Tempura Matsui - best tempura experience so far

Tempura Matsui is a probably the only fancy tempura restaurant that I know in NYC (one michelin star). It opened in late 2015 and received good review from NY Times. Luckily for us, they offered an offer in Gilt City which I believed is a very good deal.

We got the Matsui dinner which cost $200 per person (original price). The deal costed us $199 for 2 person.

Having gone to Tempura Kondo in Tokyo, I was surprised to be greeted by young chefs. I later learned that the head chef has passed away.

First up is the seasonal starter - fluke with vegetables, corn and flava bean.

Next is the sashimi assortment of the day- fatty tuna on shiso leaves, amberjack and (??).

What's interesting about the setup is that you can be creative with your food. Top left, you can see that there are two kinds of salt- miso salt and german rock salt. Top right is a lemon squeezer where you can add lemon to your tempura. 

The large bowl at the bottom left is the tempura dipping sauce where you can dunk grated daikon (right bowl) on it to give the dipping sauce more body. For each meal, the chef will provide recommendation on how you should season the tempura. For example, pair one of the salt with/without lemon, or to just use the dipping sauce. I had fun trying other kinds of combination to each dish.

The two salts.

The german rock salt comes from the big rock behind the counter.

So, what do you get in this course? Obviously, you will get the prawn and prawn heads.

Asparagus

Don't remember what these are..

Scallops. You can see that the chef cooked it right as it's still rare inside.

Lotus root.

Eggplants wrapped in eel.

Pumpkin.

Corn fritters.

White fish.

I asked the chef what they do with all of the leftover crumbs. I believed he said that it's either used in some dishes or they eat it with staffs/family.

The next three dishes are add-ons (outside the dinner course). Shiitake mushroom.

Squid.

Uni. This could have been presented better though.

As a cleanser is the somen noodle with fresh vegetables.

Steamed egg custard & foie gras topped with crab sauce. This is very good. It's soft and flavorful.

For the rice course, you can opt for either ten-don or ten-cha.

Below is ten-cha, tempura rice bowl topped with tea.

Below is ten-don, rice with tempura on top.

Lastly is the refreshment. If I recall correctly, it's yuzu ice cream with matcha.

So what's the final verdict? Compared with the two tempura places that I tried before in Japan (Tempura Kondo- two michelin star and Tempura tsunahachi), I'll rate this the highest. First, it's fun to be explore different flavor profile by combining the tempura with different seasoning. Second, non-tempura courses (e.g., egg custard and sashimi) are better options than what was offered in Tempura Kondo. You can read more about my experience with Tempura Kondo in here. 

The only downside is that this tempura course (original price) is more expensive than Tempura Kondo. Will probably have to wait for deal to eat at here again.

Tempura Kondo: 2-Michelin-starred Tempura restaurant (Tokyo)

One of the foods to try in Japan is their tempura and my friend selected Tempura Kondo. She made the reservation months earlier. Finding the place is a challenge as it is located in a white building which looked like an office building. Furthermore, the restaurant name is in Japanese.

Anyway, the restaurant is divided in 2-sections. Head chef Kondo is in-charge of the section near the entrance, and we got his assistant. The guy (in picture below) looked very serious and hardly talked. Both of the people worked like assembly line, someone prepped the food and the other fried the food. Sesame oil was used in great quantity and periodically changed, probably 3-5 times for our meals.Yup, a lot of oil was thrown away.

Several vegetables were chosen for the tempura. If you want to order the sweet potato (ala-carte only), you have to requested for it 30-40 minutes in advance.

If I recalled correctly, there were 3-4 tempura options. One was the 11,000 Yen meal set and the other was 14,000 meal set. We chose one each for full experience. On hindsight, it was better to select for the cheaper set. I will explain why below.

For the 14k set, you received a couple of extra stuffs. Most of them were not exactly 'tempura'. Items shown below were presented according to the food sequence served. I didn't get full descriptions from the chef or the waitress, so I am describing below based on my best understanding.

First of the 14k set was a mixture of escargot, monkfish liver, yam and fish. It was ok, nothing special.

2nd set of the 14k set is a tofu dish. It was kinda lukewarm when I ate it. It was so-so too.

Tiger shrimp heads were served in both sets. These shrimps were still alive or drunk when the heads were extracted. It was a nice crispy appetizers.

Next was a set of asparagus, followed by eggplant. From here onwards, I noticed that the batter was very thin and flaky. I am not sure what made this tempura shop to stand out and received 2 Michelin stars, but I don't find the same satisfaction as what I could get from the tendon place that I ate the night before (and for 1/10 of the price). Yes, the thin batter kept the ingredients flavor intact, but I was longing for more...

Eggplant

White fish tempura was not bad. Flavor was kinda subtle but it's more enjoyable than the earlier bunch. I believed I ate all of it, including the tail.

I think this was another set from the 14K set. Some kind of veg but couldn't remember what.

Lotus root. One of the best dishes of the night. Can't get wrong with it.

Next was uni wrapped in shiso leaf. The preparation was a little different here. After wrapping the uni in the leaf, the chef lowered the leaf in the fry using his hand for about 5 seconds to ensure that the uni was still intact before letting it go. No hesitation near the frying oil.

Final product.

It was one of the memorable dishes of the night, but based on uni alone, I preferred the one that I got from the Tsukiji fish market.

The shiitake mushroom was another set from the 14K set. It is one of my favorites and you should try it if you opted for the 11k set.

Onion tempura. So-so.

Sea eel tempura. One of the highlights as well.

Tiger prawn. Tender and still juicy tempura.

For the last option, you can select one of the 3 rice dishes. This one below was the shrimp karaage with seafood soup.

Another option is the shrimp ochazuke where you dipped the tea in the rice bowl.

We also tried the sweet potato from our friend. It was moist and sweet but it was a little too much to eat one for yourself. It is best shared with someone or you might not be able to finish it up.

Lastly, a fruit plate was served. Didn't remember to take picture as I wasn't expecting much. Boy I was wrong. It was one of life changing fruits as the orange was very sweet and it felt like I'm eating jelly. There's not much of pith so all bites were enjoyable.

So, would I recommend this to anyone? Not really. Some dishes were a hit, but I won't come back again. Personally, I like to eat a crispy and sinful tempura dishes. Based on that factor alone, I didn't felt satisfied on this meal. Best that you tried this tendon place日本橋天丼 金子半之助 instead.