This time, we will introduce the best 5 fried shrimp in Tokyo, which everyone loves. We will recommend "Shichijo" in Mitaka, "Ponta Honke" in Ueno, "Sugita" in Kuramae, "Rengatei" in Ginza, and "Restaurant Katsura" in Nihonbashi. The order of recommendation is also as follows.

Fried shrimp sounds so good.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels incredibly happy when ordering a hamburger steak or minced cutlet and having some fried shrimp, even if it's small, served on the side.

However, fried shrimp is not just a side dish. Even when served as a full-fledged dish, it can bring the same level of satisfaction as, say, tonkatsu, and I want to say that it is a truly reliable dish.

All the fried foods at Shichijo in Mitaka are excellent
This is a conscientious place and Tokyo's overall No. 1 spot is here

If you ask "Where can I get fried shrimp in Tokyo?", "Shichijo" is a famous restaurant that comes to the top of the list.

It was originally located in the basement of Shogakukan in Jimbocho. I first went there about 30 years ago when I was taken there by a food writer, and it's a great Western restaurant. I was envious of the people at Shogakukan.

Apparently it moved to Mitaka at some point, but it's too far away so I've never been there.

In conclusion, it's a great restaurant. If you were to compare it just by taste, "Ponta Honke" and "Sugita" would be better. However, if you consider the price, taste, and other factors, "Shichijo" is number one and no one would complain.

The fried food here is the best in the world. Therefore, it fills up as soon as it opens at 11:30. If you want to enter on the first round, you'll probably want to sign on the list at 11:20.

It's neat and tidy. I have the impression that it was a bit more cluttered when it was in the basement of Shogakukan. And it's well-organized.

First of all, it's great that there are a variety of combinations of fried foods to choose from. You can also add them as individual items, so you can create the ideal combination you envision.

I ordered the dreamy "mixed fries" of two fried shrimp, fried horse mackerel, and cream croquette. About half of the other customers also chose this. Among them, there was a pair of tough girls who ordered mixed fries and shared a hamburger steak. There was also an old man who only had Hayashi rice, but you have to eat fried food at this restaurant.

Well, first came the vegetable soup in a cup. It had a mild taste, and the diced carrots in the soup were soft, even though I thought they would be hard. The flavors of the various vegetables were infused into it, making it delicious.

And then there was the mixed fry.

Wow, the two towering fried shrimp and horse mackerel are magnificent. It's like Mount Everest in the world of fried food (lol). The presentation is great. The generous amount of shredded cabbage is carefully cut, and it even comes with potato salad. The owner knows that people who like fried food also love potato salad. I'm happy.

The first bite is of course the fried shrimp. It's a beautiful golden brown. I bite into it with tartar sauce. The batter is fried to perfection and is delicious. And the shrimp meat is dense and packed with flavor. When I eat it with the batter, I'm so impressed by how delicious it is that I can't help but lean back.

Next is the medium-thick sauce and tartar sauce. Yes, this is also great. Next is the fried horse mackerel, which is plump and has a deep flavor.

When it comes to fried foods, the outer layer is deep fried in oil, but the meat is protected by the batter and steamed (the same goes for tempura). The horse mackerel is steamed to perfection. The cream croquette is also delicious. White rice is good, and the potato salad with a little mayonnaise is also delicious.

I was so satisfied and the price of 1900 yen was a bargain! Overall, it's a great and conscientious restaurant, and I admire it. The owner is a true craftsman, and I like how he's so humble even though the restaurant is so popular.

Mitaka is a long way from where I am, but it's definitely worth the trip. Oh, it would be even better if they added some pickled radish or something.

Ponta Honke's fried tiger prawns are
Definitely the pinnacle of Tokyo.

There are great restaurants in the world. As I wrote in my previous article about tonkatsu, the reason this restaurant is special is that they start each day by melting pork fat to make lard.

For more information, please read the second article in this series on tonkatsu.

◆My favorite tonkatsu: 3 carefully selected tonkatsu restaurants in Tokyo

Although our restaurant is a Western restaurant, when it comes to fried food we are at the top.

Looking at the menu, fried tiger prawns are listed at the top of the list, followed by conger eel, fried clams, shrimp croquettes, squid, and cutlets. Depending on the season, fried oysters, fried whiting, and fried pilchard are also listed. (By the way, the oysters, whiting, and pilchard are so delicious that they will make you squirm in ecstasy.)

When I ordered fried tiger prawns, two big ones came out. However, what's difficult is that all the other dishes are delicious.

The restaurant understands the customer's concerns well and allows customers to order separately. The combinations that regular customers order are all different and interesting. Therefore, this time I ordered one tiger prawn and three squids.

