Tempura Shinsaibashi Ittetsu 天婦羅 心齋橋一哲 (Osaka, JAPAN) ★★★★★

After spending a good chunk of time walking around Tennoji (天王寺) this afternoon, we returned to Shinsaibashi (心齋橋) for a brief rest at our hotel before heading out for dinner again.

Apparently, my little nugget has been addicted to the craft of Japanese tempura after enjoying his first-ever multi-course tempura meal at Tempura Tensho Aoyoma (てんぷら天翔 青山) in 2023. Sitting at the counter table watching the chefs go to work proved to be too good of a culinary journey for the little kid that he wanted more of it. So, I decided to grant him his wish tonight.

Located just a few blocks from our hotel, Tempura Shinsaibashi Ittetsu (天ぷら 心斎橋 一哲) is the highest ranked tempura specialist in Shinsaibashisuji and one of the top choice for tempura in all of Osaka. The prime location and stellar ratings made it an easy choice for me.

As usual, we found ourselves at the counter table with little one eagerly anticipating for his light-battered delicacies.

The 13-course seasonal set menu (11,000 yen) got us off to a quick fast with a small radish salad featuring thin strips of radish, apple purée and black truffle. A refreshing dish to get our palate ready for work.

Before serving up our deep fried stuff, the young and talented chef took the time to show us the ingredients for tonight, highlighted by the abalone, monkfish and wagyu (a specialty here).

Some tempura restaurants offer up to five to six different types of salt designed for different dishes but I prefer to keep it simple here. Just three types of salt along with the tempura sauce would do the trick for me.

Shrimp head – As always, we began our tempura meal with a couple of crispy shrimp heads. As usual, these were very very flaky, like having chips.

Shrimp – very delicate and bouncy.

Shrimp with shiso leaf – A second serving of the shrimp but was nicely wrapped with a shiso leaf. 

(Sorry for the color of the picture! I screwed up here by accidentally switching to the wrong mode!)

Spinach – Not bad (OK, not the item I most looked forward to).

Japanese green bean – Very crispy and very flaky. Just beautifully done.

(I screwed up again with this photo!)

Carrot 🥕 –  I wonder if it was my first time having carrot at a tempura restaurant. This was quite decent. I was a little surprised by its sweetness.

Abalone – A few of us including little nugget have been waiting for this since the shrimp tempura. This was really delicious, carrying a wonderfully tender yet slightly 'crunchy' texture.

It was served with a special liver sauce.

This guy loves it~~!!! (After stealing half of an abalone from everyone).

I have added an additional crab dish (3,000 yen) for tonight and right before our crab tempura was ready, a small snack of pickled burdock, lotus root, black fungus and crab meat was served up to whet our appetite for crabs.

Crab 🦀 – This has taken over as the main event for tonight.

The crab finished in this lovely golden brown color.

Underneath the crispy crust on the outside was delicately soft crab meat.

Look at the size of those crab roes!!! Incredible.....

Wagyu, uni and shiso – One of the restaurant’s signature dish. The wagyu tightly wrapped with a shiso leaf, was topped by a generous portion of uni. This was really too beautiful to eat. The wagyu was so succulent and tender, complemented brilliantly by the minty and earthy notes of the shiso leaf and umami-rich sea urchin from Hokkaido.

Monkfish – The monkfish came with very nice bouncy texture, working well with the ponzu sauce.

Eggplant 🍆 – One of my favorite vegetable dish from a tempura meal. This was again really crispy on the outside and soft inside, and with the very light batter, we could really feel the juice coming out from each bite.

Japanese white onion 🧅 – Not a fan of onions but I am now! This was very juicy with very nice and interesting texture. Thought the lingering astringent aftertaste added to the overall enticing experience.

Sweet potato 🍠 – Never thought adding seaweed salt to the sweet potato would generate such nice savory-sweet flavors. Pretty good.

Time flies and it was already time for our last savory dish of the night.

We had a choice between a tendon (天丼), served with a kakiage made with diced scallops and vegetables, ochazuke (天茶漬け), salmon roes rice bowl or curry rice with wagyu beef.

Not surprisingly, we all went with a tendon (天丼). Wow, the sweet soy tasted so good I could have this all day.

Dessert was a fresh strawberry from the local farm 🍓.

And a cup of warm tea to wrap things up.

Exceptional food alone doesn't make a perfect dining experience. Impeccable service, a welcoming ambiance, attention to detail, and a sense of hospitality all contribute to a truly memorable dining experience. Tonight, we were treated to a blend of exceptional cuisine, impeccable service, inviting ambiance, genuine and unpretentious hospitality. It was truly a memorable culinary journey that will be remembered for a long time.  

Food Rating: 7.9/10

Price: ￥￥￥

Address: 1-5-3 Shinsaibashisuji, Chuo-ku, Osaka, 542-0085 Japan

Closest Metro Station: Shinsaibashi

Tel: +81 (0)6 6245-3132

Website: https://tabelog.com/osaka/A2701/A270201/27107991/

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 2:00pm 5:00pm - 10:00pm (Fri - Sun), 5:00pm - 9:00pm (Wed - Thu)