A two-Michelin-star Ginza tempura counter celebrated for exceptionally light frying and its signature julienned-carrot kakiage. Courses are built only on seafood and vegetables (no meat), making it naturally pescatarian; the wheat-flour batter means it is not gluten-free.
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✓ Diets our editors confirmed in person· English menu / support
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Pescatarian
肉と鶏肉は食べませんが、魚介は大丈夫です。
Niku to toriniku wa tabemasen ga, gyokai wa daijōbu desu.
Julienned carrot kakiage and prawn / anago tempura
Tempura Kondo is the Ginza counter where Fumio Kondo, a chef with over fifty years behind the fryer, built vegetables — not shrimp — into the centerpiece of a tasting course, and the world's tempura chefs have been catching up ever since he opened the restaurant in 1991.
The kitchen fries in short, precise strokes: each piece surfaces with a crust so thin it barely registers as batter, letting the ingredient's own moisture do the work. The signature is a sweet potato coaxed through nearly thirty minutes of gentle oil, which sounds long for tempura until you taste how it turns the inside custardy and the sugars concentrated — reviewers return for this dish alone. Right after it comes Kondo's kakiage, julienned carrot bound loose with shrimp or conger eel, fried until the strands crackle apart at the first bite. Courses run entirely on seafood and vegetables, plated seat by seat behind two small counters (twelve seats and eight), so dinner unfolds as conversation with the chef as much as a meal — menus are even named for flowers (sumire, tsubaki, fuji) rather than listed by ingredient.
Two things worth knowing before you go: the restaurant answers its phone in Japanese only, so English-speaking visitors book through Kondo's official reservation partner, My Concierge Japan, and payment is typically secured in advance given how quickly the two counters fill. And while the frying itself sticks to seafood and vegetables — pescatarian by default — the dipping sauce is a classic bonito-based tentsuyu, served alongside plain salt and a twist of lemon, so it isn't a strictly vegetarian table even on nights when no meat touches the fryer.
✓ Last verified Jul 2026
Hours and details can change — please confirm before you visit.
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