The man next to me started talking to the owner of the shop, who was frying food across the counter. "Hey, how can someone talk to you when they see how serious you are?" I was about to say, "You're being a bit noisy!"

"Oh man, this shrimp croquette is amazing," he said. Oh, you're right, I should have ordered that too (laughs). But please leave the owner alone.

Another customer bows to the chef and says "Itadakimasu" before eating. I understand why you would want to do that. After all, it's touching to see the chef putting his heart and soul into making the food.

Well, we have arrived. This is what I mean by stately. These fries are the best in the Tokyo area. I put a knife into the shrimp with head. The batter is tightly attached to the body, so it doesn't come off. First, I try it with mustard and salt.

The batter is incredibly delicious.

I realized something here. I feel ashamed of myself for thinking that saying it was crispy was enough. I'm going to say something complicated. Evaluating a dish is about how well you can distinguish and recognize the details of what goes into your mouth, making full use of the texture and the five tastes, and how well you can put it into words. In other words, it is a fairly phenomenological task.

So, in reality, it is crispy, but that is not enough. The fineness of this intricately made homemade bread crumbs and the skill to fry it perfectly are what create the indescribable deliciousness of the batter. When you bite into it, it makes a crunchy sound, but it disappears like light snow. In other words, the deliciousness of the batter accounts for about 40% of the deliciousness of fried food.

It must have been fried in the finest quality lard at a relatively low temperature. The bread crumbs may also have been low in carbohydrates. The fried batter was whitish.

Anyway, the shrimp meat is steaming and has a soft, sweet taste. It's fried to the perfect degree.

Next, I put Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and tartar sauce on top. Yes, this might be good. Since it had a head, I of course dug out the roe and ate it. In fact, in the end, I ate the whole thing, including the head and tail, crispy. Oh, I was so happy. If I could be greedy, I would have liked to try some soy sauce, which wasn't on the table.

But the next time I ate the squid, even more happiness came to me. It had just the right amount of elasticity, was slightly cooked, and my teeth sank into the flesh, so it was easy to bite through, and the taste of the squid... this was probably the best fried squid I've ever tasted. I was stunned for a moment by the fact that I had come across it.

The rice was perfect, the red miso soup with nameko mushrooms, and the pickles were also perfectly delicious. The noisy old man next to me kept asking, "This pickled radish is delicious. I want to take it home. Of course it's homemade, right?" The answer was, "When they get dried radish in the winter, they prepare a year's supply." That's amazing.

Well, I've been feeling great since this afternoon.

My favorite tonkatsu restaurant in Tokyo, "Sugita"
The fried shrimp was definitely the best in Tokyo.

In short, following Ponta Honke, there will now be two No. 1 restaurants in Tokyo.

I have already introduced this top-class tonkatsu restaurant in the first installment of this series. It is my favorite tonkatsu restaurant in Tokyo.

To find out how much I love it, please read the back issues.

◆ Kuramae "Tonkatsu Sugita" talks about how delicious the pork loin cutlet is

As I wrote there, just as the tonkatsu here is excellent, the fried shrimp is also truly amazing.

First, please take a look at the majestic shrimp in the photo. It's big! It's thick! It's rare to see such a magnificent shrimp. It must be very difficult to procure them.

This restaurant's deep-frying techniques are well-known, so the way they deep-fry the shrimp is also outstanding. The batter is a beautiful golden brown and delicious. They use two types of oil in a pan, first deep-frying at high temperature and then slowly finishing at low temperature. The shrimp itself is cooked to perfection inside the batter. When you bite into the shrimp, it has a nice texture and is overflowing with sweetness and umami.

As soon as I ate it, I felt my face melt and a grin appear on my face. It's rare to find fried shrimp that is as well-crafted as this.

As with pork cutlet, it is also delicious with soy sauce and Japanese mustard. Of course, Worcestershire sauce is good, and it is also delicious with a little tartar sauce on top. Unlike with tonkatsu, it is best to avoid medium-thick sauce or tonkatsu sauce, as they will overshadow the taste of the shrimp.

It's actually a very kind gesture that it's already cut into small pieces for easy eating, because if you cut it yourself, the meat and batter can get separated.

I would like to reiterate that the accompanying cabbage was superb, the rice was cooked perfectly, the pork soup, and the pickles were all top-notch.

By the way, there seems to be a dream set course available that includes loin, fried shrimp, rice, and pork soup.

The long-established and extremely crowded "Rengatei"
It's extremely stable and everything tastes good.

It is a well-known, long-established Western restaurant. Recently, it has become very crowded with inbound tourists, and there are long lines at lunchtime and dinnertime.

So I decided to drop by on a rainy evening after the first game between the Dodgers and Cubs at Tokyo Dome. It was 19:40 p.m., and as expected, I was able to get in. However, it was full, with only one table of foreigners and the rest of the people Japanese.

