Ginza Tenkuni/Shinbashi “Authentic tempura at reasonable prices!

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Tempura used to be a “fast food” that matched the temperament of impatient Edo people, but the style of serving tempura has changed with the times, and now it has become a luxury food.
Even today, however, there is a restaurant in Ginza that offers authentic tempura at a reasonable price.
This time, we will introduce a long-established tempura restaurant “Tenkuni” in Ginza 8-chome.
For business hours, holidays, reviews, etc., please check the official website and the Google map at the bottom.

Offering the finest tempura at reasonable prices
A restaurant that holds memories of my late father.
Why Tendon is different from other restaurants
Access, Reviews

Offering the finest tempura at reasonable prices

Ginza Tenkoku is a long-established tempura restaurant that was founded in 1885 in Ginza 3-chome.
It is a wonderful restaurant that offers the finest tempura at a reasonable price in Ginza, a district lined with upscale restaurants.
It is also known as a favorite restaurant of the writer Shotaro Ikenami, who loved the old-fashioned, reasonably priced commonness of the restaurant.
Whenever Mr. Ikenami came to the restaurant, he always ordered “B-don” out of the three ABC types of tendon, but the most recent menu has two types, A-don and B-don (top menu from 2023, bottom menu from 2012).

A restaurant that holds memories of my late father.

I returned to Tokyo in 2022 after a long stint working in the countryside, and there was one restaurant I wanted to go to when I returned to Tokyo.
That restaurant is Ginza Tenkuni, a long-established tempura restaurant in Ginza.
My late father took me there in 1985 when I was still a university student.
I had never had tendon at a restaurant before, and I remember thinking, “Tendon tastes so good! I was so impressed.
Ginza Tenkuni” was celebrating its 100th anniversary and had completed its main building in 1984. My father told me, “Tenkuni built such an amazing building with tempura.
It had been about 10 years since my last visit to Ginza Tenkuni, but the restaurant was not where it used to be.
I checked and found that it had moved to a new building just around the corner.

Although the building has been rebuilt, my visit to “Ginza Tenkuni” was deeply moving.
I realized that I had already surpassed my father’s age.
I asked myself, “I have aged a lot since then, but have I become more mature than then?”

Why Tendon is different from other restaurants

Ginza Tenkuni’s specialty is a light, traditional Edomae Tendon.
I have always wondered why the texture of tendon at Ginza Tenkuni is so different from that at other restaurants, but it seems there is a secret to it.
At Ginza Tenkuni, freshly deep-fried tempura is dipped in the restaurant’s traditional sauce, and then the tempura, soaked in the sauce, is placed on freshly cooked rice to create a richly flavored traditional Edomae-tendon.
This is a distinctly different method of making tendon from the modern style of pouring sauce over the top.
The tempura for tendon is made with a different batter and oil than that of regular tempura because the tempura is dipped in the sauce before being placed on top of the rice, and a thin batter and lightly fried tempura would lose out to the sauce.
I love the aroma and fluffy batter of the tempura at Ginza Tenkuni, but I guess they had to make a lot of efforts (the image below was taken in 2012).