Tempura Ensei: Premium tempura omakase restaurant run by chef trained at 120 year-old Tokyo institution

When someone tells you they are going for an omakase, you’d usually think of a lavish feast filled with sushi and sashimi.

But Japanese cuisine is so diverse, with so much artistry. If you’re looking to pamper yourself with an omakase, but want to switch things up, you can consider the new Tempura Ensei.

Opened in March, Tempura Ensei joins Mare Hachikyo as the newest Japanese restaurants to open at Orchard’s Palais Renaissance. 

The new omakase outfit specialises in Edo-style Japanese tempura and batters up many more premium and unique ingredients, including abalone and uni.

Options here include lunch En menu (S$128) or the dinner Sei menu (S$188), and the omakase menu (S$288).

Heading up Tempura Ensei is 28-year-old chef Naruki Takeshima. He’d trained at Tenkane, a 120-year-old tempura institution in Tokyo, which means diners can expect to indulge in some of the best tempura in Singapore.

Besides the quality, it’s as fresh as it gets, with the chef and sous chef battering things up and frying them a la minute, so that it arrives on your plate still airy and crunchy.

Fresh seafood

As with any other omakase restaurant, Tempura Ensei takes great care in sourcing the best ingredients.

One of the biggest considerations for the team was, of course, the batter. For that, they landed on premium Tomizawa Super Violet flour and Taihaku goma abura sesame oil to achieve the best texture.

Before starting our omakase, the sous chef also took out a bowl filled with live prawns to show us how fresh they were.

And it did make a difference — the kuruma ebi (tiger prawn) was so sweet, soft and juicy, and lightly coated in tempura batter.

Tempura Ensei’s batter is terrifically sheer and airy, but is also wonderfully crunchy without a hint of grease. Most importantly, it doesn’t take the attention away from the ingredients.

Besides the usual battered prawn, they also serve up the head, deep-fried. Scandalously crunchy and flavourful. Yum.

But the showstopper at Tempura Ensei was undoubtedly the bafun uni (sea urchin).

This piece features decadent and briny uni, wrapped in seaweed and deep-fried. Creamy within and crackling without, this was the most gratifying mix of textures.

While more luxurious seafood ingredients will no doubt hog the limelight, Tempura Ensei does the simpler pieces just as well.

Take for example, the kisu (Japanese whiting), which cracked open to reveal moist and plush flesh — the execution is on point.

Most pieces are presented plain and simple, but Tempura Ensei also has a knack for elevating ingredients with nifty accompaniments, such as the abalone liver sauce that adorned the awabi (abalone).

The abalone itself was chewy with a good firm bounce, but mild in flavour, so the punchy, earthy umami of the sauce added a lot more depth.

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Elegant flavours

In between the tempura courses, there’ll also be cold and cooked dishes. The meal actually starts with some fresh and silky red snapper sashimi, followed by the hamaguri owan (clam soup).

The soup in particular was quite a good way to prepare your palate for the tempura — the soup is clean and comforting, while the clams are big and plump.

Besides seafood, vegetables are also masterfully handled by Tempura Ensei.

In particular, the shiitake mushrooms were so juicy and luscious, and contrasted perfectly with the light batter.

Mushroom lovers would surely relish this piece.

Similarly, the asparagus were as tasty as it gets. The crunch was there and it tasted so clean without any funk.

That also applies to the final savoury course: A choice between tendon (tempura don) or tencha (tendon with dashi broth poured over). 

Instead of the usual assortment of tempura pieces, Tempura Ensei tops the rice with a chunky weave of vegetables and seafood.

All the textures and sweetness of the ingredients come together very well and there’s just enough rice to make sure you leave full, but not bloated.

If you’re a tempura lover, we think it’s a perfectly good idea to book a seat here to see the maestros at work and enjoy some top-notch tempura.

This was an invited tasting.

For more ideas on what to eat, read our stories on the recently viral dumplings store at Fortune Centre and places in Singapore to go for some decadent kunafa.

Enjoy up to 50% off when you dine with GrabFood Dine Out.

You can also book a ride to Tempura Ensei at Palais Renaissance.