Shunsaiten Tsuchiya
When you think of Michelin stars, you think about fancy white table cloth dinners with multiple courses of luxury ingredients, each plated more intricately than the last. While this is how many higher end restaurants are, there are those that break that mold and are given high accolades by Michelin inspectors due to their dedication and excellence in one particular category.
Now, even though the Michelin guide has given stars to singularly focused restaurants that world is still made up of mostly higher-end foods like sushi. So, when I was looking for restaurants in Osaka to try and came across a tempura restaurant with not one, but two Michelin stars, I was very intrigued. How good does tempura have to be to earn two stars? I had to find out.
Here is the menu I had for dinner at Shunsaiten Tsuchiya on September 4, 2017. Although a tempura speciality restaurant, the menu started off with a few more traditional kaiseki-like courses:
Fig
Sashimi - Tuna, shrimp, tai
“Hassun” - Assortment of seasonal appetizers
Hamo in broth with matsutake mushroom
Then came the tempura:
After the tempura we enjoyed a rice course and dessert to close out the meal:
Rice course with miso soup, fish, and tsukemono
Green tea, sorbet
While many of the non-tempura courses were enjoyable, the clear stars of this restaurant are the dozen-or-so bites of tempura-fried items. The tempura batter here was impossibly light with just enough substance to carry a great crunchy texture, but light enough as to impart very little oil to the palate. The excellent preparation of the tempura let me taste the core ingredient with the enjoyment of tempura’s texture, without the drawback of having myself feel weighed down by too much oiliness halfway through. While some of the premium ingredients like uni and wagyu beef were delicious, I also loved the more humble vegetable courses. In particular, the tempura fried corn was wonderful; so fresh and sweet with a wonderful light crunch.
Shunsaiten Tsuchiya
41-4 Toyotsu-cho, Suita 564-0051
Osaka, Japan
+81 6-6338-2288
www.shunsaiten-tsuchiya.com
