This restaurant was listed in the Michelin Guide and was awarded 2 star. The specialty here is tempura.

I had lunch here. The menu for lunch and dinner was the same actually, so I would recommend you to try dinner instead, and go somewhere else where lunch is cheaper!

Other than tempura they also had tai-ryori, which was Sea Bream rice. We ordered 2 tempura sets and sea bream rice to share. The tempura set costs  ¥2300 ($28.75) and the sea bream rice costs  ¥2100 ($26.25) per pax with the minimum order of 2 pax.

You can choose either counter or table seats. We wanted to watch the chef in action, so we took the counter. Not to worry, the oil wouldn’t get on you and greasy smell on hair and clothes is minimal. The frying skills of the chef-owner was really good. Throughout the whole meal, he made everything look so easy and everything was fried to precision.

The Food:

The tempura was very different from what we normally see in Singapore. The batter was very light and not hard and crunchy. It is to be eaten with salt and no dipping sauce was provided. This style seems similar to the famous 3 star tempura restaurant in Tokyo. There was 3 prawns in total and the first prawn served at the beginning of the meal tastes very different from the last 2! There was one item which wasn’t battered and that was the bread, served 2nd in line. Overall the tempura was great in consistency and there was no traces of unfresh oil despite it being reused throughout our meal. Despite having so many pieces of tempura, it didn’t get too overwhelming like it would when you have too much fried food at once, because the batter was light and wasn’t too oily.

For the sea bream rice, they would mix the fish up for you, removing all bones. It was very tasty and obviously we couldn’t finish it after having the tempura. They kindly packed it for us and told us that we could keep it for up to 1 day. Reheating isn’t a problem because microwave ovens are available for use at leading department stores like Daimaru, but even when chilled, the sea bream rice was still good to eat!

Who is this for:

If you dislike the typical tempura we have in Singapore because of how oily and overwhelming with flour like it normally is, this may change your perspective. Also if you are looking for tempura with the style similar to the famous 3 star restaurant in Tokyo, 7 Chome Kyobashi, this may be the Osaka alternative. (Disclaimer: I haven’t tried to myself, but from pictures it sure looks similar.)

Value:

I think it has very good value, at $28.75 for the tempura set. The tempura was more outstanding and has better value than the sea bream rice, so just try the tempura.

Ambiance:

The setting here was very plain and has no luxe factor to speak of, so this is more like a place for a casual meal than for celebrartory purposes.

Overall thoughts:

The tempura has met my expectations and I like how they take tempura seriously here. It is rare to see a restaurant dedicated to tempura in Singapore.

与太呂本店 Yotaro Honten

大阪府大阪市中央区高麗橋2-3-14 宗右衛門町和光ビル

2-3-14, Kouraibashi, Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka, 541-0043