Suiren at The Capitol Hotel Tokyu treats guests to a Japanese fine dining experience. Each section of the restaurant has its specialty chef for kaiseki, sushi, teppanyaki, and tempura.
If you choose tempura, you will have an exclusive tempura bar that seats up to 6 guests. The master tempura chef is your personal chef who paces each course and progression of the meal according to your tempo of eating
Lunch versus Dinner
Lunch versus Dinner in Japanese restaurants can depend on your schedule of the day, and also your preferred budget of spending. The advantage of lunch is that it offers more affordable set meals – which is preferable for tempura, for instance, which is priced higher in the evening for the same meal that is served at lunch.
The tempura meal has only one menu. At lunch, it is priced at 6,800 yen. At dinner, the price goes up to 9,000+ yen. The set meal starts with this gorgeous, seasonal clean appetizer to open up your appetite for the meal ahead
Tempura Dining at The Capitol Hotel Tokyu
After the appetizer, your server will prepare your setting for the tempura part of the meal. The pace of the meal is intentionally quiet and slow to create that sense of appreciation and deliberation for the entire experienceThe tempura meal begins. You will first start with two pieces of prawns served one at the time. As you eat the first piece, the chef proceeds to coat and fry the second piece. The quiet, slow pace of the meal exudes a wonderful sense of harmony as you dineThe ingredients of the meal are dictated by the season. Only seasonal ingredients are served, including the freshest fish of the day. The chef also determines the order in which each piece is served, from the prawns to vegetables to fish to vegetables, etcSeasonal ingredients of a tempura meal highlight the freshest vegetables of the moment. In the spring, this includes this special fiddlehead fern. When fried, the light coating of batter around head of the fern produces an amazing crunchJapanese asparagus is another spring seasonal ingredient. The asparagus has a slight sweetness from the top to the bottom of the vegetable, on which you can also see the expertly even coating of the batterRenkon, another spring vegetable that is common in many Japanese meals. Renkon is the root of the lotus which is common cut in sliced circles. During the winter months, it is typically found in odenEel. I had two tempura meals in one day. One formal one here in Tokyo, and a second more casual one in Osaka. Both meals concluded with this anago eel, which is a salt water eel in comparison to the freshwater unagi eelAfter the tempura portion of the meal finishes, the chef prepares a rice bowl to pair with your miso soup and pickles. In this case, the rice included seasonal asparagus and fava beans. Eating pickles and rice together is typically how meals conclude in JapanFinally, a light dessert to end on a sweet note. This is ice cream, made of a vegetable. While it did not seem like a fun way to end, it was actually the perfect way to conclude the fried meal without guilt. The taste is reminiscent to a palate cleanser that is light, bright, and slightly sweet to reawaken your palate
Watch my tempura dining experience on my YouTube Channel
Suiren
The Capitol Hotel Tokyu
2-10-3 Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku
+81-3-3503-0109
Lunch, 11:30am to 3pm
Dinner, 5:30pm to 10pm
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