Chef Daiki Kawaguchi first started at his father’s restaurant in Osaka while still in school. After graduating from high school, he went on to work in kaiseki restaurants in Osaka and Tokyo, chalking up 18 years of experience.

Now at the helm at Tentsuru, he is debuting a new menu and introducing an alcohol pairing to go with his omakase tempura meals.

Bringing kaiseki respect for seasonality to his omakase tempura meals, diners can look forward to matsutake mushrooms and anago or sea eels, which are in season in autumn, together with nodoguro (blackthroat sea perch) and kinmedai (golden eye snapper).

Chef Kawaguchi shared that “Autumn has the best weather for ingredients, and as the weather gets colder, the seafood gets fatter.”

His take on uni tempura is also unusual. He wraps the bafun sea urchin from Hokkaido in sheets of uni paper from Kyoto – they look like fruit leather. Another signature, Japanese lobster tempura, is topped with butter, shoyu and a shower of karasumi or salted mullet roe.

Depending on the tempura, guests dip the fried morsels in plum paste, curry salt, yuzu kosho, and Okinawan sea salt mixed with kombu powder.

Attention to detail extends to the sauce drizzled over tendon, served before dessert. It is made with fried prawn heads and simmered over five hours.

He uses sunflower oil from Hokkaido for frying. To make sure guests do not feel overwhelmed and too full before the meal is over, he coats his ingredients in a thin batter made with potato starch, cornstarch and wheat flour before frying.

The restaurant, managed by Millennium Hotels & Resorts manages the restaurant, has a 15-seat main counter plus a seven-seat counter in its private room.

The alcohol pairing, priced at $108++ a person, features a glass of Tentsuru Champagne from Henri Giraud and three glasses of sake – Ugonotsumai Junmai Daiginjou, Kuroushi Junmai Ginjou and Toyobijin Junmai Daiginjou.

Lunch at the restaurant is priced at $120++, $188++ and $280++, while dinner is at $188++, $280++ and $380++ a person.

For reservations, please visit Tentsuru’s website.

* Information correct at time of print.