Tendon Kohaku

Customer Service:
Visited Tendon Kohaku on a Friday evening and was promptly seated as the restaurant wasn't busy. The staff was attentive and courteous throughout our meal.

Ambiance:
The restaurant boasts a bright atmosphere with subtle Japanese accents in its decor. It's clean and provides a comfortable dining environment.

Food:
We tried the tonkatsu curry udon with extra udon and the signature Anago combo. While the tempura was crispy, the breading was a tad thick for my liking. Additionally, the tonkatsu portion seemed small. Despite these minor drawbacks, I still had an overall pleasant dining experience at Tendon Kohaku.

Rice is not enough, too cheap on rice.

Unlimited soup and salad was the only way to make your self full.

They should create some new things to attract more customers.

More concerned about this place close down as lunch service is only have 2-3 table. Not sure how they going survive on week day operations.

Tendon Kohaku, located inside of Madison Square, was on the recommendation list from of Airbnb host and it is definitely a great choice.

The restaurant is very chic with simple yet classy decors. The most interesting decors was the barley/wheat dangling from the ceiling.

The ambiance is very serene. The background music is very therapeutic in a calming manner.

The service is fast. The server is very friendly and understanding with our group's hangry manner.

The menu is clean, simple, and very straightforward with nice pictures.

The foods are very appealing. The tempura was crispy but not over oily. The seasoning is very flavorful

My go to here is always the Sashimi Aimori Tendon.
It's a bit on the pricey side (~$20) for just some tempura but it's fried really nicely!

I find that they're also consistently good as I've visited a few times so it's definitely a place I see myself going back to often. They have several locations across Vancouver.

The one I visited was a short walk away from Brentwood mall so very easily accessible via public transit! The interior of this location is absolutely beautiful. They have dim lighting with a lot of soft wood and soft colours all around. It's very pretty inside.

The space is really beautiful and I popped in before shopping at save on foods. I went for lunch and unfortunately they only had 1 server worker and she was swamped. It looked like she was serving the whole restaurant. The food redeemed itself I got the tempura bowl with the sashimi combo and it was delicious. Tempura was crispy and light. The miso was cold, and she replaced it promptly. Delicious lunch but they were just understaffed.

Great location of this delicious tempura chain. Ive been easily a dozen times since discovering it.


The interior is beautiful and clean, with very bright, natural decor that makes you immediately feel welcomed. Music is very soft piano covers of popular songs which sets a very relaxing, familiar atmosphere to prepare you for your meal.

Everything on the menu is delicious. For newcomers, my recommendation would be the Kohaku Tendon combo, which comes with a discounted side. I usually get the chawanmushi, which is basically a fish-and egg mixture thats been given a relaxing steam bath. The texture is almost like soup, and its a great way to start your meal.

This combo comes with a mixture of shrimp, chicken, and assorted veggies and will appeal to the majority of customers. For the more adventurous, try the eel Tendon instead.

One minor gripe is that they recently changed their menu and its slightly worse for consumers than before. Two notable changes are that they removed lotus root from all of their combos. This was one of my favourite components and set them apart from imitators. Hoping it comes back in some form in the future.

The other changle is that Miso is no longer included, and is an extra surcharge. All in all only very minor complaints, otherwise, we love this place and will definitely be back many times in the future

Who doesn't love tempura? With three locations, Tendon Kohaku is dishing up some crispy deliciousness!

Tendon = tempura + Don (over rice). So its a bowl of lightly fried vegetables and/or proteins usually fried to order as soon as you order it. Served with a sauce over top all of it or on the side.

Tendon Kohaku has a variety different bowls that can satisfy everyone's craving. I had ordered the Anago Tendon ($22.95) which includes; eel, prawns, chicken, French beans, shiitake mushroom, lotus root and a soft boiled egg all over a bed of rice. You can choose regular or spicy. It also comes with miso soup which was nice way to start the meal. As well as pickled ginger to refresh the pallet. The Anago Tendon was filling and great for sharing.

If you or someone in your party isn't feel like tempura, no worries. They have Kaisen don (seafood on rice). It looks like poke to me, but don't take my word on it.

They're also have a lunch special from Monday - Friday between 11:30AM - 2:30PM. They have a couple options like the Ebi Tendon for $14.95. Or the Ebi Udon $15.95. Saving you a couple bucks.


The wait staff are great and attentive and the esthetic of the restaurant is so pretty. Felt just like the first time I experienced this in Nara, Japan.

Do give them a try. It helps that there's free parking.

An absolute gem to have in the Burnaby neighbourhood - we are truly blessed to have amazing eateries without having to hike "far".

Again - I am a huge fan of the staff and their kind customer interactions. The only thing I would add is when you're in the "L" nook of the restaurant it can be sometimes hard to get staff attention (they are usually attentive but obviously sometimes people eat faster than normal, or need more items, etc and just my general feedback from dining here so often and viewing others).

The tempura is perfect. It so light and crispy and never leaves you feeling oily or heavy (as it shouldn't). You can certainly taste elevated quality in their tempura. My favourite is the unagi (eel) and their soft boiled egg. I ask for the sauce on the side so I can control how much I want for each bite. They have regular and spicy or a spicy powder (in a cute wooden box) you can also add for more heat.

I'm not sure about the tempura udon (as I think that was seasonal when I last went) but if it's still on the menu I'd also recommend ordering it! It's a comforting bowl of goodness and great for warming up.

Their chirashi is great for an alternative if you don't feel like tempura. It is also perfectly seasoned and very light. They have a bowl of half tempura and half chirashi if you're wanting the best of both worlds.

The Nagoya chicken wings are to die for. The sauce is a great mixture of sweet, salt and spice (again can opt for regular or spicy sauce). They're loaded with flavour and are a perfect appy to add to your table. We had also ordered the kabocha salad which is very hearty and denser than I'd prefer. It isn't my personal favourite but to each their own!

Went to try the lunch special menu out! (Available during weekdays, exclude Fri 11:30am-2:30pm)
First time having their udon! It's cute the soup comes in a little teapot so you can pour the amount of soup you like and enjoy it however you like!

We got Ebi tendon for $14.95 comes with 6 prawn 1 kabocha pumpkin rice and Kohaku tendon sauce regular which is also available on the side

What I wanted to try is the ebi udon for $15.95 and would definitely come back again for it. It's the same thing as ebi tendon but with udon noodles and soup instead of rice.
I got it as spicy and the sauce comes on the side, glad they did that because it's all about not making the tempura soggy or ruining the noodles. The soup is super hot inside that super cute but also heavy teapot. I loved pouring the soup in increments, however much I liked. The broth is clear and very seafood with the seafood/kelp flavour, I really did enjoy the udon and loved the experience and presentation would want to come back again for the udon wish they would offer this deal more often maybe longer time or something

Easily best tempura we've eaten anywhere. We've been to Japan a few times and live in LA that has plentiful Japanese food.

Went here twice on our five day trip. Would've made it three if the wife didn't give me a hard time :)

Location is super clean and convenient with the attached parking structure