Is Fusion a good thing? Nuclear fusion, well it has its uses. We probably can’t do without it. Jazz Fusion, I’m not sure. I think we could do without it. I know Sancho could*. No music whatsoever from a genre beginning with the letter J is allowed on the van stereo when Sancho is driving, riding or even nearby.
What about Fusion Cuisine? This sort of thing is usually far too elevated for a PMiaV in a hurry. Unless you are in Ayr.
You read that right. Nor do I mean the Fusion Cuisine of filling a cheese piece with crisps and dipping it in your soup.
Tempura is a crazy green castellated, turreted corner plot café/bar/diner on Beresford Terrace. It’s hard to miss this marvel of Architectural Fusion. You might be able to park free round the corner in Bellevue Street. Risk it.
The design fusion continues inside with the Full Monty of Thai street-food café décor, including a fantastic, corrugated iron ceiling lining, myriad hanging lamps, pictures, shelves, icons, buddhas, gilded mirrors, mouldings on the bar, kudu horns…. Even the obligatory café-green painted bits of wall that peep through the maelstrom are an unusual light green. Seating is good with a choice of a banquette with tables, high tables, bar stools or ordinary 2 -4 cover tables with assorted restyled chairs. It’s a fantastic contrast to the winter dreich outside and the place is full of all sorts of locals.
The high point of the fusion in Tempura is the food. Fairly standard café or diner style dishes done well, with added tempura. Simple, brilliant. Por moi, this reaches its apotheosis with a superb Nachos with Tempura whatever-you-like on top. Exploding with taste, texture and colour. Now that’s a fusion I can get behind. I even took a photo like a genuine blogging chappie. The Tempura Nachos is a fusion dish so fantastic I would consider generating a hangover just so I could look forward to eating it for breakfast.
Service is very friendly and quick. The speed at which the food comes out is exemplary, stunningly nifty. This is most satisfying to fans of instant oral gratification such as myself and significantly narrows the odds of getting a ticket for abandoning your van in a resident’s bay with the hazard lights on ‘loading’ whilst loading yourself in Tempura.
The coffee is pretty bold too. A great, dark smoky French Roast blend (Fusion?) in a decent cup-and-saucer. A proper coffee. You won’t need another one. Prices are very reasonable for the quality, service, sheer thought and sense of fun that has gone into the interior design. But it’s the food fusion that makes Tempura a great place to stop and eat. It works as a café, a diner and if Sancho was driving I would be very happy to enjoy a cocktail or two at the bar, nodding the old bonce along to some middle/late period Miles Davis Jazz Fusion. *Sancho would have to avoid Miles by vaping aggressively outside.
There is a takeaway Tempura just down the road but don’t bother. Spend some time in here. It will cheer you up and fill you up. Fusion is a good thing in Tempura.
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