How long would a 10-13 course tempura meal take?

[v1cky84]

Hi all,

Sorry if this seems like a stupid question. I reserved seating for a lunch tempura meal in Tempura Endo Yasaka Kyoto. How long would a 10 or 13 course meal take? It seems like the chef cooks each tempura one by one unlike here in US where all of them would be served at one time. I'm trying to schedule a tea ceremony after we leave Tempura Endo Yasaka so i want to make sure we will have enough time for each activity. I'd appreciate your response. Many thanks in advance.

[prasantrin]

It depends, but I would say about 60 to 90 minutes. When I went to Tempura Kondo for lunch, I think they allotted about 90 minutes per group (they didn't kick us out after 90 minutes, but I got the impression they wanted to seat the next group quickly). We did have the sweet potato tempura, though, and that takes quite a bit more time to cook (and eat) than most tempura items.

[v1cky84]

Thank you for your response prasantrin. I hope you had a great time at Tempura Kondo. The sweet potato tempura sounds really good. :)

[prasantrin]

Just a thought, when you book your tea ceremony, tell them about your lunch plans and they can suggest the best time. I would probably book it for ~2 hours post lunch (maybe even 2.5hrs) so I'd have time to digest before having tea and sweets.

(I'll be in Kyoto this weekend, but will probably be skipping lunch so I can have more snacks, and then will be having dinner at Spoon!)

[v1cky84]

Thank you for your help prasantrin. Where do you usually buy snacks in Kyoto? I'll check out Spoon. Have a great time in Kyoto this weekend

[prasantrin]

All over the place! I'll probably walk around Nishiki and also Gion and buy whatever snacks catch my eye. I want mochi dango, some soy donuts, etc. etc. Maybe some takoyaki if I can find it. I'm also hoping to find some good karinto while I'm there.

For candies and similar, somewhere on Nishiki is a store that sells candies and other snacks relatively cheaply. There's also a cheap snack store called Kent Boys somewhere off Kawaramachi (south of Sanjo, I think, but I'm not sure). it's a good place to find my favourite Japanese candy of all time--bontan ame. In the Canada and US it's sold as Botan Ame (in a small orange and green box--in the '70s is was sold with a little toy, now it has a sticker as the "present"). Good selection of alcohol (including Hermes liqueurs for example) at Kent Boys, too. Hope it's still there.

[v1cky84]

Thank you for the tips. There are way too many food items I want to try in Japan. I'm drooling over your description of snacks....mochi dango, soy donuts, takoyaki...they all sound so yummy. I can't wait to get there. Thank you so much for your help.