Restaurant in Tokyo, Japan
Specialist tempura counter. Book lunch for value.
A specialist tempura counter in Ginza ranked among Japan's top restaurants by Opinionated About Dining in both 2024 and 2025. Easy to book, strong for solo dining or a focused celebration meal, and a sound choice if you want serious tempura in Tokyo's most polished dining neighbourhood. Lunch offers the best value; pair your evening with nearby Ginza bars for drinks.
Yes — with the caveat that you know what you are booking. Tempura Yamanoure is a focused, specialist tempura counter in the heart of Ginza, ranked among Japan's top 500 restaurants by Opinionated About Dining in both 2024 (#412) and 2025 (#498). That consistent recognition places it in credible company across Tokyo's dense fine-dining grid. It is not the splashy destination you book to impress someone who wants a kaiseki procession or a wine program to match — but if tempura done at a serious level is the occasion, this is a sound choice.
Tempura at this level is a kitchen-forward format. The theatre comes from the fryer: batter, oil temperature, the timing of each piece arriving at the counter. For a celebration meal or a focused date dinner, that format works well , the pacing is deliberate, conversation is easy, and the attention of the kitchen is on the plate in front of you rather than on table choreography. The Ginza address , 13th floor, 6 Chome, Chuo City , puts you above street level with the quiet that comes with that. Ginza is Tokyo's most polished dining neighbourhood, and the building context matches that register.
On the drinks side, tempura restaurants in this tier typically work with sake, beer, and light Japanese highballs rather than a deep cocktail program or extensive wine list. Sake is the natural pairing here: it cuts through frying oil cleanly and doesn't compete with delicate batter. If a sophisticated cocktail program is important to your evening, Ginza has some of Tokyo's leading bar options within walking distance , plan a pre- or post-dinner drink separately rather than expecting the drinks list here to be the headline. For context on what strong sake-forward pairing looks like at a comparable level, see how Tokyo specialists in this tier approach the format.
Tempura Yamanoure runs two services daily, every day of the week: 11 am–3 pm and 5–9 pm. Lunch is the smarter booking for value , tempura lunch sets at this level in Tokyo typically come in below the dinner price, and the Ginza midday light filtering into an upper-floor room is genuinely better than the evening version. If the occasion is a business lunch or a lower-pressure celebration, the lunch service is worth prioritising. Evening works well for date dinners where you want the full night to unfold around the meal.
There is no seasonal spike that makes one month dramatically better than another for tempura specifically, but spring (late March to May) and autumn (October to November) are when Tokyo dining generally hums , ingredients are at their most interesting and the city is at its most walkable before and after the meal.
Address: 6 Chome-10-1 Ginza, Chuo City, Tokyo, 13F. Hours: Daily 11 am–3 pm and 5–9 pm. Booking difficulty: Easy , walk-in or short-notice reservations are typically possible. Google rating: 4.2 from 312 reviews. Recognition: OAD Leading Restaurants in Japan, ranked #412 (2024) and #498 (2025). Price range is not confirmed in our data , budget in line with upper-tier Ginza tempura counters and confirm at booking.
If this is your first trip to Tokyo and you are building a restaurant itinerary, Tempura Yamanoure pairs logically with a night at RyuGin for kaiseki contrast, or a sushi counter like Harutaka if you want to cover the classic Tokyo fine-dining formats across a multi-day visit. For dedicated tempura exploration beyond Yamanoure, Tempura Kondo and Tempura Motoyoshi are the names most serious visitors compare against. Tempura Ginya and Fukamachi are also worth considering depending on your budget and booking flexibility.
If you are travelling across Japan, the tempura category has strong representation outside Tokyo too: Numata and Shunsaiten Tsuchiya in Osaka are the comparisons to make if you want to benchmark Yamanoure against the Kansai tempura tradition. Further afield, HAJIME in Osaka, Gion Sasaki in Kyoto, and akordu in Nara round out a serious Japan itinerary if you are going deep on the country's fine-dining range.
