The name Nanachome Kyoboshi or 7chome Kyoboshi refers to the original restaurant’s street address. The name followed to today’s location at the sixth floor of a building in Ginza. Chef Patron Shigeya Sakakibara is one of the very best tempura masters in the world and few others can match him in his discipline.

Shigeya Sakakibara was born in Kyoto in 1952. He moved from Kyoto in 1998 and founded his successful tempura restaurant in Tokyo, which is the most famous tempura city in the world with many restaurants offering the same style of cuisine, but of wide variations in quality. No other chefs are better on tempura than Shigeya Sakakibara. He has perfected his skills for more than 30 years so you can expect nothing but the best with both ingredients and cooking techniques.

There are only ten seats in the tiny restaurant, but it is quite easy to get a reservation and that is probably due to the price tag. 7chome Kyoboshi is one of the most expensive restaurants in Tokyo and as a matter of fact one of the priciest in the world so prepare to release your wallet from at least around 40,000 yen for a lunch per person without any drinks except for a glass of tap water. And you have to pay cash. It is remarkably difficult to justify the quote when there are so many great tempura restaurants in Tokyo, however no others are better than 7chome Kyoboshi.

Chef Patron Shigeya Sakakibara’s tempura is as far away as you can come from the greasy fried shrimps and vegetables that Americans and Europeans are used to have. The only garnishes you will have at 7chome Kyoboshi are a bowl of horseradish mustard to clean your palette between each piece of tempura, some lemon juice and the Chef’s secret home-made salt. You dip in the lemon juice or in the salt depending on what the tempura master prepares for you. There is only one pre-set menu so the Chef decides what you will have and you can expect a wide range of delicious and exotic ingredients like lotus roots, ginko nuts, cuttlefish and squash to just mention some of it. There are many varieties, but you will have several baby shrimps during the whole meal which the Chef puts on a sheet of paper in front of you continuously, without a break. The meal starts off with a shrimp sandwich which is a perfect start, but our favourite is the tempura quail egg which is technically perfected with a firm outside and a liquid yolk, but most of all it is amazingly good.

Nanachome Kyoboshi is not for everyone and many will seek less expensive alternatives, and will consider them just as good, but there is only one alternative if you really like to have the very best tempura out there.

Written by Andy