Hi everyone! Today’s review is on tendon! All the fried goodness all in one bowl! It’s one of my favorite Japanese food and today, let me compare 3 heavy hitters namely Kohaku Tendon, Tendon Ginza Itsuki, and Kogane Yama side by side in a showdown.

Sooooo, let’s get started!

Kohaku Tendon

Firstly, let’s talk about the menu. Kohaku offers 2 kinds of tendon, the vegetable tendon which comprises of just vegetables ($14) and the Kohaku tendon which comprises a mix of seafood and vegetables ($15). I would highly recommend the latter as it is merely a difference of $1.

Kohaku also offers 3 different sauces, namely original/spicy/wasabi. The spicy is the best imo as I’m no fan of wasabi and original seems to lack the kick I desired. However, do note that it is really quite spicy so it is not for the faint of heart. In addition, Kohaku allows their customers to choose between white rice and multigrain rice at no additional cost which is a huge plus!

Taste-wise, Kohaku checks all the boxes. Fresh prawns, free flow tendon sauce and nicely fried ingredients ( not over-fried that it becomes too dry nor under fried that it is not crispy). One slight drawback is that the chicken tasted slightly bland but on my recent visit, this seems to have been improved. Kohaku definitely deserves a Michelin star imo. 

Kogane Yama

First Visit

Everyone has got their own opinion, especially on food. This one is Ice’s favorite. I remember we were walking around Bugis junction when we stumbled upon this relatively new restaurant there. The variety is top tier but the rice is too dry and bland, possibly due to the insufficient sauce. This brings me to my next point on why this is not my favorite. They do not provide the sauce bottle for customers’ use when their rice is so dry… But other than that, the flavor and freshness of the ingredients used are amazing as well (:

Second Visit

It sucks so bad. The chicken is not flavorful anymore, which was one of the main points why Ice liked it last time. For me, it was the sauce again, the rice was so plain and there was no sight of any tendon sauce bottle placed on the table for customers’ use. This time I even had to ask the waitress there 2 times because the sauce they gave was so little (even the additional sauce I asked for came in a small portion) This is an absolute no-go for me.

Even the prawn is not that crispy... I’m not sure if it was because we went at around 3pm and the customers were very little and that’s why the chefs were not putting on their best performance?

Nahh just kidding, there should be no excuse. For a restaurant, as long as you are open, the food you serve must be of optimal standards.

Conclusion, Kogane Yama is officially off both mine and Ice’s list for tendon cravings.

ICE PS: It went right from my favorite to never-going-back-again 🙁

Tendon Ginza Itsuki

This was the first Tendon restaurant Ice and I went together. I saw my friend posted about this on Instagram and it looked quite delicious! When I booked out (yes, I was in the army back then D: ) Ice and I went there during my off day. 

The atmosphere of the restaurant felt a tad too oily, perhaps due to the small enclosed place made worse by closing the doors. The ingredients were well fried and everything was above average except for the chicken which tasted bland and the prawns weren’t that fresh…

However, after trying Kohaku, Ginza Itsuki seemed to pale in comparison as Kohaku’s ingredients are fresher and better fried.

Conclusion

Kohaku tendon is officially the best tendon in Singapore. Environment wasn’t too oily (Suntec branch), all ingredients were fresh and well fried. Certified by YSK :3

PS: Don’t ever try Don Meijin @ Bugis Plus. Their salted egg yolk tendon was so bad. Ingredients weren’t crispy and the salted egg yolk sauce tasted so bland…