Yoshitake

At the suggestion of our concierge at the Park Hotel we reserved a couple of seats (there are only 9 seats at the tempura bar and a few in a small room behind the bar) at this Ginza Tempura Restaurant. It was pouring rain as we got into the cab and showed him the address and off we went. He was ha...ving difficulty finding the location as we drove near what we thought was the address--he ran out and assured us the place was around the corner and down the stairs. We thanked him for going the extra mile and got out of the cab and looked down the long stairs to where he was positive the restaurant was located. I went down the stairs first and found what appeared to be the door but no amount of pushing or pulling would open the entrance. My partner had made her way down the stairs by this time and I explained my dilemma as I went back up the stairs to possible spy a number or name to confirm this was the correct place. No such luck but during the time I had run up the stairs someone else had entered the restaurant and we found out the secret trick (the door slides open). I could blame it on jet lag but it was plain old silliness. Long winded start to the review but I do it to point out a couple things; the taxi driver went above and beyond and good restaurants sometimes are located in out of the way locations—and that doors slide open most of the time! As we entered the restaurant we were met warmly by Sonia, our waitress (but she is so much more) and a nod from Chef Yamagishi Shinobu. As I mentioned the place is small but we had plenty of room at the end of the bar with view of all the action so to speak. We were the only obvious westerners in the place, certainly not a tourist restaurant. We were given the menu and there were three choices of tempura dinners—basically how many pieces of seafood and vegetables you wanted for dinner. Sonia explained more about the menu-which type of seafood would be included in the dinner and vegetables. Whatever was the freshest available. Chef asked us where we were from (NY) and he smiled and with limited English welcomed us to his restaurant. So far so good. We ordered sake from Sonia (we later found out she’s from the Piedomont area of Italy and came to Japan with her husband) and settled in choosing the middle (8 piece) tempura dinner. As each piece of tempura was put before us Chef and Sonia explained what it was and whether we should dip it in tempura sauce, put some salt on it or maybe half and half. We started with tiny shrimp heads alongside edamame, with the lightest tempura allowing for the full flavor of every morsel it coated to shine through. Crunchy and delicious shrimp heads. Next was a small dish of crab and tofu-no tempura-very tasty. Tempura spring vegetable followed—a cross between broccoli and brussel sprouts as best we could figure. Tiny fish was succeeding, missed the name but they had eyes and were thin and about 3 inches long—reminded me of baby eels or fish bate. Included a picture so you can see them before they were cooked. They were so good. Shitake mushroom was subsequent, simple, fresh and delicious. I wanted more. Scallop was up next, sweet and beautiful, only lightly fried with tempura to really taste the scallop. After the scallop we had some thinly sliced white fish (didn’t get the name) with truffles shaved over the top with some shaved veggies under it all. The flavor was amazing. The following dish was not a favorite of my partner in crime—not a fan of eating things with eyes. A small, whole, maybe 5-inch-long fish in tempura. It was quite delicious and while it had bones and fin and tail I didn’t mind at all is was different and tasty. Shrimp tempura, so sweet and fresh, followed our little fish. Dip one in tempura sauce the other in the salt—Chef advised us on every dish and made us feel right at home. Anything Chef couldn’t convey due to our not understanding Japanese Sonia was at the ready to explain. They are a great team. We had had sea urchin in the states a few times and never really warmed up to it. But we did find the preparation at this amazing tempura bar to be quite enjoyable. The sea urchin is wrapped in Japanese mint leaf and sliced in two after cooking. Really good way to enjoy Uni. Another tempura fish arrived followed by a tempura onion, sea eel and a bowl of sticky rice topped with small tempura shrimp. The meal lasted for about 2 hours, we were made to feel at home immediately (after figuring out the door problem) and we would ask Chef and Sonia about what we were eating and what others were eating, and they were so personable and forthcoming about ingredients, never being bothered by our questions. Our dinner ended with a really delicious peanut ice cream. The perfect little dessert to end a fabulous meal. We got the check and asked Sonia where we should go to grab a taxi. At this point we were getting our coats and both Chef Yamagishi and Sonia exited the restaurant with us, going up the stairs to street, in the pouring rain, to hail us a taxi. The most appreciated gesture from any restaurant I’ve ever encountered. We bid them farewell and rode back to the hotel reliving the experience we had just be so lucky to have had. You might be asking; would you go back? Well we did go back. The first time we went was on our 3rd day of the vacation. After traveling around Japan, we came back to Tokyo to wrap up the trip and on our last night we made reservations to dine with our new friends. This time we had no problem with the door or the menu as Chef Yamagishi chose the meal. They didn’t even present us with a menu-it was so perfect. They were happy to see us again and we did a bit more talking and less picture taking this time. Such a warm and unforgettable experience. Chef picked out some sake that he liked from Kyoto and we enjoyed that thoroughly. Sonia asked us to pick a couple things we’d like Chef to make--such a nice gesture, Shiitake and Uni please. Sooo good. As the night wrapped up we were sad to be leaving the next day but with this meal and meeting such great people it was an awesome way to finish out our trip to Japan. Make your reservations now—remember it’s a small place and tell Sonia and Chef Yamagishi that Sheryl and Mike say Hi from New York.

Visited February 2019