In shortTempura counter in a Nagoya suburb — a ¥2,500 lunch course and an omakase dinner, on a Tabelog Tempura 100 list. Reservations run in Japanese and are hard to place from abroad, so our Tokyo desk requests the table for you, by phone and in Japanese.
Price
Lunch course ¥2,500 tax included; dinner omakase around ¥13,500; cash only
Hours
Lunch 11:30–14:00 in four slots (11:30, 12:00, 12:30, 13:00); dinner 18:00–22:00, Sundays and holidays 18:00–20:30
Closed
Wednesdays
Seats
28 — a 10-seat counter and 18 at tables
Payment
Cash only
Getting there
Shin-Moriyama (JR Chuo Line, about 15 minutes from Nagoya Station), roughly 9 minutes on foot; parking on site
Tempura Yokoi is the house Nagoya food people mention when a visitor
asks where locals actually eat tempura. It is not in the centre: it
sits in Moriyama Ward, a short walk from Shin‑Moriyama on the JR Chuo
Line, about fifteen minutes out of Nagoya Station. A 2018 travel‑site
column described it as "the tempura house that turns down every
media request," and nothing about the place has changed that stance
— there is no website, no Instagram, no online booking, just a
telephone that is answered in two windows a day. Tabelog placed it on
its Tempura 100 list in 2023 and again in 2025, and the reason is
simple: the frying is exceptionally light, and lunch still costs
¥2,500.
What you eat
At lunch there is one course only, ¥2,500 with tax: eight or so
pieces of tempura fried to order — shrimp and seasonal vegetables,
served one by one if you are at the counter — with rice you can refill,
miso soup and pickles, eaten with tentsuyu or a dark sea salt. In the
evening the house serves a course‑only omakase dinner; a booking
listing gives it as ¥13,500, and diners describe it as "over ten
thousand yen." Diners on the review sites repeatedly single out the
lightness of the batter and the sweetness of the vegetables. The
house takes cash only, and does not publish its sake or wine list.
The booking reality
Everything is by telephone, in Japanese, and the house sets the terms
plainly on its Tabelog listing: no calls are answered during
service; the line is open 9:30–11:00 and 14:00–17:00. Lunch is sold
in four fixed seatings — 11:30, 12:00, 12:30 and 13:00 — each with a
thirty‑minute cooking window, and the house warns that a late arrival
is treated as a cancellation. Dinner is course‑only and by
reservation. There is no release day: one 2026 diner booked a month
and a half ahead “with room to spare,” and every seat at lunch is
already spoken for by the time the shutter goes up, so walking in is
not an option.
The narrow phone windows fall in the evening before for North America
and in the middle of the night in Europe, which is exactly why our desk makes the
call: we ring in Japanese inside the morning window, take the slot
you want, and confirm the head count. The house does not publish a
policy on solo diners, children or a dress code; we ask when we book.
Bring cash.
Travelers who want a tempura counter at a local price rather than a
hotel one, and who will happily ride fifteen minutes out of the centre
for it; solo diners and pairs at the counter; and anyone building a Nagoya
day around Tokugawa Garden or the Chuo Line — Shin‑Moriyama is a
short hop from both.
Free release-date alerts: the day before, on the morning of release day (08:00 JST) and about 30 minutes before when the time is known — or a weekly summary if the house opens a little every day.
Tempura Yokoi: common questions
Can you book Tempura Yokoi from abroad?
Yes, through our Tokyo desk. Phone only, in Japanese, and only outside service hours (9:30–11:00 and 14:00–17:00); no fixed release day, seats about six weeks out. We call the restaurant for you, in Japanese, and the ¥6,000-per-seat fee is charged only if we confirm your table — no seat, no fee.
Some of these links are referral links: if you book through them we may earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Restaurants never pay us to be listed or ranked. Editorial policy
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