For everything else Tokyo: our full Tokyo restaurants guide, Tokyo hotels guide, Tokyo bars guide, Tokyo wineries guide, and Tokyo experiences guide cover the full picture. Also see Edomae Shinsaku for a different angle on Tokyo's traditional culinary formats, and 1000 in Yokohama or Goh in Fukuoka if your trip extends beyond the capital. 6 in Okinawa is worth a look if you are going that far south.
Yes, with the right expectations. The Ginza location, OAD recognition, and focused counter format make it a credible choice for a celebration or date dinner. It works leading when the occasion is about the food itself rather than a grand room or a deep wine list. For a more theatrical special-occasion experience in the same tier, RyuGin offers kaiseki with a fuller production value.
Lunch is the better value play. Both services run the same hours split (11 am–3 pm / 5–9 pm) every day, but tempura lunch sets in Tokyo's upper-tier counters almost always come in below dinner pricing. If your priority is cost efficiency, book lunch. If you want the full evening format for a date or celebration, dinner is fine , just expect to pay more for the same kitchen.
Booking difficulty is rated easy, which means short-notice reservations are generally achievable. That said, Ginza restaurants at this OAD ranking level can fill on weekends, so booking a few days to a week ahead is sensible for Saturday evening. Weekday lunch is likely the most accessible slot without advance planning.
Counter-format tempura restaurants are among the leading solo dining options in Tokyo , the kitchen is your view, the pacing is set for you, and there is no awkwardness in a table for one. Ginza is a comfortable neighbourhood to arrive at and leave alone. Solo dining here is a solid choice, particularly at lunch.
Tempura is a restricted format by nature: battered and fried seafood and vegetables are the core of the menu. Shellfish allergies or strict pescatarian/vegetarian requirements need to be communicated at the time of booking. We do not have confirmed data on how the kitchen handles specific restrictions, so contact the restaurant directly before your visit if this applies to you.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Tempura Yamanoure | — | |
| Harutaka | ¥¥¥¥ | — |
| RyuGin | ¥¥¥¥ | — |
| L'Effervescence | ¥¥¥¥ | — |
| HOMMAGE | ¥¥¥¥ | — |
| Florilège | ¥¥¥ | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
Tempura is a format built around seafood and vegetables fried in batter, which means wheat and shellfish are structural to the menu — not easy to work around. If you have a serious allergy or follow a strict diet, check the venue's official channels before booking. The Ginza address (6 Chome-10-1, 13F) is a specialist counter, not a flexible all-day brasserie, so the kitchen's ability to substitute is likely limited compared to a broader-format restaurant.
Yes — counter-format tempura is one of the better solo dining experiences in Tokyo. You sit at the bar, pieces arrive in sequence directly from the fryer, and there is no social awkwardness in the format the way there might be at a large table. Tempura Yamanoure's OAD ranking (Top 500 in Japan, 2025) signals enough prestige to make it a worthwhile solo splurge without the group-booking complexity of kaiseki venues like RyuGin.
Short-notice reservations are feasible here — the body context flags this as an easy booking relative to Tokyo's harder-to-crack counters. A few days out is usually sufficient, though lunch slots on weekdays fill faster than you might expect at an OAD-ranked venue. If your travel dates are fixed, book at least a week ahead to secure your preferred service.
Lunch. Tempura lunch sets across Tokyo consistently offer better value than dinner equivalents, and Tempura Yamanoure runs the same two daily services (11 am–3 pm and 5–9 pm) every day of the week. Dinner is the right call if you are building an evening itinerary around Ginza, but for the food alone, the lunch service is the smarter spend.
Yes, with the right expectations. This is a focused specialist counter, not a full-evening kaiseki production — the occasion comes from the quality of the cooking, not from tableside theatrics or a long multi-course arc. Ranked #498 in Japan by Opinionated About Dining (2025) and up from #412 in 2024, it carries enough credibility for a meaningful meal. For a grander special-occasion format in Tokyo, RyuGin or L'Effervescence are better fits; Tempura Yamanoure is the choice when the occasion is the food itself.
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