Kanda is home of two of the oldest and most respected traditional soba restaurants in Tokyo: Matsuya and Yabu Soba. In December 2019 I was able to get in at Yabu Soba (my attempts at Matsuya sadly failed because every time I was in the area the queue was just too long).
The visit
I guess the trick was arriving quite late (past 2pm) on a weekday, but there was no queue.
The restaurant is located in traditional building. The shop dates back to the XIX century and the name literally means “shop in the bush”, a reference to the bamboo plants that used to be found in the area. The original building was destroyed during the Kanto Earthquake of 1923, but the current building was rebuilt just a few years later and it serves as a reminder of the old Tokyo.
I ordered their standard soba noodles and a tempura mix as a side. The noodles in the hot tsuyu sauce (made out of soya sauce, konbu, and fish flakes) were exquisite. They also have udon and cold soba and dishes combining noodles with other ingredients (the soba with duck slices was quite attractive).
Their noodles are of course handmade using a ration between soba flour and normal flour of ten to one and they claim to source the highest quality soba from around Japan.
One of the feature of this restaurant is that you get a pot of soba-yu, which is the water used to cook the noodles. You are recommended to add it to the broth when it runs low. I tried it and I what I got was a tasty soup.
The tempura was probably not the most exciting side dishes (oysters and anago were available!), but it is such a traditional pair for the soba noodles that I obliged. The mix carried broccoli, shunjiku, smelt fish, lotus root (stuffed with minced chicken), sweet potato, and an oyster. Simple, but every piece was carefully fried and made out of quality ingredients. Definetely I like the side dishes in these restaurants.
The check
The check was 2,470 yen (23 USD). The soba was just 825 yen. Traditional, touristy, but still a must-go for soba.
Where in Tokyo: 2-10 Kanda-awaji-cho, Chiyoda-ku. In Japanese: 〒101-0063 東京都千代田区神田淡路町2-10.
If you read my review of Hanabi Japanese Cuisine, you know that tempura can be material for fine dining. Japan is full of high-end tempura restaurants. Tempura Fukamachi is one of these and has been consistently awarded one star in the Tokyo Michelin Guide.
One of the unique features of the restaurant is the two fryers (behind a copper screen) kept at different temperatures to better match different types of food to be fried. This should give you an idea that this kind of tempura has really little to do with the greasy stuff you may find in overseas Japanese restaurants as an afterthought in a long menu.
The visit
I had a reservation at 1.15pm, the second turn for lunch, during my October 2019 trip to Tokyo. I arrived early and I killed a quarter of hour in the museum of the national lottery, just next door.
There were 11 counter seats and two tables for two people each. In my turn at 1.15pm there were only 6 customers including me. To my question, a waiter said that walk-ins with no reservation are ok. If you wish to avoid the hassle of making a reservation, just try to show up at 1.15pm and see if they have a seat.
The store-front in a side street of Ginza with the potted plants and the yellow curtains cannot be mistaken.
My workstation had the classic tempura sauce, shredded radish (most people will mix the radish with the sauce, but not me), sea salt and lemon.
There were three lunch menus and I made my choice upon arrival. The most expensive also included a dish with sea-urchin, while the less expensive did not have he final rice dish. There was also a vegetarian option, but including prawns. In the end I had menu n. 2. Here’s an account of the dishes.
1. Two prawns heads: very crispy, we were recommended to use salt.
2. Two prawn bodies, again with salt and then with sauce.
3. Gingko nuts.
4. Chestnut, with salt. Unexpected, it was very good.
5. Kisu (white fish). One of the best dishes for its tender meat. A would say that it is a tempura classic.
6. Lotus root.
At this point customers with the highest-priced menu got a sea urchin dish. It was fried inside a nori and cut in two. There was a lot of sea urchin, perhaps worth the extra 3,000 yen. Sure it looked delicious.
7. Hotate (scallop). A very meaty specimen.
8. Shiitake (Japanese mushroom).
9. Asparagus.
10. Anago (saltwater eel).
11. Hot tea and vegetables as a palate cleanser (carrot, radish, zucchini, napa cabbage or hakusai).
12. Miso soup.
12. Rice dish with shrimp tempura
on top (tendon).
