Tempura Tsunahachi Keio Shinjuku — Restaurant in Tokyo

This Tempura-ya is on the food floor of the Keio department store, which makes it a bit difficult to find. It’s around the corner from the elevators. They have some lunch specials which make it a particularly great value given the location.

We went on a weekday and that meant the Tempura bowl (Hiru Tendon) was available. But we also got the Saisai Zen and that’s definitely the best option. The Hiru Tendon is a massive bowl of rice topped with Tempura, that is then sauced and served to you. You can down it in five minutes and be back to shopping. You need to eat it fast though, because otherwise the Tempura gets soggy. That’s the biggest problem with the Hiru Tendon.

But the Saisai Zen? Performance art. They serve each piece one at a time, and give you a variety of sauces, dips, and two types of salt. It’s wonderful. Sitting at the counter, it was the equivalent of those Sushi chefs making each piece and setting it down… except deep fried. Yeahhhhhhh. Highly recommended.

The counters were full by the time 12:00 rolled around though, so definitely come here just after opening unless you...

Vacation with the family. Pre-booked this place. They struggle with taking a phone call in English, but eventually was able to book for 9pax. Given the effort taken to booked, very much wanted the place to be great. It’s very good, price is reasonable, it is tasty. But somehow the batter wasn’t very crispy, which was a bit of a disappointment. The sauce and different sauce made it feel exquisite, but how to justify 5 stars when the main attraction - the tempura - doesn’t live up to...

The waitress was very friendly and helpful, took our bags and coats to be stowed away before ushering us to the counter The chef was also very friendly and accommodating as we told them that we don't eat vegetables so they changed up some of the dishes for us 🥰🥰 The tempura, oh my god they were so fresh the seafood literally came out from the aquarium live and prepared immediately before they were coated in the batter and fried right...