Chestnut
Before I move on to all the new sushi shops I visited in Tokyo, I just have to share these few images from 7 chome Kyoboshi (see the full review here). Until recently it was the only tempura restaurant in the world to hold 3 Michelin stars, but this year it has mysteriously disappeared from the red guide.
Some people consider it’s not worth paying serious money for tempura omakase, but for me 7 chome Kyoboshi is more enjoyble than some of the Tokyo’s top kaiseki places. 63 year old Shigeya Sakakibara has mastered vegetables and fish frying to perfection. His tempura batter is so thin and so fine, it is almost transparent, and, Sakakibara-san himself is a very cool personnage. I’ve never seen his 10 seat counter restaurant in Ginza full – it could be I guess, if the prices were slightly adjusted and if Sakakibara-san cared… This time he introduced us to some totally new ingredients,such as chestnut and waguy, never seen before at any tempura restaurant in Tokyo…
Croque-monsieur with shrimp
Lotus root
Fava beans
Mild tasting Japanese onion
Japanese whiting
Baby corn
Shirao fish
Shrimp
Wagyu
Musk melon
Shigeya Sakakibara