There were three options for the rice dish: Ten-Don, Ten-Cha, or Ten-Bara. The Ten-Don is a fritter served on rice with some soy-based sauce drizzled over it. The Ten-Cha is a fritter served over rice and then tea is poured over it. The Ten-Bara is a fritter chopped up and mixed into the rice. My tendon was excellent and totally worth the differential with the cheaper menu. The Ten-Cha also looked very inviting.
13. ice ceam scoop.
The chef would dip gently the food in the flour and then in the liquid batter, then use one of the two boilers, with different temperatures, to fry it.
I would say that the main difference with a regular tempura was that the frying did not kill or overwhelm the original flavors. Sauces were not particularly useful from this point of view. The food spoke by itself.
The 13 dishes took around 90 minutes, I had paid by 2.50pm.
The check
After tax, I paid 11,550 yen (105 USD). It was an excellent meal and worth the hefty check, even if I am not big on tempura course menus. If you visit Japan, I would recommend to try this kind of cuisine at least once so you can compare it with more regular tempura. I also spent 1,500 yen for the reservation service from Japaneazy.
Where in Tokyo: 2-5-2 Kyobashi. In Japanese: 東京都 中央区 京橋 2-5-2 A·M京橋ビル 1/F.
I like when food is linked to compelling personal stories. While I was triggered to visit Hanabi in Saigon by my passion for Japanese food, I found much more. The place was started a little over one year ago, in June 2017, by a freshly married Japanese couple that met in Vietnam. Chef Taka used to work as a chef for the Japanese Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City and, upon meeting Ms Nabby, they decided to make Vietnam their home. This prompted them to start Hanabi – Japanese Cuisine in a calm street in district 2, just a stone throw away from the busy Xuan Thuy street. After a while, they found their niche in tempura, a lightly battered and deep fried type of cuisine. I have heard tempura restaurants in Tokyo and Sapporo, but I have never heard of one in Vietnam. While tempura is a common item in Japanese menus, Hanabi must be the first to focus on this type of cuisine and this is certainly a welcome addition to Saigon food scene.
You can perceive a family atmosphere in the intimate and nicely furnished restaurant. They have a number of counter seats where you can see the chef frying the tempura food on the spot, but also a private room is available (a very polite and quiet group was using it during my visit).
The visit
I made a reservation via email for a Tuesday evening dinner and I opted for the larger menu including 8 types of tempura.
The first dish consisted in a beautifully presented set of appetizers, six! (I kind of got excited and I forgot to take a picture, in the gallery you can see only two appetizers). The set included a cocktail with okra, seaweed, ikura (samlon roe) and clam; a cup of tofu, actually bell pepper tofu that tasted much more delicious than similar puddings I had before; a bite of pumpkin with cream cheese; a piece of crab sushi and, finally, a refreshing cup of tomato gazpacho. That was an amazing start.
The second dish came in the form of a two pieces of lightly seared yellow tail with vegetables and yuzukoshō sauce (a type of Japanese seasoning made from chili peppers, yuzu peel and salt) that was a perfect match for this carpaccio.
Then the chef, in this case Ms Tam, the sous-chef, since Mr Taka was away, came to the frying station to work on the tempura. Meantime Ms Nabby played a very important role explaining the dishes in English to me and other non Japanese speakers in attendance. Each item was battered and fried on the spot in front of me and other guests seating at the counter. The start of the tempura part of the meal was signaled by the salts and sauces that were brought to my place: Himalaya pink salt, matcha (green tea) salt, sea salt, white radish pulp (daikon) and the special tempura sauce (it is not soy sauce!) that came warm. The salts were incredibly tasty, even a few grains would enrich the flavor of the tempura, but I did not overuse the condiments as the tempura dishes were already exquisite as they were.
You can have a look at the individual dishes in the gallery below, here’s a description:
Prawn (ebi in Japanese): this is a classic piece of tempura that you can find in any Japanese restaurant, but here’s the catch: the tempura that I or you have had in other Japanese restaurants in Saigon has very little to do with the tempura prepared at Hababi. Honestly, in other restaurants tempura dishes just look like normal deep fried food, but at Hanabi you can taste the real tempura that is only lightly battered and fried, more like a delicate veil. Having the ebi was the perfect start.
