Tendon set ($19.90++)!
Suntec Japanese tendon set: assorted tempura (prawn, fish, anago eel, vegetables) over tare-glazed rice, with miso soup and pickles. $19.90++.
Lunch at a Suntec Japanese restaurant: tendon set, $19.90++. π
What was on the table:
- Tendon (tempura don) in the black bowl: rice topped with prawn tempura, fish tempura, anago (sea eel) tempura and vegetable tempura, glazed with tare
- Miso soup in the gold-trim lacquer bowl
- Pickled vegetables in the side dish
Tendon (倩丼) is tempuraβs rice-bowl format: the battered pieces stacked over rice and dressed with the sweet-soy tare so the batter bottoms soak while the tops stay crisp. The pieces lean upright against each other rather than lying flat, so steam escapes and nothing goes soggy before you reach it, the architecture matters as much as the frying.
The batter is the craft: proper tempura batter is mixed cold, barely combined, and used immediately, so it fries into a lacy, light crust rather than a thick bready one. Done right it shatters crisply and stays that way under the tare for the first several minutes, which is why you eat tendon promptly.
The assortment is the pleasure: prawn (the snap), fish (the flake), anago (the soft, rich sea eel, the more premium piece), and vegetables (the soft-inside, crisp-outside contrast), each battered to blonde and glazed with the same tare. The variety of textures from one bowl is the whole appeal of a mixed tendon.
The set extras, miso soup and pickles, round it into a proper teishoku, the miso resetting the palate between the rich fried pieces.
At $19.90++ for an assorted tendon set with anago at a Suntec Japanese restaurant, this is fair mid-tier pricing, below the dedicated tempura specialists.
Overall: 4.3 / 5. πππΌ The crisp lacy tempura, the anago especially, over the tare-glazed rice was the standout. Solid Japanese set, would re-order.
