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 has the same level of craftsmanship as some of 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…
