Im going to be honest, I booked tempura Matsu on a whim and when I arrived in Japan I kindof regretted it. There were multiple bad reviews online and it looked like a kappo meal with some tempura instead of an actual tempura restaurant.
I had been trying to book many other tempura restaurants like Naruse, Takeuchi, Kyoboshi and Tententempura Uchitsu but without succes. So I just kindof went down the tabelog list and thats how I ended up at Matsu in Kyoto.
The menu was 39 500 yen so if it wouldve been bad it wouldve hurt a little. But let me tell you, it did not dissapoint.
While it wasnt a full on tempura place I loved the meal. It might not have been my top 3 meals of all time but at the same time I couldnt think of any way to improve the meal. All the dishes were consistently delicious and at least a 7/10, up to a 9.5. I guess its just the fact that there was no "magic dish" that left me wanting more.
Heres the overview of all the dishes:
– Marinated salmon Roe with burnt eggplant: Lovely start to the meal 8/10
Corn tempura with bottarga: super sweet and a nice bottarga aftertaste 8.5/10
charcoal grilled Yellowtail Sashimi with soy jelly: zoom in on that fish and look at that fat! Honestly one of the best sashimi ive had 9.5/10
Mackerel with tomato sauce, tasty, 8/10
Salmon sushi: didnt really fit in the menu for me but the rice and salmon were great. 7/10
Shrimp and shrimp sauce chawanmushi: one of my favourite chawanmushis, 9/10
Fish tempura with green eggplant tempura and eggplant egg sauce with truffle: I was shocked when he put truffle on top because I thought it would overpower it all and ruin the beautiful dish but it was a very mild truffle qnd it worked magically. Ate every last bit of that sauce. Probably my favourite dish. 9.5/10
Rice with otoro and sesame sauce and under it rice with unagi: lovely taste but two times super small, wish I couldve had a couple decent bites. 8.5/10
Spinach with cured eggyolk and caviar: super tasty. 8.5/10
Beef and egg with a sweet soy sauce: very nice flavour wise but I couldnt cut the beef so the chunks were too big and clunky kindof ruining the balance of each bite of what couldve been a banger dish. 8/10
Maitake tempura: love maitake and definitely when its this kind 9/10
Shrimp tempura: very good 8.5/10
Mugwort and yam udon: gorgeous dish but hard to eat. Very tasty tho 8.5/10
Tea icecream with brown sugar sauce: didnt have high hopes for the dessert but honestly tht brown sugar sauce was sooo good. 8.5/10
Overall id give it a 8.75/10. If you want a super tasty kappo/ tempura meal swing by Tempura matsu.
P.S. you might notice my list is out of 6 now. This is because I didnt think Nokishita711 would fit on this subreddit after visiting it. However its an amazing place, 9.5/10 good, basically noma for cocktails. They might not be the tastiest cocktails ever but they will blow your mind and let you experiznce new flavours you cant even compare or describe.
Let me know if you have any questions in the comments
by Normal-Metal3664