OTARU on the Internet

Tempura may be one of the best-known and most popular Japanese food for overseas people. However, in reality, the restaurants specializing in tempura cannot be found as many as you expect.

Tempura-ya (てんぷら家) is one of those few restaurants to serve very good tempura at quite reasonable price in Otaru, Hokkaido. The restaurant is hardly known to even the locals in spite of its convenient location that it is within a few minutes on foot from JR Minami Otaru Station. This is because that the restaurant hardly advertises, but its reputation is disseminated by word of mouth.

The menu consists of four different tempura combos that they all come in with rice and miso soup, and two different "tendons" or bowls of rice topped with tempura which are also served with miso soup.

The prices seem really modest for the quality of tempura.
Teishoku (¥650), Ume (¥900), Take (¥1,200), Matsu (¥1,500), Tendon (¥650), Ebi or Prawn Tendon (¥800).

If you are vegetarian, you can choose vegetable tempura individually from the variety, such as mushrooms, lotus roots, green peppers, and more. You can enjoy nice tempura with beer and Japanese rice wine made in Hokkaido, too.

Booking would be preferable at lunchtime when it is rather crowded, but you also can wait for a seat in a cozy waiting room, if you like.

Tempura-ya
5-21 Sumiyoshi-cho, Otaru
Tel. 0134-32-5155 (Japanese only)
Open:
11:30-13:30 (last order time)
17:30-19:30 (last order time)
Closed on Sundays and national holidays