Tempura Matsui

Tempura Matsui is a Michelin 1-star restaurant in Manhattan that specializes in tempura omakase. I had previously gone to another tempura omakase at Secchu Yokota. As I said previously, I really enjoy tempura as a whole, so I am very curious how a Michelin Star tempura tasting compares to a hidden gem tasting. Fortunately, my partner went to see a Broadway show, so it gave me the ability to solo dine at this restaurant. It was very easy to make reservations for one person the night prior.

Ambiance & Service

When you walk into the restaurant, you check in with the host. Immediately in front of your view is the counter top tasting for the tempura tasting. This room has a few small tables and a counter where the tempura chefs are residing. I was seated at the furthest left seat.

The ambiance has some faint music playing, but when it comes to the energy balance of the room, it was awkward for me because my back was facing the entrance to this room. In this room, they have around 3-4 servers that explain your courses. The weirdness with this is that they are standing no more than 3-5 feet away from you, or in my case, directly behind me. You always have this feeling that someone was lurking over your shoulder.

The service itself was very attentive, friendly, and swift. I’m a fast eater, so the tempura cooks observed that and were good at pacing the delivery of the tempura dishes. However, I was a little annoyed by the fact that it felt that these servers were lurking over my back and not giving much space. It also felt like the host was lurking as well since they’ve come up behind me and ask how everything was. Generally, you probably want to try to approach from the side, at least at an angle so you don’t surprise the person.

The timing of the service towards the end was interesting in an unexpected way. They gave me some fruit, but I had not finished my beer yet. I didn’t know if the fruit was the last course or not, so I was just drinking my beer casually. The host commented to me, “How was everything? Please take your time to finish your beer”. I think that was a soft cue that they were just waiting for me to finish my beer before giving me the check. In some ways, I can see how they see that as respectful, but I think it’s customary in NYC tasting experiences where restaurants would provide me the check once the course is completed regardless if the drinks are finished or not. Of course, I gulped my beer to test my hypothesis, and the check and transaction completed very quickly as expected.

Food

The cost of the tempura omakase is $250 as of this writing. According to the website, they plan to raise it to $280 on September 5, 2023. With the main course, I opted to add salmon ikura topping for an additional $20. More on this later.

Let’s get to the food now.

The Yuzu Lemonade Mocktail ($10) came with yuzu juice, lemon juice, syrup, and sparkling water. This was super crisp and quite delectable. The reality is that this was a great drink pairing for just about everything this evening, but I finished it too fast because I was thirsty from the hot weather. Looking back, I should have been more patient, so that I wouldn’t feel compelled to order more drinks.

The appetizer came with herring roe with bonito flakes. The herring roe seemed like it was crystallized into something and had some physical seaweed pieces imbued in it. The layer of roe had some pop to it as if you were eating a piece of kelp, and it was very light. It had some spinach underneath. There was some slight vinegar pickling to the broth.

The sashimi came with 2 pieces of different toros (tuna belly) and baby kanpachi (yellowtail). They give you some fresh grated wasabi, some radish with shiso leaf, and some seaweed. The fish was excellent and very fresh. Both toros were basically melt-in-your-mouth experiences.

The chawanmushi course came with an option of either infused foie gras or mixed seafood. I chose the mixed seafood, which came with snow crab, ikura, shrimp, and scallop pieces. The egg custard was quite delicate and silky yet very full in flavor. The seafood ingredients were all quite tasty.

They setup your tray with the tempura setup. From left clockwise to right:

1. tempura sauce
2. seaweed salt,
3. empty small bowl for lemon juice
4. a metal lemon juice squeezer
5. finely grated daikon ball

They ask that you take the finely grated daikon ball and place it into the tempura sauce. I’m guessing they don’t do it for you because some people may not want the whole entire daikon ball in there. I just put it in, and mixed it around. For the lemon juice, you just squeeze the metal handles, and the lemon juice comes out. You can pour it into the empty small bowl.

The shrimp heads came with 2 pieces. I tried it with the salt and the lemon, and both were quite good. I did think that the heads were on the smaller side.

The amaebi (sweet shrimp) body was pretty good. The sweetness is a bit subdued especially when you sprinkle some salt on it. Note that the tail is edible like a chip.

The tiger shrimp body was also pretty good. They ask that you dip this into the tempura daikon dipping sauce and shovel out some of the daikon.

The sweet potato came with 2 pieces, and they came in lieu of maitake mushrooms. Even though I can probably stomach maitake much more than button up mushrooms, I told the servers no mushrooms, but truffle was fine.

Aside, the batter for the tempura so far is different than Secchu Yokota in that it’s more crispy and fluffy. It’s still not the best batter I’ve had in my life, but it’s quite good albeit very modest in quantity.

The pickled garlic was served prior to the next tempura course. They ask you to use this for the next one.

The Japanese white fish came with crispy deep-fried bone and the fish split in half. They ask for one half of the fish to use the tempura dipping sauce and the other half to use the pickled garlic. The crispy deep fried bone can just simply use the salt. The fish was quite dense, but very tasty with no fishiness to it.

The snow crab meat was wrapped with a shiso leaf. Without adding anything, it was immediately obvious that the crab meat was very succulent with noticeable sweetness to it without any type of seasoning. The lemon juice amplified that effect. And with the shiso leaf, it was quite pleasant, though I am very much enjoy the flavors of shiso.

