stolen colours

The CG Mate and I have been dying to try Tenshin for ages, simply because it’s the only tempura restaurant in Singapore (I think) and has been very well received. The CG Mate’s birthday was but an excuse to step into Tenshin earlier this week. It’s been too long since we were last at Tsunahachi in Tokyo.

Tenshin is located on the third floor of the Regent Hotel. The atas-ness of the entire place smothered us when we walked through the main hotel lobby.

Both of us ordered the Tempura set (S$30), which came with tempura, salad, pickles, rice, miso soup and dessert.

Green tea salt, salt, and chilli salt. There’s curry powder available too (not in this photo). Boring, but I think salt still works best. The chilli salt’s rather strange. The dish provided is square, so that’s one corner for each salt/curry powder, as the waitress informed me.

The prawns were the first to be served and rather a disappointment. Light batter is a feature of good tempura, but almost non-existence batter is cheating! And the prawns were limp and soggy.
However, the remaining items were very good. I especially loved the pumpkin. The mushroom’s subtle flavour was brought out very well. The last item, some species of fish, was superb! Light, succulent, crispy… easily the best of the set.

Dessert was lime sherbet, to wash down all that oil, I suppose.

The waitress recommended the fresh oyster, at $15 apiece - which is the standard price in most restaurants. The oyster arrived sliced neatly into four pieces i.e. four mouthfuls, good for prolonging one’s enjoyment of the dish.

As befitting a restaurant in a posh hotel, the service was impeccable. The hot towels were replaced after the food was served, and again just before dessert. Tea was refilled every few minutes; sencha for the food, and ocha with dessert. And when I paid the bill, the waitress thoughtfully folded the receipt before handing it to me so that my dining companion couldn’t see the total.

In conclusion, the tempura is good, but can’t really compare with that in Tokyo. Tsunahachi gave us way more food for S$25, the quality of which was impressive. I doubt I’d go back to Tenshin again.