A note on the words: tempura-gushi means tempura fried on a skewer, as distinct from kushiage, where the skewer is breaded in panko. Otoshi is the small appetizer you are charged for at a Japanese pub — it is not a scam, it is the cover charge. Mozuku is a fine seaweed usually served in vinegar, nagaimo is a crisp Japanese yam, nanohana is rape blossom greens, and fukinoto is the bitter, edible bud of the butterbur, a Japanese sign of spring. Sakiika is dried squid torn into strips. Dashimaki tamago is a rolled omelet made with dashi broth, nametake is seasoned enoki mushroom, negi is Japanese long onion, mentaiko is spiced pollock roe, and dote-nikomi is beef tendon simmered slowly in miso. Zosui is a savory rice porridge, often eaten at the end of a meal.
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Shinjuku Gyoen Tempura-gushi Yamamotoya on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hello, this is Hangover Meshi. This time I went a little farther afield, out to Shinjuku Gyoen. From around Shinjuku-sanchome across to Gyoen there really are a lot of good places to eat! While hunting for one, I found what looked like a stylish tempura-gushi place near Gyoen. Tempura-gushi… not kushiage but tempura on skewers — now that I am curious about! So I booked straight away: “Shinjuku Gyoen Tempura-gushi Yamamotoya.” It turned out to be right by the exit of Shinjuku-gyoemmae Station. Close!
Inside there is a big U-shaped counter with a scattering of tables around it.
The room has a nice feel to it.
[2H all-you-can-drink with sparkling wine] Grated wild yam plus three kinds of tempura, eight dishes <12 items total> 6,000 yen
[2H all-you-can-drink with sparkling wine] Grated wild yam plus three kinds of tempura, eight dishes <12 items total> 7,500 yen
[2H all-you-can-drink with sparkling wine] Grated wild yam plus three kinds of tempura, eight dishes <12 items total> 9,600 yen
Going with a course changes the contents a little, and there are three price tiers to choose from.
That said, only three tempura skewers felt like too few to me, so we decided we would rather build the meal around the tempura skewers and order a la carte instead.
As soon as we sat down they brought over a sample tray: pick your otoshi from these!
They also showed us the skewers before frying and explained what they had — a nice touch!
What I picked was mozuku in vinegar with nagaimo and cucumber. A generous portion, which is always welcome!
A skewer of seasonal vegetable and fresh fish, I suppose. For this season, Spanish mackerel and nanohana. Nicely spring-like! Though it is still chilly out, ha.
It comes with sesame sauce! A fragrant sauce that matches beautifully and lifts the seasonal ingredients further!
Sakiika tempura. This is the delicious one. Because it is airy, light sakiika fried as tempura, the texture stays soft and light and it eats very easily. It is like crunching through squid-flavored batter, ha. Delicious.
Some sake along the way as well.
Next, the rolled omelet. It looked good, and it turned out to be surprisingly substantial too!
Six weighty slices of omelet. One bite, and the flavor of the nametake and the sweetness of the dashimaki go together! The clean bite of the negi is good too.
The menu says something about it depending on the size, which I take to be why the price varies slightly from listing to listing, but when it arrived I was startled by how big it was! And the head is edible too, this one. I crunched my way through the whole thing, tail included — a sweet, melting shrimp and very good indeed!
When there is dote-nikomi on the menu I cannot help myself. This is the sort of thing that makes the sake disappear!
It is this big, ha.
Packed with shiitake savor, and delicious! Bite into it and the mushroom’s juices come flooding out. Even the stem end has a texture all its own and is properly good.
I was getting quite full by now, but the young folks I was with said they could still eat plenty, ha.
I envy those iron stomachs! I was given one, and a whole mentaiko sac rolled inside makes for a seriously satisfying bite!
Fukinoto, opened out and fried. It looks lovely, like a flower, and the little dab of miso on top is good too.
That distinctive bitterness is delicious. The taste of spring. Great!
Raw oyster tempura. Raw… raw? Ha.
Well, it may simply mean the oysters are fresh enough to be eaten raw and they fry those. Presumably because running a skewer through it would let all the delicious oyster juice run out, this one comes as plain tempura rather than on a stick. Take one bite and the oyster’s savor floods out — simply delicious, and hot! Do be careful eating it.
Speak of spring and you speak of bamboo shoots. There was a slightly hard tip in mine, and it was a bit stringy, which was a shame.
And last, the famous closing dishes: “Are” (That Thing) and “Sore” (That Other Thing).
The names give away absolutely nothing about what is coming, but when we ordered, out came udon!
And “Sore” appears to be zosui, a rice porridge, ha.
Since the menu lists it as the “Sore” that follows the “Are,” I suspect ordering “Sore” on its own is probably not easy, ha.
Well, that is far too full. Or rather, I realized that the reason the courses only include three tempura skewers is that nobody can eat more than that. Yes — each and every skewer is simply big, ha. I think this time I plainly overate. Calorie control I will leave to each of you, but the room was comfortable, so this could be a good one for drinking around Gyoen!
Shinjuku Gyoen Tempura-gushi Yamamotoya (Izakaya / Shinjuku-gyoemmae Station, Yotsuya-sanchome Station, Shinjuku-sanchome Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.5
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
One more for the road?
