When it comes to Japanese food, ramen, tonkatsu, sushi, and tempura are the first ones that come to mind. For the past 2 years, the ramen craze hit Manila by storm with different ramen franchises opening for the public. But this came to me as a surprise, did you know that there’s an authentic Japanese restaurant that specializes in tempura? That’s Tempura Tendon Tenya Philippines and they finally opened their first store at SM Megamall. Tempura Tendon Tenya hails from Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan, it is considered as the no. 1 tendon restaurant chain in Japan!
But first, let me tell you the what “Tendon” means. Tendon is the combined word for TEMPURA and DONBURI. Tempura is a Japanese frying technique while Donburi is an authentic Japanese rice bowl with different types of toppings. Try one these Tendon creations at Tenya.
I was invited at the private dining event at Tempura Tendon Tenya in SM Megamall a few weeks ago. I chose to sample the Classic Tempura Teishoku.
Teishoku, pronounced as “Tay-show-ku” means classic Japanese set meal with Japanese rice, potato salad, miso soup, tempura sauce, radish, ginger, pickles, and basket of tempura.
The basket in the Classic Tempura comes with black tiger prawn, squid, kisu (a type of fish), small kakiage, green beans, and sweet potato.
The tempura, being the star of the set has a mind-blowing crispiness, you know it’s fried yet you can’t tell because it’s non-greasy. The tempura batter is just perfect, I always get full after a serving or two of tempura in other restaurants because of the thick batter. But at Tenya, the batter is lightly flavored without overpowering the flavors of the other ingredients.
Kids will surely finish their meals at Tenya because kid’s meals are served in cute food plates and comes with a bottle of Yakult and a toy.
Other designs to choose from:
The menu is very straightforward, it covers the basics such as appetizers, tendon, teishoku, udon/soba set, and tempura baskets. Tenya also offers 2 dessert options, Fruity Juicy Pop and Cheesecake.
Fruity Juicy Pop comes in 4 flavors: Orange Vanilla, Coconut Lychee, Strawberry, and Lite Citrus. I got to try their Orange Vanilla, I wanted the Lite Citrus but it’s not available that time.
I think the Fruity Juicy Pop is the perfect dessert after a heavy deep-fried meal. The burst of freshness from the fruit juice-infused popsicles is a great palate cleanser.
Gochisousama deshita Tempura Tendon Tenya Philippines! And big thanks to the Racks Group for bringing authentic Japanese tempura to the Philippines!
Visit Tempura Tendon Tenya Philippines at the 4th Level of SM Megamall Bldg. A. Watch out for other branches opening soon at BGC Stopover, Market Market, and SM Southmall.
Tenya Philippines
4th level, SM Megamall Bldg. A
www.facebook.com/TenyaPhilippines
Wow, Japanese franchise pala ito! Sayang talaga parati ako unavailable when I’m invited to try. Hopefully I can do so on my own sometime soon. Will they let me order a kiddie meal for me? LOL.
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