Shunkeian Arakaki — Restaurant in Tokyo

I’ve been figuring out how to review this place because it left me surprisingly unfulfilled. Disclaimer that I am reviewing this as a non-Japanese tourist, with some but minimal experience eating tempura.

I am not usually one to be picky about ambience or service, but at this price point, with the validation of a Michelin star, I was disappointed with our experience. We were seated for dinner service with 6 people in total, 3 couples at the counter. It was intimate yet there was no music, and the environment felt cold. The chef barely acknowledged the presence of the guests, did not communicate outside of presenting each course for the first half of the meal and seemed angry and unhappy as he cooked, I suppose in the guise of what others may call focus and mastery. I am not sure if this was because we were foreigners along with one of the other couples, but we barely saw him smile and hour into our meal when he started talking with the other Japanese couple in the restaurant. Again, this is usually not what is important to me in a dining experience but the combination of the expectations of a Michelin restaurant along with the coldness that is amplified by intimacy was uncomfortable at best.

What about THE FOOD? Yes the food was good! Sort of? Maybe not for the price? And that the 8-10 tempura courses were presented the same with salt and soy/radish as the only condiments. I assume this is traditional and proper, having not had a tempura coursed meal and only having pieces of tempura as a side dish, or as a course within a meal. Really enjoyed the appetizer courses. Really enjoyed the vegetables and shrimp, but by the end of the tempura courses I felt overwhelmed by the monotony of the palate. Yes the tempura batter is amazing, light and fresh and yes you can tell the chef is a master at it his craft, but the coursed menu really fell off midway through the meal.

If you are a tempura-head you are probably scoffing at me. But if you are a foodie tourist coming here hoping for a magical dining experience, I would recommend spending your money elsewhere. Two weeks in Japan eating a variety and different scopes of meals, and this one keeps sticking out as a bummer. I really wanted to like this place and enjoy this meal, but I ultimately felt unpleasant...

If you are an American like me, you might not realize tempura can be a very refined food, and in fact this establishment is at the highest level of refinement in dining. We booked it on pocket concierge and although we know basically no Japanese, our hosts were very gracious and friendly. We were actually the only ones in there the night we went, but they still did everything 100% - pure class.

Mr. Arakaki is a really talented chef all around, everything was great, from first to last, and we're lucky to have been able to try his specialty of tempura. If you're thinking about going... just go, for us it was a really unique and...

旬恵庵...