A note on the words: tempura is seafood and vegetables in a thin batter, fried piece by piece and handed straight to you, and tentsuyu is the warm dipping sauce of stock, soy and mirin that goes with it, usually taken with grated daikon — the long white radish — stirred in. Sakizuke is the small opening course. Kisu is Japanese whiting, a slim white fish; anago is saltwater conger eel, milder than the freshwater kind. Shishito are small mild green peppers, shiso is the sharp green perilla leaf, maitake is the frilly hen-of-the-woods mushroom, and kabocha is the dense sweet Japanese squash. Kakiage is a fritter of small pieces bound together in batter, and tendon is a bowl of rice with tempura on top and sauce poured over. Shijimi are the little dark freshwater clams used in miso soup. Shochu is Japan’s clear distilled spirit, here made from barley. An Edokko is someone born and bred in old Tokyo, a type traditionally teased for being impatient.
Table of Contents hide
Tempura Hatsuho on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Hey, this is Hangover Meshi. I was hunting around for somewhere to eat in Akasaka when I found a tempura place, “Tempura Hatsuho.” Come to think of it, I may never really have eaten tempura in Akasaka, so I booked a table to give it a try. It’s in the cluttered stretch right by Akasaka-mitsuke Station. Saying it’s near the Picasso branch of Don Quijote might make it easier to picture. The area is a jumble, but you walk into a tired little multi-tenant building, step out of the elevator and suddenly there’s a first-class shopfront in front of you — that’s style for you, ha. Ginza-ish, or maybe Roppongi-ish, lol.
Tempura course Akasaka 8,800 yen
Tempura course Toyama 11,000 yen
Tempura course Hatsuho 14,300 yen
Basically it comes down to how much food you get.
Not being able to finish, or forcing down food when you’re already full, isn’t good either, ha — so for a first visit I chose the orthodox Akasaka course. Even the cheapest one has ten items, you know! Will I manage it, I wonder.
So, drinks first. I asked for a barley shochu with soda. Not bad, I’d say?
The salt is what we’d recommend, they said — so, several kinds of salt.
Plus the tentsuyu and grated daikon.
One of us was actually running late, so I sat tight with this while we waited for everyone to arrive ^^. It goes just right with a drink, doesn’t it.
Once we were all present and correct, they showed us the ingredients they’d be frying today. Lovely — I do like this bit. Looking forward to it.
Crisply fried shrimp head — or rather, the body part. Fried until it’s crisp and fragrant and doesn’t leave anything behind in your mouth. Good.
Nicely fried, that! A pinch of salt sprinkled over, a bite, and it’s fluffy and hot!
So sweet!
Yes, that’s a good shrimp. Delicious.
Shrimp wrapped in shiso. This one gains the freshness of the shiso and becomes a different thing again.
Plump, springy shishito. One with salt, the other with the tentsuyu.
Vegetables come out quite hot, so eating the first one with the tentsuyu lets you get straight to it, ha.
Well, there’s no need to be in a hurry the way an Edokko is supposed to be, but somehow I always end up eating the first one with the tentsuyu.
Fluffy, hot kisu. That lean, clear, clean sweetness and savory flavor is irresistible.
The kisu too: the top half with salt, the bottom half with tentsuyu loaded with grated daikon. So good!
Squid! Plump, tender, with a sweetness to it. Eating it with salt was the good way.
The lotus root has a sweetness to it as well — lovely. The lotus root I had with the tentsuyu.
It’s piping hot and it bursts, so this is one to eat carefully ^^.
Something like this, too, you can eat straight away if you dip it in the tentsuyu. The tentsuyu and the juicy, dripping eggplant go together.
Anago, hot and flaky. The flesh was on the thin side so it had gone crisp instead. Which is fine in its own way, ha.
Hot, floury kabocha. Practically a dessert ^^
They put a kakiage on rice and pour the sauce over it, tendon style.
Honestly I was already pretty full, so a little tendon perched in a bowl this size is just right. There wasn’t much rice, so anyone who wants a proper bowlful might find it a bit short, but in that case they ask you before the tendon whether you’d like to add anything else, so that’s the way to handle it!
So — my first visit here, and it’s a very calm room with nothing but a counter (there may well be a private room somewhere I just couldn’t see, ha) and it’s an easy place to spend time in. The tempura that comes out is properly delicious, and you end up drinking too much while the conversation runs away with you! The amount of tempura was just right too, so if I’d gone one plan higher I might not have finished it.
Tempura Hatsuho (Tempura / Akasaka-mitsuke Station, Akasaka Station, Tameike-sanno 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?
