Amazing! The tempura here is so good. You get a tray of side dishes and then get served pieces as they are cooked. The shrimp was my favorite, and the uni wrapped in seaweed (additional $20) + dipped in the salt was delicious. The service is A+ quality. All the staff were extremely helpful and friendly. We really enjoyed the overall dining experience and the lunch was very reasonably priced at ~$55 for the set menu. Would definitely come back.

Upscale tempura is a parade of absurdly high-quality ingredients, many imported from Japan. It truly is the hot analog of an edomae sushi omakase. The cooking at Tempura Matsui felt “subtractive”: the skill is in making the chef but a whisper to make the ingredients shine. Most pieces are not crispy—that was never the point. The batter is a thin protective shell, the barest minimum amount required to shield the ingredients from the heat of the oil. Everything cooks gently. Some dishes really stood out. The shrimp heads were light and delicately crispy with concentrated crustacean flavor. Snow crab with shiso and ume, dipped in lemon and salt, was indescribably sublime. The giant oyster was cooked to a custard-like consistency, brimming with brine and seaweed-like flavors. The corn was so plump, juicy, tender, and sweet, unlike any other corn I’ve had. Service was incredibly attentive. The sake cup was instantly refilled from the carafe. Each dish was promptly followed by the appropriate accompaniment and explanation. Some things are more subtle, like my lemon juice being refilled without my asking, or putting a drink menu near me once I was done with my cocktail. The $250 dinner price is steep. However, if you have no problem paying that amount for a sushi omakase then it’s irrational to balk at it.

We came at night for the tempura omakase. For each piece, a consistent tempura skin wraps the tempura, with not much surface area for flakes or crunch. The skin wasn’t too crispy either, instead often feeling quite oily. Quite a few pieces were on the side of overfried. Service was alright, and not at all personalized for nearly 300 per person; the dishes were hastily explained. The appetizers to start were good, but not necessarily appetizing. The baby yellowtail was remarkable in terms of texture, playfully tender without any fishiness. The foie gras chawanmushi had some of the softest chawanmushi I’ve had. However, the foie gras flavor was covered by a strong dashi and mirin. Now onto tempura. The shrimp was deliciously sweet, but it could’ve been more tender, and the tempura wasn’t crispy. The second piece of the same shrimp, this time meant to be dipped in dashi, was bigger and better in terms of tempura quality. The shrimp heads that came after was especially palatable, and its high surface area was ideal to capture a light crunch. The okra was perfect. It was fried just right, which intensified its subtle flavor. The Hokkaido scallop was sweet and slightly raw inside, but could have been less cooked. Some creativity was exhibited in the middle courses. The fish was presented very creatively: the bone removed and to be had separately. The meat was so soft with some good crunch in the tempura flakes. The bone was great too; it was more deeply fried for pure crunch. The technique required for this course was outstanding. Next, the fluke wrapped uni was also creative. The uni was hot and doesn’t lose any flavor, and it was a surprisingly great pairing with the soft fish shell. The lotus root and shrimp paste 'sandwich' was featured a less ideal root that was more mature, quite starchy and less crunchy. The rice to end has a more deep fried tempura that was almost a little stale. The Dessert was quite creative: slightly jellified grapefruit with wine, then served in a cream whisky sauce. It was very tasty.

Amazing sets of little dishes and then tempura one by one. It was impressive that only one person was frying the tempura with one assistant plating them in front of you. There were 9 of us for the first lunch seating. Service was fantastic. Tempura was hot. I was warned, but it was too good not to eat everything right away. I burned my tongue but I was happy. If you love tempura, spend the time and money on the reasonable lunch reservation.

Tempura Matsui to me could certainly rival some of the great tempura experiences in Japan. Delicious in flavor, that perfect balance of the freshness of ingredients, the subtle, airy, and light batter, and the clean richness of the oil. The white fish melts in the mouth. It’s also transportive, making me feel like I stepped out of NYC and into Tokyo for a couple of hours. I’ve been back numerous times, and each time it was consistent excellence. One of my favorite dining experiences in NYC.

Certainly a unique experience with a tempura-oriented omakase, but definitely overpriced and honestly you can only go so far with tempura dishes before becoming somewhat repetitive. Service was excellent and the seafood was fresh, but nothing otherworldly that you'd expect with a Michelin-starred restaurant. I genuinely wanted to love this place, but it's really difficult to justify the price.

Unique and impressive place for high end Japanese Tempura. It’s a omikase menu with many courses of fish and seasonal vegetables. Everything is high quality and the tempura, fried immediately before you get it, is light and heightens the texture and flavor of the ingredients. Service also was top notch. It’s expensive, but there are a ton of high end sushi places around and just one of these. Try it!

be warned: come with a very empty stomach. it was about 18 courses total and towards the end we were struggling. but all the food was amazing start to finish. the tempura is light and not oily at all. they give you instructions for each piece for pairings such as salt or tempura sauce. the appetizers were also incredible. i could eat a whole bowl of the chawanmushi. it had the perfect melt in your mouth texture. perhaps if they had only given one piece instead of two for most courses then it would’ve been more manageable.