The Orion bottled beer ($12) was a blonde that came from Okinawa. This was light, albeit filling. As I reflect, I probably should have resisted this as my brain started signaling my body that it was getting full after a few more courses.

The sweet corn was sweet and delicious with either salt or lemon juice. Imagine you take a knife and cut a flat part of a side of corn out. This was basically that, and amazingly the corn stuck together when it was fried.

For the next course, they gave some truffle salt.

The Hokkaido sea scallop was pretty good. Unfortunately because it was deep fried, the outside turns slightly more rubbery than desired, but the interior temperature was quite pleasant. With the truffle salt and some lemon, it was pretty good.

The green pepper with chopped shrimp was great, though it tasted exactly as it sounds. Remember that this has no prior seasoning, so a little pinch of salt went a long ways. The shrimp had subtle sweetness to it, and the green pepper had a little crunch to it.

The octopus and okra came with bonito flakes. I think this is a little mid-meal seafood filler. The octopus was chewy and bouncy but difficult to separate, and the okra had that typical slimy texture.

The anago (saltwater sea eel) was split into 2 pieces when it came out of the fryer. The meat was interested in that it was very bouncy and plump, almost with a shrimp-like texture. I was expecting more of unagi where the meat was dense and minced. This was very fresh and delicious.

The minced ginger came mashed with bonito flakes, and it was to be used for the next tempura dish. It tasted exactly how it sounds like.

I believe this was Japanese eggplant. It was very hot in the middle. They ask you take one piece and soak it the tempura sauce, and take the other and split it in half and sandwich the minced ginger bonito in between. I didn’t quite do what they told me and decided to sprinkle some of the ginger bonito on top of each bite. It was actually pretty good, especially if you are ok with ginger.

The sea bass and shiso leaf-wrapped uni was the final tempura course before transitioning into the rice dish. This was sublime, albeit remember that none of the tempura really has much seasoning. With salt or lemon, it was very delicious. The uni was very creamy as if it was from Hokkaido.

To help transition to the rice course, they gave some tea. Despite the darker color, this tea tasted very similar to what was served at Secchu Yokota.

The main shokuji rice course came with your choice of seasoning option:

1. Tendon (soy sauce) - it looked like the tempura was seasoned with some soy sauce already
2. Tencha (matcha) - they give you a hot pot to pour a light matcha broth into your rice bowl
3. Tembara (truffle salt) - they season the rice and tempura with truffle salt

I chose the tembara. They give you the option of adding truffle salt in the box north of the meal tray. The rice is already seasoned with some of the truffle salt, and the tempura is a mix of shrimp and shiso pieces. The pickled cucumber and pickled yellow radish were very light and gave the meal some texture. The salmon ikura (+$20) came on top of a shiso leaf. These were already pretty salty, so you really don’t need to add more truffle salt in my opinion. And on the right is a small cup of miso soup. It had some fried tofu pieces and potato chunks in it. By this time, I was fairly full, but everything was quite good. I wouldn’t hesitate at all to order this in a restaurant as my entree, though it certainly wasn’t the best thing I’ve ever eaten.

The dessert was simply a small slice of Japanese melon. This melon was very sweet and juicy with a combination of honeydew and cantaloupe flavors. Would I have preferred a non-fruit dessert? Perhaps. This was essentially 3 small pieces, but I understand that this is hard to come by, so maybe their high-class presence is why it was served.

Final Verdict

Tempura Matsui was an experience that I will never forget when it comes to food and service for tempura omakase. The tempura was quite delicious, and you will very much be full at the end. The service, however, was odd at times, albeit it all had good intentions. I think the real question to ask here is how does this compare to its other tempura omakase competitor Secchu Yokota?

The answer is it depends. If you’re looking for an expensive “Michelin” graded tempura experience, then Tempura Matsui will fulfill that desire. If you’re looking for a more casual experience, then Secchu Yokota will fulfill that. Value wise as a whole, I would have to rate Secchu Yokota higher due to the ingredients being good, and the experience feeling much better. However, Tempura Matsui is still great nonetheless if you are looking for something more higher end with a few more tempura courses (12 in tonight’s).

Yelp Jabs

Because of the unique nature of the restaurant, we even got to try things we never had tried before such as fish head, fish bones, urchin. Everything about this place was something I still unconsciously compare other restaurants to.

I thought this was amusing, but often times I have to remind myself that those ingredients this Yelper mentioned are uncommon to most people. Few truly wonder how soups are made, and how much more edible an entire fish could be.

I would say if you are lucky enough to get a reservation just enjoy the experience, trust the staff and let your taste buds indulge.

I don’t think you really need much luck to secure a reservation. This restaurant is not highly sought nowadays compared to others, so it’s pretty easy. Also with the anticipation of them raising the prices, I would imagine this would make it less popular.

My biggest complaint is every piece was too hot. I literally burned my mouth eating each piece

Some pieces were pretty hot, but I would’ve expected this Elitist to be more careful when biting into fried things. They do cool down pretty quickly once you dip it into the tempura sauce.

Revisions

1. Aug 4, 2023 - Initial revision.