or can't) read the menu. They serve two different kinds of tempura here. If you order something like the tenzaru (tempura shrimp with cold buckwheat noodles and broth ¥1600), you will get the usual kind of tempura served in Japanese restaurants. It's light and somewhat crunchy. However, they serve a second kind of tempura which is a 185-year-old family recipe. That is the "special" tempura (¥3600 and it is served already dipped in a broth-like dipping sauce. It's served on a bed of rice so the rice is also saturated with this dipping sauce. This explains some of the "wet" complaints in many reviews. That's why you have two very different kinds of reviews for this restaurant because people don't realize that the special tempura is very different than the normal tempura. It also explains the color difference in some of the tempura photos. The light colored is normal but the dark colored is already dipped in a sauce. As far as service goes, we were seated immediately and served tea and oshinko (pickles). They have an English language menu with photos. There was a bit of a delay taking our order because the takeout window was doing huge business. We had to wait a few minutes but really it was no problem and getting the food was fairly quick after we ordered. The staff was fine, moderately friendly and there were no problems with service. Just judging by conversations, most of the people in there are locals. We were the only foreigners...

My cousin and his husband treated my boyfriend and I in Kaminarimon Sansada. We didn't have any bad experience here, the old lady who served us was actually very friendly! We were the only ones eating at that time as they were closing soon.

The food here was delish! My boyfriend and I ordered "tendon" (tempura rice bowl), while my cousin and her husband ordered mixed tempura. The old lady who served us seems like the owner. She was telling us that the restaurant is a family business for fourth (I think?) generation now. The place was established in 1837 and the oldest tempura restaurant in Japan! It is said that the tendon originated from here!

The old lady doesn't speak English but my cousin was the one translating everything to us. My cousin's husband is a Japanese so he was basically talking to the old lady.

We were able to customize our food since my cousin and her husband speaks Japanese! They can relay everything to our server! Haha! Anyway, the food here is pricey and very popular to the locals! I saw a long line here once when my boyfriend and I were passing by.

Note: Their "tendon" coating here is soft as it was already soaked in a sauce. That's why they don't give you a separate tempura sauce if you ordered it. If you want the crispy tempura version then they have that in here, as well, but it's not...

I went here last year in July as part of a group of Mexican students who took a short residence at Chiba Institute of Technology. I was surprised that our "caretakers" brought us here, as I assumed eating in a restaurant right in front of Kaminarimon would be prohibitely expensive. I didn't have one of the best experiences there. I noticed that practically none of the clients were Japanese (most of them spoke Chinese, English or French), so the place stunk like tourist trap to me. It does offer a bit of the Japan experience; the place was quite narrow and crowded, and of course we had to take off our shoes inside. I felt the tempura was too greasy and bitter for my taste, although the rice was fine. When we finished, I saw at least five restaurants in nearby streets that looked better and seemingly served much better food. It wasn't the worst experience, but I'd recommend you to seek restaurants where locals eat. It's usually cheaper, quicker and tastier. Also, take the star ratings on most restaurants with a grain of salt; while for us Westerners anything below 4 means "bad", it appears that for the Japanese "3" means "good"...