Tempura Endo (Beverly Hills): A Pictorial Essay

Looks great!

Someone who would never stand up for the Underdog.

Looks awesome, have to recover from the holiday spending before I take the plunge :disappointed:

Sure makes the ‘expensive’ $65 tempura omakase @ Thousand Cranes of yesteryear seem like a bargain.

Niki Nakayama has been to Endo as well…

From what I saw there was one bar seat and a couple of walk ins for a table of two.

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Went last night. Total agreement with J.L. Abalone was one of the best half dozen food bites I have ever put in my mouth. The texture was so perfect, but there was still crunch due to the tempura coating. Lucky to have Japanese speaker next to us celebrating birthday, so learned a lot. Full Matsu, Kubota sake excellent accompaniment.

Has anyone tried the Kyoto vegetables tempura a la carte? Curious how those are and approximate prices (since they are listed as MP).

They’ve finally updated the sake list on the website. It’s close to 3x retail for a number of bottles I recognize. Suddenly the $50 corkage isn’t so bad if you bring a premium bottle…

Food looks great.

Sake prices highest I’ve seen in a while, over 2X my local place for Senshin and Tokugetsu and even 25-30% higher than Urasawa (at least from a year ago) which has a pretty steep markup already.

Definitely a BYOB place- is there a limit?

A little bird told me corkage is not allowed. The little bird was there at a private soft open event where they did bring their own wines and was informed corkage would not be allowed once they opened.

Thanks for the stunning review, J.L. Really terrific.

Though the food cost, if the quality and experience were top notch, would not be a huge issue, the sake mark-ups give me pause. Their sake prices are 2-3.5x’s higher than other restaurants which are already 2x’s retail which makes me wonder if their is value embedded in the meal all the way around.

Location or not, their sake prices are much higher than Yazawa which is just down the street.

Very odd, I actually called them a couple days ago to ask, and was told corkage was $50 a bottle, I did not ask for a limit at the time.

I guess $50 is better than not allowing corkage…

Thanks for the update.

OK just spoke with them on the phone again.

Three things

No limit on # of bottles you can bring. Flat $50 per 720 ml bottle.

They do not have their own private lot for parking.

They have not yet stocked any Kyoto vegetables for a la carte, most of the other items are available otherwise. If you want to order only a la carte, 9 pm and after only. But if you order any of the set courses you are welcome to add on any additional a la carte items.

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WOW that scallop + truffle + caviar is $75 a la carte. $280 price tag for omakase doesn’t seem so bad in comparison.

That said, it appears you can get a very reasonable meal a la carte at a much lower entry price.

santa barbara spot prawn #headortails?

uni #spinybastards

king crab #crabwithak

abalone

pike conger

scallop

shrimp toast

sea bream

octopus

Pea croquette

A5 wagyu miyazaki, so much like kobe it can rape a woman and get away with it

maitake mushroom

corn

shittake

sesame tofu

sweet potato brandy flambé

ten-don

ten-musu

miso soup

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Holy shit I need that in my life

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…And flambé too!

You can order alc before 9 now, however the minimum order is $150pp, after 9 minimum is $50pp.

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@J_L @Eljeffy @PorkyBelly @beefnoguy I’m thinking of treating myself to Tempura Endo tonight because payday. Any recs on which course menu to choose? Is it worth it to go all out or be a bit more austere (which is probably not the best choice of words!)

Looks like they changed the menu since I last went and now they added tencha and ten soba as options for the starch course, but only for the $220 and $280 courses.

I would suggest $220 or below. We did the $280 last time and it was a lot of food and felt like it was a bit too much. Personally I could have done without the tea ceremony, wagyu tempura, the sashimi course. Some of the best items for us were tempura abalone and the tempura giant scallop with caviar, and of course uni. Good to inquire which course has all these, ask questions about the differences between the courses, then decide accordingly.

You could also book say 8:30 pm for a lower end prices set, then add whatever you feel like when the clock hits 9 pm to order a la carte. Still hungry?
Yazawa is up the street, and their wagyu hayashi curry rice is quite awesome as filler.

Enjoy!

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