$250/person tempura omakase. I love everything, especially the crab tempura and the scallop tempura. The seafood egg custard is great too. The whole experience took about 2 hours. It’s very easy to get reservation on open table. Definitely would love to come back again.

Great experience, my favorite bite was surprisingly the mushroom tempura. Some stuff like the sashimi was pretty standard. All of the tempura was cooked perfectly, however. Service is excellent and attentive. The bathroom is fancy.

TLDR: Bottom-line, it is so much more than a tasting of fried tempura. If you've never had proper tempura before, you are missing out. You may find this to be equally as enjoyable as a true omakase. I figured for the 500th review, it should be a happy one. I had Tempura Matsui bookmarked for more than 10 years. To call it just a tempura menu does not do it justice. If you have never been to a true tempura restaurant (hard to find outside of Japan), the precision cooking and preparation that goes into it is another level. To be candid, I actually enjoyed this more than both tempura tastings I've had in Tokyo. We came for lunch and so glad we did. Easily top 5 meals of 2023. At $160 pp it is a lot of food and really a great value for the kind of ingredients and expertise you're getting. Starters were a Japanese potato salad with salmon roe and a sashimi plate. Both excellent. The tempura progression starts right away and the service was fantastic. Each piece as it came out was explained, advised on how to enjoy it for optimum flavor and all the different salts, condiments, etc. Each piece and the recommended salt/sauce pairing is very intentional. Each tempura is cooked to the precise timing to maximize the quality of the ingredient, provide a crispy exterior while maintaining an overall light palette feel to the meal. There was not a bad piece but typically the fried shrimp heads start first. So delicate, the crispy legs with the hot inside is a great starter. The maitake mushroom with the natural sprigs provides for maximum crunch and a deep earthy umami flavor. The Japanese whiting is light/fleshy with the bone fried out where it's basically a fish chip for extra crispiness. The sweet king crab leg wrapped in shiso is sweet, refreshing, crispy all at once. The Japanese eggplant was so elegantly crisp on the outside but piping hot on the inside. I especially enjoyed the recommendation to tear it open and stuff it with the bonito flakes for a flavor bomb sandwich if you will. The sea eel though, nice and big with so many crispy clusters and almost creamy-like texture on the meat. Sea eel is my favorite tempura piece, period. You can opt to get the fried tempura cluster over rice or tendon or the tempura and tea over rice. I recommend the tendon. Tendon is half the reason to even go to a tempura tasting. We all know the best part of an omakase (outside of the tuna) is the hand roll. If there's no hand roll, it feels like a miss. Like who wants a burger without the fries? The grapefruit jelly pudding was the perfect way to cleanse the palette and end on a note overly sweet note. Tempura Matsui is a place I'd recommend if you're into Japanese food, fine dining or just great food period. My only regret, I should have started coming here way earlier.

Wonderful experience for your special occasion! Awesome Japanese OMOTENASHI spirit, amazing artistic detailed each dishes, and great atmosphere. The chef did care about your personal dietary needs and even your eating paces. It’s totally worth it.

This restaurant deserves a rating of it’s own for service! The staff is attentive to every tiny detail of the dining experience. The food is obviously incredible and includes a variety of carefully picked ingredients cooked as tempura. They have a few dishes surrounding the tempura such as sashimi. The atmosphere is cozy, quiet, and intimate. Highly recommend!

Everything was phenomenal from the moment you enter the door to receiving the check. The chef at the counter making the tempura truly showcases the workmanship behind the art of tempura at this fine establishment. The wait service was very professional and they take great care to ensure your dining experience is memorable and cared for. This is not one to pass up on, and should be on everyone’s list to try, once.

What a wonderful dinner! We were a party of 5 and were seating in our own little room. It was cozy and nice. The food we delicious and we were all stuffed by the time we finished. I mean stuffed. They had a great sake collection and we tried the recommended one. It was dry, smooth and went perfectly with all the tempura. We also added the lobster. It was just all so good.

It’s good fine dining experience of tempura in NYC, but still can’t reach the level of Mikawa Zezankyo in Tokyo. But I think this is probably already the best tempura restaurant you can have in USA. IMO they can be better by changing batter a bit for those seafood which has lighter flavor

I don’t even know where to begin, our dinner was just SO incredible. Everything was so fresh (both the seafood and the veggies) and there was wonderful pacing between each serving. Our MD was wonderfully helpful in explaining what we were eating and giving us directions so we do it right. I honestly was so impressed that they had tempura uni. The skill required to keep that in one place is fry it feels like next level.