Looking around the restaurant, I realized that Western-style restaurants really are a paradise for middle-aged men. There were two other middle-aged men like me. One ordered an omelet rice and beer, and the other ordered a single order of fried oysters and hayashi rice. The latter was a particularly good combination. Not bad at all.

First of all, you can't go wrong with anything you order at this restaurant. Therefore, the correct thing to do is to order a dish like pork cutlet, minced meat cutlet, hamburger steak, fried chicken, or tongue steak, and finish off with an omelet rice, hayashi rice, curry rice, or spaghetti Napolitana.

When I think of a Western restaurant, my conditioned reaction is to order fried shrimp and, like an idiot, omelet rice!

There were three pretty chunky fried shrimps on top. Even though I'm not a foreigner, I just shrugged my shoulders and said "Wow". It also came with a little salad, which was nice. The cucumber was really fresh and flavorful, and the potato salad with little mayonnaise was incredibly delicious.

The main dish, the fried shrimp, was delicious. The batter was golden brown and fried to perfection. The shrimp was fresh and not smelly at all. It had a nice sweet and savory smell.

I alternate between eating it with the buttery omelet rice, so what more can I say. I sighed deeply with satisfaction, but I also thought that the fried oysters of the guy next to me were good too.

"Restaurant Katsura" is located in Nihonbashi.
A strong ally for office workers

This Western-style restaurant has been around for many years. It is located right next to Coredo Muromachi, where the surrounding area seems to have been completely developed, and only this restaurant has a Showa-era feel to it. In fact, even when you enter the restaurant, it feels like the Showa era itself. It can be said that this is a rare restaurant these days.

The first time I went there was about 15 years ago. It hasn't changed a bit since then. It's a reliable ally for office workers, not only during lunch hours but also in the evenings.

Even the colored paper hanging on the wall is vintage. The calligraphy of "Iron Chef"'s Kenichi Chen (probably with a brush pen) reads "Food art is endless," while Asako Kishi's reads "Bimikyushin." Yuzo Kayama is smiling in a commemorative photo.

This shop is very fun to use. About half of the customers are middle-aged men who come in alone after work (there are also young people). Most customers order draft beer. Then they order a dish such as fried chicken, hamburger steak, or minced meat cutlet.

They eat these snacks while gulping down beer, wine, or sake, and finish off with omelet rice, curry rice, or spaghetti. Or there are groups of two, three, or four middle-aged men on their way home from work, and there are several of them. They all have reservations. They order beer and some fried food, and it's like a traditional izakaya. There are also two couples. In any case, the place is full.

Perhaps because the restaurant owns its own land, the prices here are generally very reasonable. They also offer great value set menus. You can feel the restaurant's sense of mission, or its determination, to support the stomachs of office workers. I think it's a great restaurant.

And the main thing is the fried shrimp, which is a huge fried shrimp with a head, which is rare in popular restaurants. You will be amazed at its size. There are shredded cabbage on the side of the two huge fries, and glacéd carrots and green beans underneath the fries. It is a combination of wildness and thoughtfulness. A stainless steel plate is also wild these days.

The shrimp is a tiger prawn, but it is quite thick. I cut it with a knife, poured Worcestershire sauce over it, and ate it with plenty of tartar sauce. The batter of the fried shrimp was crispy and fried quite generously, but it felt the most roughly fried out of the five restaurants I visited this time. The shrimp was chewy and chewy, and the taste was sweet and rich.

If you remove the head, you can eat the shrimp roe. That's the point of having it with the head.

As a result, the desire to conquer is easily satisfied.

The fried shrimp is by far the most expensive, but that's simply because they use so many ingredients.

Well, soon, the omelet rice I ordered on the side arrived. It was a classic dish, chicken rice wrapped in egg and topped with ketchup, which is a comforting type of dish. I stuffed my cheeks with fried shrimp as a side dish. Is there any other happiness like this (laughs)?

Author profile

Bassey is a foodie who has been eating around for over 40 years. In addition to Japan, he regularly goes to Hong Kong to eat Chinese food at his own expense, and also travels to Taiwan, Singapore, Bangkok, and Seoul for delicious food. During his time as the editor-in-chief of a travel magazine, he visited many Michelin-rated restaurants around the world, especially in Europe, and later on in the World's Best 50 restaurants. We want everyone who loves food to try ``Crab Miso Bean Paste Noodles'' from ``Tenkorou'' (Hong Kong). Actually, I like the Chinese food at this restaurant the best in the world. Another example of the best Western food is "El Seger de Can Roca" from Girona, Spain, which was ranked number one on the World's Best 50 list. Ah, I want to go there again.