Tempura Matsui — Restaurant in New York

TLDR: Bottom-line, it is so much more than a tasting of fried tempura. If you've never had proper tempura before, you are missing out. You may find this to be equally as enjoyable as a true omakase.

I figured for the 500th review, it should be a happy one. I had Tempura Matsui bookmarked for more than 10 years. To call it just a tempura menu does not do it justice. If you have never been to a true tempura restaurant (hard to find outside of Japan), the precision cooking and preparation that goes into it is another level. To be candid, I actually enjoyed this more than both tempura tastings I've had in Tokyo. We came for lunch and so glad we did. Easily top 5 meals of 2023.

At $160 pp it is a lot of food and really a great value for the kind of ingredients and expertise you're getting. Starters were a Japanese potato salad with salmon roe and a sashimi plate. Both excellent.

The tempura progression starts right away and the service was fantastic. Each piece as it came out was explained, advised on how to enjoy it for optimum flavor and all the different salts, condiments, etc. Each piece and the recommended salt/sauce pairing is very intentional. Each tempura is cooked to the precise timing to maximize the quality of the ingredient, provide a crispy exterior while maintaining an overall light palette feel to the meal.

There was not a bad piece but typically the fried shrimp heads start first. So delicate, the crispy legs with the hot inside is a great starter. The maitake mushroom with the natural sprigs provides for maximum crunch and a deep earthy umami flavor. The Japanese whiting is light/fleshy with the bone fried out where it's basically a fish chip for extra crispiness. The sweet king crab leg wrapped in shiso is sweet, refreshing, crispy all at once. The Japanese eggplant was so elegantly crisp on the outside but piping hot on the inside. I especially enjoyed the recommendation to tear it open and stuff it with the bonito flakes for a flavor bomb sandwich if you will. The sea eel though, nice and big with so many crispy clusters and almost creamy-like texture on the meat. Sea eel is my favorite tempura piece, period.

You can opt to get the fried tempura cluster over rice or tendon or the tempura and tea over rice. I recommend the tendon. Tendon is half the reason to even go to a tempura tasting. We all know the best part of an omakase (outside of the tuna) is the hand roll. If there's no hand roll, it feels like a miss. Like who wants a burger without the fries?

The grapefruit jelly pudding was the perfect way to cleanse the palette and end on a note overly sweet note. Tempura Matsui is a place I'd recommend if you're into Japanese food, fine dining or just great food period. My only regret, I should have started coming here...

We came at night for the tempura omakase. For each piece, a consistent tempura skin wraps the tempura, with not much surface area for flakes or crunch. The skin wasn’t too crispy either, instead often feeling quite oily. Quite a few pieces were on the side of overfried. Service was alright, and not at all personalized for nearly 300 per person; the dishes were hastily explained. The appetizers to start were good, but not necessarily appetizing. The baby yellowtail was remarkable in terms of texture, playfully tender without any fishiness. The foie gras chawanmushi had some of the softest chawanmushi I’ve had. However, the foie gras flavor was covered by a strong dashi and mirin. Now onto tempura. The shrimp was deliciously sweet, but it could’ve been more tender, and the tempura wasn’t crispy. The second piece of the same shrimp, this time meant to be dipped in dashi, was bigger and better in terms of tempura quality. The shrimp heads that came after was especially palatable, and its high surface area was ideal to capture a light crunch. The okra was perfect. It was fried just right, which intensified its subtle flavor. The Hokkaido scallop was sweet and slightly raw inside, but could have been less cooked. Some creativity was exhibited in the middle courses. The fish was presented very creatively: the bone removed and to be had separately. The meat was so soft with some good crunch in the tempura flakes. The bone was great too; it was more deeply fried for pure crunch. The technique required for this course was outstanding. Next, the fluke wrapped uni was also creative. The uni was hot and doesn’t lose any flavor, and it was a surprisingly great pairing with the soft fish shell. The lotus root and shrimp paste 'sandwich' was featured a less ideal root that was more mature, quite starchy and less crunchy. The rice to end has a more deep fried tempura that was almost a little stale. The Dessert was quite creative: slightly jellified grapefruit with wine, then served in a cream whisky sauce. It...

This was the most beautiful birthday meal I ever had. Those were the exact words that the love of my life said after we had left Tempura Matsui and I couldn’t agree more.

Some seafood that I used to not be so crazy about like scallops, uni, and squid were beyond heavenly in our lunch meal. However, the real stars of the set lunch course were the Ebi shrimp tempura pieces, the kisu (Japanese whiting fish), anago (saltwater eel), Nasu (eggplant), maitake (hen of the wood mushroom), and so many more pieces that it’s hard to highlight them all. The ambience is very homely and incredibly clean and exquisite at the same time and the service is unbeatable. Chef Matsui is an artist at what he does, so the $160 set course per person is actually a steal for lunch prix fixe - you will not leave the meal hungry like other silly expensive lunch set course meals. Tempura Matsui really shines throughout and stands out as one of the most exceptional restaurants (not just Japanese restaurants), for the fact that it isn’t pretentious at all, and the generosity in what they do is evident. I can’t even think of a better place to take someone special for their birthday.

What’s more is I asked Chef and the maître d what the meaning of the shodo (calligraphy) behind the chef’s preparation and cooking area meant. He explained to me that when Tempura Matsui first opened, a highly respected calligraphy artist made it for the restaurant to wish them eternal good luck and to stay straight in the path. He said “it’s an old Chinese writing that saids to stay straight, and do not give up.” This poetry adorning their restaurant was very touching and moving to me and remains an indelible part of my memory. If there was a score beyond 5 stars or A+ I would give that rating to Tempura Matsui. It never disappoints. Please note for lunch and dinner set menus to alert the team of any allergies - we didn’t have any so we ate all of the...