Dragon bean: a vegetable tempura, first time I tried, a new flavor for me.
Young Asian royal fern (zenmai in Japanese): this was a specimen of young Osmunda Japonica, an edible mountain herb found in Japan and other East Asian countries. The flavor was incredibly delicate and the fried herb literally melted in my mouth. Something new that I had never tried.
Japanese whiting (or sillago). This is a small white fish, found in Japanese waters, locally called Shiro-gisu or Kisu, that seems to be born to become a tempura dish. It is rarely used for sushi or sashimi (and only if super fresh). It makes a perfect tempura dish that can be consumed in its entirety and has a very nice marine flavor.
Watercress: an aquatic plant. You would never expect that it can taste so good. Magic of the tempura.
Zucchini flower: it is always a pleasure to eat them as fritters.
Pork: a nice bite.
Baby onion: the last dish looked like a golf ball and hid a super tender baby onion (I was told that it is pre-boiled for 20 minutes).
But the meal was not finished yet! After the tempura dishes I was offered a delicious palate cleanser combining watermelon, squid and an addictive vinegar jelly. Later, another substantial dish came: two pieces of marinated chicken tight (retaining its soft skin) and some vegetables. The dish flavor was enriched by using a sweet sauce that is usually used for unagi (freshwater eel).
Before the dessert, one more dish: a bowl of cold somen noodles with clam stocks and seafood. While I am not a big fan of cold noodles in general, this dish was very refreshing and perfect to slow down before dessert. At this point also a cup of green tea was offered.
The last dish was a trio of dessert: cherry tomato compote, a bite of pomelo and one of dragon fruit, and finally an apple sherbet on a piece of frosted watermelon.
Two of the six appetizers
Yellow tail carpaccio
Salts and sauces
Prawn
Okra
Young Asian royal fern
Japanese whiting
Watercress
Zucchini flower
Pork
Baby onion
Palate cleanser
Steamed chicken with summer vegetables
Seafood and plum cold noodles
Desserts
The check
The total bill after 10% tax and a bottle of water totaled 1,127,500 VND (around 48.5 USD). I really appreciated that they did not overcharge the water as most fine dining venues nowadays routinely do. It should be mentioned that they also have slightly simpler menus for 660,000 and 880,000 VND (that is around 28 and 38 USD). Given the quality of the food, attention to the details, level of authenticity and the overall experience, I find these prices very reasonable.
Overall, it felt like having a meal in Osaka or Sapporo and this kaiseki (multi-course meal) experience based on tempura dishes is something new in Saigon. Personally, I highly recommend Hanabi restaurant to those who wish to experience a real fine dining Japanese dinner and I hope to visit them again.
They change menus on a monthly basis and, comparing my dishes with the ones served to another blogger, I can see that the changes may be substantial (one more reason to come back).
Where in Ho Chi Minh City: 36A Nguyen Ba Huan St., Thao Dien, District 2
New address: số 18 đường 41, Thảo Điền, Quận 2 (just 200 meters from the old address).
Check their Facebook page for updated information and new menus.
Phone: +84 93 111 50 88 Email: kaiseki.hanabi@gmail.com
Reservation is required at least one day in advance (open for dinner only).
I like when food is linked to compelling personal stories. While I was triggered to visit Hanabi in Saigon by my passion for Japanese food, I found much more. The place was started a little over one year ago, in June 2017, by a freshly married Japanese couple that met in Vietnam. Chef Taka used to work as a chef for the Japanese Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City and, upon meeting Ms Nabby, they decided to make Vietnam their home. This prompted them to start Hanabi – Japanese Cuisine in a calm street in district 2, just a stone throw away from the busy Xuan Thuy street. After a while, they found their niche in 
The total bill after 10% tax and a bottle of water totaled 1,127,500 VND (around 48.5 USD). I really appreciated that they did not overcharge the water as most fine dining venues nowadays routinely do. It should be mentioned that they also have slightly simpler menus for 660,000 and 880,000 VND (that is around 28 and 38 USD). Given the quality of the food, attention to the details, level of authenticity and the overall experience, I find these prices very reasonable.