Tendon Kohaku - Downtown — Restaurant in Vancouver

2nd visit here after going for the first time back in 2021 and I'm convinced it's still one of my favorite meals to get when visiting Vancouver.

I decided to go with the Veggie Tendon since I saw that I actually like all of the individual vegetables that are included in this option. The tendon comes nicely presented atop white rice and you get a choice of regular or spicy sauce and I went with the spicy. The sauce is very tasty, kind of like a spicy teriyaki but even better. It does not seem very spicy at first since you get that sweet flavor initially, but it's a prevalent spice that I enjoy. It's so good that I wish they gave more rice in the bowl since you can easily eat more with just the sauce.

I'm not a tendon expert, but I'll just say it's like tempura, but better, at least here. It's fried so well and fresh and pairs well with the sauce. Oh and there is extra sauce (not spicy) along with chili powder at the table.

It's been a while since I've been back but I thought the miso soup and cabbage slaw already came with the meal and you just have to pay to get them unlimited. I was a little confused that you have to add these items to your meal and in doing so, you get them unlimited. They should include unlimited rice with this option.

It looks like if you go earlier there is no real wait, but for dinner, there is always a wait. Also, they don't seem to have a wait list really and you just have to stand in line and your entire party has to be there to get seated. They are located right across from Robson Square in downtown so be prepared to look out for street parking.

The service was fine, nothing spectacular but not bad. I get that they are trying to seat as many parties as possible, so they have the usual 4 person tables split with those plexiglass (covid) dividers. But honestly, it just ruins the aesthetic and those dividers always look dirty whenever I see them. Besides that it's an appealing interior and moderately sized restaurant.

Besides the few flaws, I really enjoy this meal and will come again when I'm...

Went on a Saturday lunch time at 12:45. Ended up waiting 45 minutes which I can't blame them. I have a prawn allergy and went into this place knowing that most of their menu contained prawn tempura, hoping they'd be able to sub it out for something else. I asked if they could substitute the prawn for vegetable tempura instead and the server said no they don't do substitutes, even if I have an allergy. That was kind of upsetting. My other friends went the next day and one of them had a prawn allergy as well. She said her server let her substitute the prawn with other veggie tempura!! At least have some consistency................

All in all, the drinks were good. The food was ok. I liked the flavour. Gets a bit heavy near the end because of all the batter and rice.

Edit:

Decided to try this place again two weeks later. I asked again if they could sub the prawn out since they did it for my friend last time. After talking to someone, they said ok and gave me a choice of which veggie to swap. Then a few minutes later, the server came back and said the chef wouldn't do it anymore because they changed the policy two weeks ago. Doesn't make any sense. Two weeks ago they said no to me and yes to my friend.. so which is it???? You think I chose to be born with an allergy lol??? And no I don't want to get the veggie bowl because I still wanted the chicken and/or seafood options in the other bowls. Later on, they asked to take away our food when we were still clearly working on it. There was a huge line waiting to get in, so they were hovering over our table and kept staring at us near the end, being really pushy and giving us the bill. SO much pressure. We had only been there for 45 min to an hour. Bad service. Bad experience....

I'm not a good fans of tempera, and I usually have that with udon. Before I tried, I thought it is a bit weird if going with rice, but I still wanted to give it a try!

We ordered Anago Tendon, Kohaku Tendon and Chawanmuchi. The portions looked small but actually not. Both tendon we ordered included soft fried egg, and which made us tempting more.

The anago itself was quite disappointing because it was a bit dry and tasteless, this was not what we expected. We still prefer the anago in BBQ way instead but this restaurant is focus in tempera so we couldn't really complain much about that. The shrimp was really good and the texture was just right and not overcooked. The mushroom was so juicy and I wish there was more than one piece.. haha!

For the soft fried egg, I thought it was softer like runny egg yolk, mine was not really runny enough, so...... but it was still good.

I think the key is the house sauce (tendon kohaku sauce), it makes the bowl more delicious otherwise it might be a bit oily for my stomach. And with lots of carbs, it makes me guilty and easy to fall asleep after... hahaha!

The Chawanmushi I ordered was nothing really special, it was just typical Japanese steamed egg. But the price was really nothing to lose, it was just additional $3.75 when you ordered 1 of the 3 tendon.. so why not?

Overall, it was not bad... maybe I am not a rice and deep-fried lover, so I felt a bit too much. It might be better if I can specifically choose item to item with a bowl of rice instead of having the everything fixed on the menu.

I am sure I will go back if I am a lover of fried food. For those who love deep-fried or tempera, I would...