Spring is my favorite time of year for tempura as sansai, mountain vegetables, are featured at good restaurants serving tempura. At the top of this box is udo (spikenard), which reminds me of a tender and somewhat bitter white asparagus. The other vegetable is renkon (lotus root).
Tenmatsu at Nihonbashi bridge, just between Nihonbashi and Mitsukoshi-Mae stations on the Ginza line, has long been a favorite spot of mine. I used to work at Takashimaya which is just a five-minute walk from here and would sometimes come for a solo lunch. The lunch here is a great bargain at under 1,000 JPY for tempura that is made and served to you piece-by-piece as it comes out of the oil. Here you see the chef’s work spot. Some flour that the ingredients are dipped in before being covered with an egg, flour, and water batter before being deep-fried.
Here is the udo to start off the meal. At home we blanch udo and then dress it with mayonnaise. But tempura is probably the best way to enjoy it.
This is a special technique when putting in items to the hot oil, to gently toss away from you into the hot oil. Part of the joy of sitting at the counter at a tempura restaurant is listening to the oil as it sputters. A good tempura chef will know when items are ready to be pulled out of the oil by the sound it makes when it is done frying. On the plate is asparagus and shiitake. My friend got two pieces of shrimp for this course.
Squid and lotus root. I love the chef’s smile. 🙂
In the large round bowl is the chef’s batter mixture. He also uses two different chopsticks. A wooden pair for the flour and batter and then a metal pair for working in the oil.
Tenmatsu is in my book, Food Sake Tokyo. The chef in this photo is the same chef that is in my book. It is quite busy at lunch time so either go early or late. Be sure to request a seat at the counters on the 1st or 2nd floor. The 3rd floor is tables only and you miss out on watching the chef prepare the tempura in front of you. They are open on Sundays and holidays which is good to keep in mind as most shops in this area are closed on these days. The main shop is in Shibuya.
Note that at lunch time there is a vegetable only tempura set lunch.
Chuo-ku, Nihonbashi Muromachi 1-8-2
03-3241-5840
Lunch 11:00 – 14:00 (Sat., Sun., and holidays until 14:30)
Dinner 17:00 – 21:00
Food Sake Tokyo 
We so enjoy waking up in L.A. to your posts and vicariously plan an afternoon or evening around traveling and eating at to the spot you have discovered. Love the text, photos and history. Makes us want to hurry back to Tokyo. Jeff
Arigato! Thanks for the kind words! Hope you can make it back for a visit soon.
I have not been by to say hello in a while, my apologies, my father-in-law passed away, so there was a lot of travel in between prefectures, however, seeing delicious food spread about on your blog, makes me smile, my favourite, Renkon!
Sorry to hear about your father-in-law. Who doesn’t love renkon?