Osaka

Temmabashi Fujikawa

天満橋ふじかわ

While most restaurants specialize in one genre of Japanese cuisine, Temmabashi Fujikawa brings together the best of traditional dishes and top-quality tempura. Rather than trying something different, Chef Shinji Fujikawa’s approach is to cook the best possible version of each dish. Their signature tempura is cooked to perfection in front of the guests, and served immediately as the highlight of the evening.

Opened in 2017, the restaurant is located in Temmabashi, a quieter neighborhood along the Okawa River. Surrounded by lush greenery, the restaurant has a pleasant set up, facing a local park. If you walk out of the restaurant at night, you can enjoy the shimmering city lights, reflecting on the water.

Fujikawa comes with twenty years of experience in traditional Japanese cuisine. He first began his apprenticeship at Senba Kitcho and later joined Ichijunisai Ueno, a famous restaurant in Minoh. He became the head chef at Yodoyabashi Hana, where he deepened his knowledge about food sourcing and business management.

“My goal was to open a restaurant in a place where people can relax and enjoy the meal, away from neighborhoods like Umeda and Shinchi,” he says.

Once you step under the noren curtain, a narrow path leads you to the dining room. The decor is simple yet beautiful, set with stone walls and a counter made of Japanese cedar wood. You will immediately notice a deep frying pot at the center of the counter, inviting guests to enjoy freshly fried tempura—the restaurant’s speciality. “I wanted to serve a warm dish that I can cook right in front of the guests,” he says.

Wrapped in light crispy batter, the tempura adds great excitement to the overall menu of delicate courses. Cooked in a pot full of clear oil, the tempura is fluffy and warm, and never oily. Served immediately, the guests savor the highlight of the evening.

Best of traditional dishes and top-quality tempura.

Based on a traditional approach, Temmabashi Fujikawa’s menu takes you through a carousel of seasonal Japanese flavors, slowly building the momentum for the tempura courses. He pays careful attention to the balance of fish and vegetables as well as the precise timing to serve each course.

The meal starts with delicate dishes like steamed egg curd with cod milt. Creamy cod milt sits on top of the soft pudding and is covered with a thickened sauce made of clam soup and aonori seaweed.

Served in a beautiful small bowl is a mix of Akashi octopus and Hokkaido scallops, sealed together with vinegared egg yolk jelly. Tossed together with spring vegetables, the colors alone bring about the feeling of spring.

Next is an elegantly tiny morsel of steamed mochi rice, covered with generous slices of home-made karasumi, or dried mullet roe. The sweet rice and salt roe go together perfectly.

White tilefish soup warms your stomach with its deep broth. The lotus root dumpling bathes in dashi, made of fresh bonito flakes and Rishiri kelp and garnished with young sprouts and kinome herbs.

Best enjoyed between winter and early spring, winter yellowtail sashimi is layered with delicious fat. Young green onion shoots and grated daikon radish add a refreshing accent.

Following these dishes come the tempura, a cuisine that requires precise and careful mastery from the chef. Fujikawa carefully controls every aspect of the process like the thickness of the batter as well as the temperature of the oil. He observes the air bubbles on the surface and listens to the sound of frying.

The day’s tempura menu includes Japanese prawns, smelt and butterbur. For each ingredient, he makes a fresh batch of batter in a small Japanese bowl in front of the guests. The prawns are cooked to perfection with a thinner batter and at a higher temperature. Smelt is fried whole until lightly golden. Butterbur sprouts contain a lot of moisture so the batter is slightly thicker. What matters is that the tempura is cooked in a way that brings out the most important characteristic of the ingredient, the chef explains. Light, fluffy and flavorful, the tempura is served immediately on a piece of tenshi tempura napkin set in front of each guest.

INGREDIENTS
Every morning, Fujikawa visits the Honan market to scout the best catch from a fishmonger he’s known for years. Just like Tokyo, the Osaka market also attracts all kinds of quality ingredients from various regions. He also likes to source produce directly from farmers. The drinks menu features a rare selection of sake like Hakkaisan, Bon and Kokuryu, in addition to lovely Champagnes and wines. The important criteria is that each bottle pairs well with their signature tempura dishes.

CHEF

Shinji Fujikawa

Born in Osaka in 1979, Shinji Fujikawa knew as a teenager he wanted to pursue a culinary career. After graduating from high school, he attended Tsuji Culinary Institute to begin his training. He joined Senba Kitcho and later Ichijunisai Ueno, a famous restaurant in Minoh. He went on to become the head chef at Yodoyabashi Hana for two years. He opened his own restaurant in 2017.

VISION
By pushing himself to take risks, Fujikawa’s goal is to entertain the guests with his best possible cuisine. “Tempura is a complex craft and there’s a lot more I can learn,” he says.

Produce

The moment the chef pays the most careful attention to is when he serves the tempura from the frying pot to the guest’s plate. For flavors like Japanese smelt and sweetfish, it’s important to bring out the bitterness. For beans and corn, the fluffy texture is key. The batter is made of fine-textured violet wheat flour and natural water sourced in Kumano, Mie Prefecture. The secret of the batter is the ratio of flour to water, and also how well to mix it.