Ippoh Tempura Bar is A Must Visit

Ippoh, Osaka’s oldest premium tempura restaurant opens Ippoh Tempura Bar by Ginza Ippoh, at COMO Dempsey. Ippoh’s first Southeast Asian outpost. Awesome place to enjoy other type of Japanese food. The tempura is very fresh. Fried in front of us, right at the bar. The chef is thoughtful to tell us with sauce pairing to go.

I’ve asked this question several times over the past decade - why doesn’t Southeast Asia have pure tempura specialists or tempura-ya like we find in Japan? The answer invariably comes back - we don’t have a big enough market to sustain tempura only restaurants - and hence most offer a mix/combo of cold, hot and front-back kitchen offerings.

Not anymore. Singapore has Ippoh- a first foray into foreign, southerly lands by one of the oldest tempura specialists in Japan. The batter is thin and crispy, so we can enjoy the real taste of good ingredients. Services was good.

We had a nice counter seat. Ordered SGD85 set of 10 Tempura? We had a bottle of 120 sake which was recommended. Total experience is about 7/10.

For tempura lovers - this is a no regrets move. And yes, tempura can go up to Omakase prices!