Hakata Tempura Takao

Amazing Tempura w/ Free-Flow Mentaiko

Operating Hours

11:30 to 22:00, L.O. 21:00 (Daily)

Budget

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Originating from Fukuoka, Hakata Tempura Takao is one of the best places to get your tempura (天ぷら, Tenpura) fix for great quality at an affordable price. Their tempura is cooked fresh to order, and will be served piece by piece to your table. Typically, customers will order a teishoku (定食, Set Meal) that comes with a pre-selected mix of ingredients including seafood, meat, and vegetables. Each piece of tempura is cooked to perfection, coming with a light batter that is perfectly crisp, and can be matched with either salt or tempura sauce. It also features a constantly rotating seasonal menu that serves up some of the freshest seasonal items in tempura form, allowing for a constantly evolving and changing dining experience.

Furthermore, as a complementary service, Hakata Tempura Takao also provides free-flow appetizers. The most popular being the konbu (昆布, Kelp) mentaiko (明太子, Spicy cod roe), a Fukuoka local delicacy, that is produced using some of the best ingredients from Hokkaido (北海道, Hokkaidō). They also offer tsukemono (漬物, Pickles) that is freshly pickled using fresh vegetables in-house daily, with ingredients like cabbage, daikon (大根, Radish), renkon (蓮根, Lotus root), and other seasonal vegetables. There are also two types of yuzu (柚子) pepper sauces that use Kyushu (九州, Kyūshū)-produced yuzu and togarashi (唐辛子, Tōgarashi, Chili Pepper), and Japan-produced rice vinegar (米酢, Yonezu), with the red one matching meats better and the green one matching seafood better.

Tempura Teishoku at Hakata Tempura Takao in Shibuya, Tokyo

Hakata Tempura Takao's Unique Points (こだわり, Kodawari)

The mantra of Hakata Tempura Takao is to "bring out the umami (旨味, Savoriness) of vegetables and seafood in a beautiful light golden-brown flour coat". It is often said that Tempura (天ぷら, Tenpura) is actually a steamed dish, rather than just a deep-fried one. The reason being that the ingredients are battered and then deep-fried, with the outer coating sealing in all the juices and goodness of the ingredients while steam-cooking it. The dish isn't deep-fried through, rather beneath the crispy exterior is the deliciously juicy and plump ingredients, which maintain the same freshness as-if they were steamed.

Thus Hakata Tempura Takao believes that the quality of the ingredients is what makes tempura shine. Using only the freshest seafood from Hokkaido (北海道, Hokkaidō), and locally produced vegetables grown in nutrient-rich soil, each ingredient is specially selected to bring out the best tastes when it is deep-fried. Furthermore, to ensure the quality of the mentaiko (明太子, Spicy cod roe), Hakata Tempura Takao has its own in-house factory in the eastern Hokkaido (北海道, Hokkaidō) city of Kushiro to produce it.

Even the rice is a key ingredient of the dish, with only freshly milled rice from Fukuoka Prefecture (福岡県, Fukuoka-ken) that is used within three days of milling. In order to make sure the tempura doesn't leave an oily aftertaste, but a light and crisp one, only top-grade Canola Oil is used to also ensure that the tempura doesn't cause indigestion from oiliness.

For the condiments, Hakata Tempura Takao believes that the tempura is best enjoyed using its natural sea salt first, followed by the tempura sauce. It uses natural sea salt that balances its gentle saltiness with a tinge of sweetness in order to make the taste of the tempura stand out more. The tempura sauce was developed in collaboration with an old shoyu (醤油, Shōyu, Soy Sauce) brewery in Fukuoka through several rounds of trial and error, before landing on the final product with brings out the unique natural sweetness of the shoyu and infuses it with the umami (旨味, Savoriness) of katsuo (鰹, Bonito) that brings out a delicious taste when absorbed by the tempura batter.

Hakata Tempura Takao Review and Thoughts

Recommended

What makes Hakata Tempura Takao our favourite tempura (天ぷら, Tenpura) restaurant in Tokyo is its great value-for-money and quality. Since all the tempura is fried fresh to order, and served piece by piece, you get a pretty high-end tempura restaurant experience at a reasonable price range. We also love the variety within the Takao Set with a good mix of meat, seafood, and vegetables to satisfy all our cravings

The mark of a good tempura to us is how crispy and light the batter is. Unlike some places that serve a dense soggy batter, each piece at Hakata Tempura Takao comes extremely light and crispy. Not to mention, perfectly fried so the ingredient inside is cooked just right.

We also can't get enough of the free-flow mentaiko (明太子, Spicy cod roe), and always ask for at least one refill because it is just that delicious. At first taste, it might seem strangely slimy and gooey, but it is definitely an acquired taste.

The tempura also goes great with some of the variety of salts they serve on the table, but our personal favourite is the wasabi (山葵) salt, that has a nice spiciness that goes well with the tempura. The ten-tsuyu (天つゆ) that they serve also has the right amount of saltiness and flavour that goes just right with the tempura batter.

As a whole, the only downside to Hakata Tempura Takao is how long the queues have gotten in recent years. But for such great value, quantity, and quality, we can see why it attracts such a long queue.

Bonus Tip: Don't miss out on their seasonal menus. Apart from the typical pre-curated sets, Hakata Tempura Takao offers a seasonal selection of tempura that changes up based on what's fresh.

Hakata Tempura Takao Menu Recommendations

たかお天定食

Takao Tempura Teishoku Set

¥1,500

The signature Takao Tempura Teishoku Set comes highly recommended as a great mix of meat, seafood, and vegetables in order to experience the different tastes and textures of each ingredient. It comes with buta-niku (豚肉, Pork), ebi (海老, Prawn), two pieces of seasonal seafood, and three pieces of seasonal vegetables.