Tempura is one of those foods I don’t actively seek out, mainly because if it’s not freshly fried, it tends to get soggy and oily, which I’m not a fan of. Frying tempura at home is a hassle, and eating them one by one as they’re freshly made is tough when you’re dining with family. So, it had been a while since I had tempura, but I decided to revisit “Tempura Makino,” a place I remembered being absolutely delicious from a previous visit.
I switched the miso soup in the most popular “Makino Tempura Teishoku” to clam miso soup and added their famous egg tempura. Tempura Makino is always bustling with a never-ending line, but since we went a bit early for dinner, we were able to get in after about 10 minutes. The turnover seems relatively quick too.
First up were the kisu (whiting), shrimp, and lotus root tempura, piping hot and freshly fried. Personally, I prefer to enjoy the crispiness with salt instead of tempura dipping sauce. The lotus root was surprisingly large, and its fluffy texture was just divine. And of course, the shrimp and kisu tempura were delicious without saying.
They recommended eating the freshly fried, perfectly soft-boiled egg tempura on rice with their slightly sweet Tendon sauce and Kuro Hichimi (black seven-spice blend), so I followed their advice. As I poked it with my chopsticks, the yolk flowed out beautifully, and the sweet sauce paired wonderfully with the aromatic Kuro Hichimi… Plus, at Tempura Makino, you can enjoy all-you-can-eat tenderly prepared salted squid (ika no shiokara) and free refills of rice, so I just couldn’t stop eating!
What really surprised me was the clam miso soup. It was absolutely packed with clams, so much so that the broth, with its concentrated dashi, was truly exquisite. This was another dish that made it impossible to stop eating rice! I hadn’t had clams in a while, so we all joked that we probably ate about a year’s worth of clams in one go – that’s how much there was.
One of Tempura Makino’s specialties is their aged chicken tempura. They told me it was pre-seasoned, and when I tried it, it was surprisingly tender and light. Since it’s tempura, this texture was absolutely perfect and really delicious. The pumpkin was fluffy and quite sweet, also very tasty. It was a dish that reminded me all over again just how good freshly fried tempura is. Oh, and I forgot to take a picture, but they also served maitake mushroom tempura at the very end.
For this much volume and deliciousness, at just 1650 yen, it’s no wonder there’s always a line. It’s definitely a place I want to come back to regularly!
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