Les Amis Group Opens Tempura Donburi Restaurant Serving Affordable Tendon From $12.80

Move over Tendon Kohaku and Keisuke’s Tendon Ginza Itsuki — there’s a new tendon (short for “tempura donburi”) joint in town. Fortnight-old Tenjin at Shaw Centre is by the Les Amis Group. You know, the folks behind atas concepts like two-Michelin-star European fine-diner Les Amis as well as more casual joints such as NamNam Noodle Bar and dessert hotspot Tarte by Cheryl Koh.

The 44-seat minimalistic-chic Tenjin, which takes over the space vacated by the now-defunct Cantonese restaurant Circa 1912, serves up bowls of Hoshi-Jirushi rice from the Ibaraki Prefecture of Japan, with your choice of tempura-battered seafood or vegetables.

It appears you can see the chefs at work if you sit at this counter in the dining room (but not their faces).

Choose from three rice bowls — from premium seafood to vegetables only, to a mix of both seafood and veg. The most budget-friendly option is the Yasai bowl ($12.80; pictured), which comes with two pieces each of five different seasonal vegetables like sweet pumpkin, aubergine, lotus root, shiitake mushroom and crunchy ohba (perilla) leaves.

If you want the best of both worlds, go for the Jo Bowl ($14.80; left in pic) which includes a free-range egg, prawn and vegetable tempura. Or indulge in the seafood-heavy Toku-Jo Bowl ($22.80; right in pic) which gets you prawn, crab leg, anago (sea eel) and fish tempura, plus veg and an egg.

Each tendon is served with a bowl of miso soup and salad. If you need something else to nibble on besides deep-fried grub on rice, there’s also the Truffle Chawanmushi ($3.80; pictured), described in the eatery’s press release as “a fragrant and delightfully-wobbly steamed egg custard topped with truffle”. Watch this space for our review soon.

Tenjin is at #03-08, Shaw Centre, 1 Scotts Rd, S228208. Open 11.30am-3pm (last orders at 2.30pm) & 6pm-10pm (last orders at 9.30pm). Tel: 6235-3312. www.tenjin.com.sg/