The Expert-Approved Dipping Sauce You Need To Try With Tempura

Tempura has become a tasty go-to snack throughout the United States. The combination of a light, crispy batter and perfectly deep-fried bites of shrimp, potato, and other veggies makes tempura a crave-worthy side dish or an addition to a soothing ramen bowl. One element often taken for granted is tempura's dipping sauce. It might seem like it's soy sauce and "whatever," but in fact, there is a specific sauce that goes with tempura called tentsuyu. According to Billy Wang, owner of New York City restaurant Sanuki Udon, the classic accompaniment has a very specific ratio of ingredients, and soy sauce isn't even the main component.

Wang is a New York University Stern School of Business graduate and son of the founders of NYC's famous Ollie's Chinese family restaurants. In early 2024 Wang opened a fast casual Japanese spot where customers build their udon noodle bowls in an assembly line the same way people do at many poké spots or Chipotle. And while the restaurant is the first of its kind in New York, the format is common in Japan, and similar station-style noodle restaurants exist in Seattle and elsewhere. Part of the Sanuki Udon menu is dedicated to well-made tempura, and Wang knows the topic well. Chowhound reached out to Wang, who says his restaurant uses the classic version of tentsuyu for its tempura dipping sauce.

Tentsuyu, which restaurant owner Billy Wang calls tempura soy sauce, is the traditional dipping sauce for all sorts of tempura-battered meats and vegetables. In general it's a very simple sauce, consisting of soy sauce, a Japanese cooking wine made with rice called mirin (which can even give your scrambled eggs a touch of sweetness), and dashi (a Japanese soup stock). The mix of savory, salty, sweet, and umami flavors complements deep-fried shrimp, carrots, lotus roots, and pretty much any item fried tempura style.

"The most classic dipping sauce is tempura soy sauce," says Wang, "prepared by mixing soy sauce, mirin, and soup stock in a ratio of 1:1:4, with grated radish added for extra flavor." Here, Wang refers to daikon radish. Of course, you can mix the sauce in different ratios to meet your personal tastes, but the bulk of the sauce is made with dashi stock, rather than soy sauce. Dashi stock is commonly made from a umami-packed Japanese powder that elevates every dish. But if you don't have any, you can use vegetable or fish stock in its place.

Not only can you play with the ratios in tentsuyu, but spicing things up and customizing this sauce are perfectly fine. Some people add bonito (dried fish) flakes, sugar, or other ingredients. "You can also add yuzu paste or chili salt for depth of flavor," Wang adds. Experimenting with the dipping sauce provides a great reason to whip up another batch of tempura shrimp and veggies.