Tempura Yamanoue Roppongi

Founded in the ‘50s, in the Hilltop Hotel, Tempura Yamanoue is famed for the ten-don that fueled the Showa-era writers who called Hilltop Hotel their second home. Its signature style of tempura is now more easily accessible in the fashionable Roppongi district, connected directly to Roppongi Station, and now one of the area’s most popular options for affordable yet luxurious tempura. Course menus reinvigorate the spirit with sustaining, but easy-to-eat food. With technique honed over more than seven decades, Tempura Yamanoue’s high-temperature frying and light-as-air batter turn fish tails and shrimp shells into addictive, crispy morsels. Tempura Yamanoue’s specific choice of egoma (perilla) oil for frying keeps the tempura light and airy, with the oil’s neutral flavor also complementing delicate seasonal ingredients. Prepared just behind the serving counter and eaten piping hot, the tempura is best balanced by a house selection of alcoholic beverages. A selection of wines invokes the Parisian literary cafe tradition, while sake and shochu are also available for tempura traditionalists. Outside of the plump shrimp included in every meal, a seasonal menu of vegetables and seafood upholds the tenets of Japanese cooking: minimize waste, respect timeliness, and harmonize appearance and flavor. Course menus afford guests customization with a choice between a classic ten-don, a ten-cha of tempura over tea-soaked rice, and ten-bara, a rare, mixed variety of ten-don that marries a variety of textures with chopped kakiage tempura mixed into rice. All of this is served in front of wide windows, from which guests can overlook Tokyo’s stunning skylines day or night. The private room features hallmarks of interior design that highlights tempura’s long history in Tokyo.