It’s been a challenge finding good tempura in Singapore. Our two recent attempts have been somewhat disappointing, with the main culprit being limp and soggy batter.
Part of the reason must be due to Singapore’s high relative humidity, which averages 83.9% annually and often reaching 100% on rainy days. This makes keeping the deep-fried coating nice and crispy a difficult task.
I assume that this can be compensated somehow through proper frying techniques by experienced chefs. But so far, we’ve not had success finding decent tempura in Singapore.
Before giving up our search completely and waiting for Japan to open up, we decided to give a third and final try at Tendon Kohaku. Specifically, their branch at Clarke Quay Central, just opposite the entrance of Don Don Donki.
A long long time ago, maybe even a decade ago, we visited their Suntec outlet and recalled that their tendon was actually quite good. Hopefully, they’ve been able to maintain their standards over time.
Tendon Kohaku
Their website lists 10 outlets: 1 in Tokyo, 5 in Singapore, 3 in the Philippines and 1 in Malaysia. The ones in Singapore are located in Clarke Quay Central, Boat Quay, Chinatown Point, Suntec and Terminal 2 of Changi Airport.
In Tokyo, their store is located in COREDO Muromachi in Nihombashi, which I’ve visited frequently in the past. Mainly for the big Mitsukoshi depachika in the basement level, the Kayanoya Dashi store on the ground floor and various restaurants in the upper levels.
I don’t recall seeing Tendon Kohaku there before. Though to be fair, it’s a huge shopping complex with numerous restaurants across many floors. If they’ve managed to survive there with all the stiff competition, they should be quite good.
Their menu is small, compact and focused on their tendon selection, which you can order ala carte or as part of a set meal.
The Wife ordered the Seafood Tendon Set (S$ 23.80++), and I went with their signature Kohaku Tendon Set (S$17.80++).
The Clarke Quay restaurant is quite small with around 20 odd seats, but since safe distancing measures were still in place, actual capacity was effectively halved.
Even though we were there after lunch hours on a weekday, business was actually not too bad. Besides ourselves, there were another three occupied tables.
Our miso soup, chawanmushi, pickled yuzu daikon and hot green tea (not part of the set) were promptly served.
The pickles had a pleasant yuzu fragrance but the portion was definitely on the small side. The chawanmushi was served piping hot and was generously filled with ingredients, but the miso soup was clearly too diluted.
We didn’t have to wait long before our tendons arrived in pretty porcelain bowls. The covers conveniently doubled up as small plates that helped hold the tempura pieces in-between bites. It was a good alternative to having to lift the full bowl up regularly.
Kohaku Tendon
My Kohaku Tendon came with prawns, crabstick, squid, long beans, baby corn, pumpkin, shitake mushroom and chicken breast.
Even though they were all doused with the sweet and salty tare, their crunchiness held up well, especially the prawn. The amount of tare was just nice for me, but if you like things more saucy, they provide an entire bottle at each table to add to your heart’s content.
All the individual tempura pieces were quite nice, including the chicken breast. It could have turned out hard and dry, but was moist and juicy instead.
If you noticed the two small blobs of ikura on my rice, note that they weren’t part of my set. They were fished from The Wife’s seafood tendon instead.
Seafood Tendon
The prawns, long beans and baby corn were repeated from the Kohaku Tendon, but the other items were replaced with hotate, white fish, nori, renkon and a scattering of precious ikura.
Most of the items were again quite nice, except that the hotate was a bit of a letdown. It was dry and slightly hard, not the juicy meatiness that we expected. I’m not sure if it was because it was over-fried, or that it wasn’t that fresh to begin with.
The ikura was a welcome addition, and made each bite of rice more exciting with explosions of umami. It’s not worth the 33% premium for the seafood tendon though, and we’ll go with just the normal version the next time we visit.
It looks like the third time’s the charm, and we finally found a decent tempura place in Singapore that we can visit whenever our craving surfaces.
