I went to Japan recently and went to a few restaurants that I wanted to highlight. From u/m014186’s review, I decided to see if I could get Chikamine as it was a relatively affordable tempura spot and it seemed interesting enough to try. I haven’t tried a ton of tempura places in Japan other than Motoyoshi and Araki in Sapporo so I was looking forward to it.
Reservation via Tablecheck – dates randomly can popup so check semi frequently. Not overly difficult if you just check once in awhile. From what I saw, seats are probably just limited to 1 or 2 people. It would be difficult to get anything 3+ since you're probably just filling in leftovers from regulars.
The restaurant itself was actually fairly spacious for being in the basement in Shibuya. The counter that seats I think 9 iirc. I was the only foreigner that day and I believe everyone else were regulars. It is definitely not your standard fine dining atmosphere, the guests and chef will be talking back and forth the whole time. The drinks were pretty freeflowing as well so it got even more boisterous as the meal progressed.
The meal consisted of I think 20 courses + clam onigiri and tempura sweet potato to take home for a total of 16,000 yen. Some of the standouts for me were the sawara, white eggplant, mushroom and tempura shirako. I didn’t write anything down as I arrived in Tokyo at 4AM that morning so I was pretty fried by dinner time. Apologies for that.
Overall, I enjoyed the meal even though I couldn’t communicate a ton with Hirayama-san much. The other guests and I were talking via translator quite a bit so I did not feel overly isolated and was rather comfortable.
I would definitely recommend trying Chikamine if you enjoy tempura and don’t mind a loud dining environment. At 16,000 yen, it’s hard to imagine getting much better value.
by JTrue14
2 Comments
What was in picture 3? Also 136 CAD $, 20 course meals, it looks amazing
That’s a no for me, dawg.
Sadly I’m a pick eater