This week, I was in the mood for some tempura and decided to make a lunch stop at Matsui. Matsui is a Japanese restaurant that, while they have many different Japanese dishes that you would see in other restaurants, you will notice that they have many tempura dishes. Indeed this restaurant specializes in tempura, and their tempura shrimp is certainly nothing less than spectacular. They offer tempura shrimp bowls, including a Go-Go Matsui Bowl which gives you many tempura shrimp in a single rice bowl as well as tempura shrimp combinations. What I elected to get this time was the “Lunch Special”. The Lunch Special includes a choice of hot udon or soba, as well as one piece of tempura shrimps and tempura vegetables and assorted sushi with hand roll.
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The udon was so delicious. Their broth was very light flavored without being too heavy and had an exquisite taste which complemented the tempura. The udon noodles were also very soft and filled with the taste of the broth with which it was cooked in. I am a huge fan of hot udon and would recommend anyone to have the udon if they come to this restaurant. It is just so flavorful, and has sides of fried flakes and green onions which makes your mouth water.
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The tempura shrimp along with vegetables perfectly complemented each other. The fried coating was very crunchy and the shrimp was soft and tender on the inside. There was also shrimp tempura dipping sauce which provided a great extra taste to the shrimps and the vegetables. One idea I had was to steep the tempura shrimp into the udon soup and make it a shrimp tempura udon. Whether you have the shrimp tempura by itself or with the udon, you cannot go wrong with either option.
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The climax of the meal was the assorted sushi which included salmon, tuna and sweet shrimp,all of which are my favorite. There was also a spicy tuna hand roll. The sushi pieces were very fresh, especially the sweet shrimp which was soft and tender. In addition, the spicy tuna hand roll had crunchy seaweed on the outside and excellent spicy tuna on the inside. The combination also came with a side salad which was a great addition to balance out the entire meal.
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My party also ordered oyako-don which is a chicken katsu coated with egg rice bowl. The chicken was coated with a crispy outer layer and fresh and juicy on the inside. There was also egg that was sparsely laid out on top of the chicken and accompanied by fresh wwhite rice. The whole meal was very delicious.
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If anyone is looking for a restaurant that takes the win on tempura, Matsui is your place to go!
Matsui is located at 21605 S Western Ave. #G, Torrance, CA.
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『Japanese Cuisine / Restaurant Guide』
Writer: Hector Hsu
(1/27/2022)
