Eating tempura at a counter

For the Japanese, eating food at a counter is pure luxury. You have to commit yourself to pay a lot if you dare sit in front of the chef himself. This is particularly so at a sushi place or tempura place. You choose to sit there when you don't want the food to be 1 minute old but about 5 seconds old when served. And the chef would carefully examine whether you are liking his food or not, and can improvise.

On Saturday, my father took us to a lunch tempura course in this style at Tenkuni in Ginza. The restaurant has been around for 120 years and I always remembered this place since childhoold (it's in front of Hakuhinkan, the best toy store in the world). We ordered the course kiku, which was super luxe but very generously priced because it's lunch time (I highly recommend this!).

It was so nice to taste the freshest ingredients, presented to you in the most simple way, prepared right in front of you.

Ginza Tenkuni
8-9-11 Ginza, Chuo, Tokyo Prefecture 104-0061, Japan
+81 3-3571-1092 | www.tenkuni.com/