Dish guides
What is tempura?
天ぷら · tempura
Tempura is seafood and vegetables dipped in a thin, cold batter of wheat flour and water (often with egg) and deep-fried until pale and crisp. It's eaten with a light dipping sauce of dashi and soy sauce, or with salt, either as a set meal, over rice or on top of noodles.
- At a glance
- Tempura
- Japanese seafood and vegetables in a light, crisp batter, served with a dashi dipping sauce or salt.
- Pronunciation
- Say it like tem-poo-rah · IPA /tempɯɾa/
- Also written as
- 天麩羅, てんぷら, 天ぷら定食 (tempura teishoku), 天丼 (tendon), 海老天 (ebi-ten, prawn tempura), 野菜天ぷら (vegetable tempura), prawn tempura, shrimp tempura
What’s in it
Core ingredients
- batter of soft wheat flour and ice-cold water (often with egg)
- prawns
- seasonal vegetables (sweet potato, pumpkin, aubergine, lotus root, shiso leaf)
- frying oil
- tentsuyu dipping sauce (dashi, soy sauce, mirin)
- grated daikon
Often added
- white fish such as kisu (whiting)
- anago (conger eel)
- squid
- scallops
- shiitake mushrooms
- salt or matcha salt instead of sauce
- sesame oil in the frying oil
Allergens
| Allergen | How likely |
|---|---|
| Gluten | Typically contains |
| Fish | Typically contains |
| Soy | Typically contains |
| Shellfish | Typically contains |
| Eggs | Often contains |
| Molluscs | Sometimes contains |
| Sesame | Sometimes contains |
| Dairy | Rarely contains |
| Peanuts | Rarely contains |
| Tree nuts | Rarely contains |
| Diet | Suitable? |
|---|---|
| Vegetarian | Depends — Vegetable tempura (yasai tempura) is common, but it's usually fried in the same oil as seafood and the dipping sauce is made with fish dashi; ask for salt instead. |
| Vegan | Depends — As for vegetarian, and the batter may also contain egg. |
| Pescatarian | Usually |
| Halal | Depends — Seafood and vegetables are usually acceptable, but the dipping sauce contains mirin (which contains alcohol) and the fryer is rarely halal-certified. |
| Kosher | No |
| Gluten-free | No |
Allergen and calorie details are AI estimates based on the menu and typical recipes. They can be incomplete — if you have a serious allergy, always check with the staff.
What tempura looks like and how to eat it
Good tempura has a thin, lacy, pale-gold coating that shatters when you bite it, with the prawn or vegetable clearly visible underneath. It isn't greasy and it isn't coated in breadcrumbs. The batter is mixed only briefly and kept cold so that it stays light.
It's served with tentsuyu, a warm dipping sauce of dashi, soy sauce and mirin. You stir grated daikon radish into the sauce, dip each piece briefly and eat it while it's hot. Some restaurants offer salt, sometimes mixed with matcha, as an alternative, which avoids the fish and soy in the sauce (though not the shared frying oil). Tempura is normally eaten with chopsticks.
Where tempura comes from
Tempura has foreign roots. Portuguese traders and missionaries in the 16th century brought the technique of coating food in flour and frying it, and over the following centuries it became a popular Edo (Tokyo) street food and later a refined restaurant dish.
Typical price
Median price 1320 JPY
Typical range 560–2290 JPY.
Median of 28 menus, 2025-04 – 2026-05. Basis: Japanese-language menus scanned with MenuGuide; includes tempura set meals.
How to order it
| Phrase | Romanization | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 天ぷら定食をください。 | Tempura teishoku o kudasai. | The tempura set meal, please. |
| 野菜の天ぷらだけにできますか？ | Yasai no tempura dake ni dekimasu ka? | Could I have vegetable tempura only? |
| えびアレルギーがあります。 | Ebi arerugī ga arimasu. | I'm allergic to prawns (shrimp). |
Not to be confused with
Frequently asked questions
Is tempura gluten free?
No, not usually. Tempura batter is made with wheat flour, and the dipping sauce is seasoned with soy sauce, which typically contains wheat. Some restaurants make gluten-free tempura with rice flour or potato starch, but they are uncommon in Japan, and the frying oil is shared, so cross-contact is likely.
Does tempura batter have egg?
Often, yes. Many tempura batters are made with egg yolk or whole egg mixed into the cold water, while others use only flour and water. You can't tell by looking, so if you avoid eggs, ask the restaurant. Tempura is usually fried in the same oil as prawns and other seafood.
What's the difference between tempura and karaage?
Tempura uses a thin batter on unmarinated seafood and vegetables and is dipped in a sauce or salt after frying. Karaage is pieces of meat, usually chicken, marinated in soy sauce, sake and ginger, then dusted with starch or flour and fried. Tempura tastes light and delicate; karaage is juicy and savoury.
How do you pronounce tempura?
Say tem-poo-rah, with all three syllables fairly even: in IPA, [tempɯɾa]. The r is a light tap close to a d, and the u is short. English speakers often stress the middle syllable, which is understood, but Japanese doesn't stress any syllable strongly.
