Today there’s a new kind of meal in this city.
And that—that just doesn’t happen very often.
So it’s special. And fried. It’s fried.
So far, so good.
It’s at Tempura Matsui, the only place in New York where dinner is omakase tempura, opening
tonight.
What you have here is a small, very Japanese-looking place, and a chef (Matsui, as you’ve deduced) who is,
in fact, big in Japan. You’ve got three booths, a chef’s table and a five-person private room. Slideshow substantiation here.
You’ll be with a date at the chef’s table, where you’ll start with a little sea urchin, some simmered
octopus and some sashimi, among other things.
Then begins the tempura. (Here’s a sample menu.) The idea here is for Matsui to take the freshest vegetables and
seafood around, like you find at every restaurant here these days, but then to lightly, lovingly batter and
fry them by hand, and then gently place the hot, crispy goodness right in front of you. Maybe you get some
Japanese wine or sake to pair with the whole meal. Maybe you don’t.
Maybe you do.
