Tenshiba

I can’t eat tempura anywhere else since I had here.
Always come here when I go back to Japan.

This is the tempura restaurant located inside the Prince Park Tower hotel and is one of the No1DP’s most favorite restaurants in Japan. He promised me if I were to ever visit him in Japan he would take me here.
As the No1DP went to the front to take care of the bill, he noticed that our dinner companion that night paid for both of our meals including drinks. Thank you for that gesture, whoever you were. We both enjoyed your company as well.
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VENUE: Located in the bottom floors of the Prince Park Tower hotel. Seating options include private booths and an area where you can see the chef make your tempura.
SERVICE: Didn’t see much of the waitstaff. There was some interaction between me and the chef. He was nice enough to let me take pictures of him cooking each piece. Should you take pictures of the tempura, do it as quickly as possible. The tempura does cool quickly.
The No1DP and I ordered their dinner tasting menu tempura option (￥10,290 *per person* + 10% service charge). Dinner is from 5:30 — 10:00pm, last call 9:30pm. Tasting menu includes 10 pieces of tempura, miso soup, seaweed salad, closing tempura dish and fruits for dessert. I also had 2 beers with the tempura dinner. Beer was light and crisp.
Not pictured was that there are three different types of salts you can dip your tempura. There’s the traditional green tea salt and a curry salt. Both give the saltiness and a little bit of whatever the salt is flavored with on the tempura, but not too heavy if you don’t put too much.
Your plates are set up before the tempura is served. Daikon is severed as an accompanying condiment to your tempura. The soft tofu in soy sauce is meant to be an amuse.
First dish is traditionally prawn. The head is fried and served separately. Yes, you can eat the head.
Halfway through the tempura courses they serve you salad consisting of mushrooms, some leafy greens and seaweed. It is wet yet light but it could be a little too foreign to an American taste.
Tempura consisted of 5 seafood pieces and 4 vegetable pieces. I was used to eating them with rice back in the US, but if you did that here you’d be stuffed before you got even halfway through the course. It is best to eat each piece as it comes off the deep fryer. Once you finish with a piece they serve you almost immediately with the next piece.
Seafood: prawn, clam, kisu (whiting), megochi (flathead) and small ayu (sweetfish).
Vegetables: 2 servings of asparagus, kabocha, Japanese eggplant and shiitake mushroom.
Closing dish consisted of kakiage (mixed tempura fritters) and rice, which you choose your preparation two ways. I chose to have it served plain over rice while the No1DP did it the more traditional Japanese way as an ochazuke (kakiage rice tea soup). Kakiage consisted of mixed fried shrimp and scallions. Rice was fluffy, kakiage was still as light and crunchy as the previous tempura pieces.
Dessert consisted of two pieces of strawberry, three pieces of pineapple and a side of condensed milk. As each tempura course is light, it is fitting that the dessert course be light as well. The strawberries and pineapples were fresh and sweet, something which is becoming harder to find in US restaurants.
Though a little on the upscale side (a lot of good tempura places are), if you want to try a more unique Japanese experience, try eating at an all-​tempura restaurant.