Ippoh Tempura Bar By Ginza Ippoh

COMO Dempsey looks set to capture our palates as its fine collection of restaurants progressively open. First was chef Malcolm Lee’s modern Peranakan restaurant Candlenut, and now the elegant Ippoh Tempura Bar by Ginza Ippoh. In the coming months, we’ll also be checking out COMO Marketplace, an upmarket Asian food emporium; Dover Street Market; The Dempsey Cookhouse & Bar by chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten; and COMO Cuisine.

epicure was invited to experience the delicate Osaka-style tempura specially prepared by chef Masaru Seki, a fifth-generation member of the founding family, during the restaurant’s launch. Chef Seki has created a new and exciting menu for his Singapore outlet, the fifth globally. After the launch, the restaurant will be helmed by specially picked staff from Tokyo, executive chef Aoki Tomonori and sous chef Ishida Takahiro.

For lunch, set menu options are priced from $60 to $100. For dinner, the set menu options are priced from $140 to $200. The full experience lies in the $200 menu, which comprises an amuse bouche, assorted appetisers, assorted sashimi, 11 pieces of tempura, and kakiage on rice with shaved truffle, with miso soup, and dessert. Of note is Chef Seki’s original creation, Tempura of Uni, Caviar and Wasabi on fried seaweed, combining chilled uni and caviar on a deliciously crisp, half-battered slice of seaweed. The finale of kakiage on rice was made more deluxe with decadent shavings of white winter truffle, freshly shaved to your bowl.

Restaurant manager Machiko Iwabuchi recommends warm junmai sake, served between 40-45 degrees, to accompany the meal. More adventurous palates would be delighted to pair the meal with Champagne Taittinger, its rich creamy mouthfeel standing up well to the fried ingredients, while a 2015 Shiraz from St Hallett is surprisingly fruity and medium bodied to refresh the taste buds after each bite. Chef Seki, who’s a vinophile, explains that tempura is a simple equation of ingredient and batter, eaten with just salt or the tempura sauce, hence it’s easy to pair with wines—unlike sushi for instance, where the vinegared rice could be difficult to match.

There are 12 counterside seats and six around a table, in a cosy space designed by Paola Navone. The decor juxtaposes melodious bamboo fixtures and Indonesian teak counters with graceful Gaya Ceramic vases from Bali. As with tempura cuisine, it’s best to dine at the counter, where you would be served each individual tempura as it comes out of the fryer. We enjoyed prawn freshly flown from Tsukiji that morning, a trio of gingko nuts, kisu (winter whiting), carrot, asparagus, anago and more chef creations—shrimp toast and bread filled with red bean paste—as the meal progressed in a rhythmic dunk of hot oil.  

Chef Seki’s batter is an ethereal combination of flour, egg yolks and Japanese water, which turns lightly crisp in the safflower oil that he prefers. There’s hardly a hint of grease when biting into each course, testimony to the age-old techniques that the master chef employs. “There’s no secret, it’s all here” he grins, gesturing at the batter and fryer in front of him. But watch carefully and you’ll see a master at work, gauging the oil simply by observing its bubbles, movement and sound. Block 17B Dempsey Road. Tel: 1800 304 3388