One of the top Japanese Halal restaurant in Japan.
Tendon, or rice bowl with fried vegetable and seafood, is one of the most traditional Japanese cuisines. As they put sauce made from soy sauce and mirin, an alcoholic seasoning, they are usually considered not complete Halal.
Itsuki is a restaurant located at Ginza, the most luxurious area in Japan. This restaurant is quite famous because they have Halal certificate on their special Tendon!
What do they have in their menu?
Tendon in Japan usually do not have meat product like beef or pork, sometimes they have chicken fillet or white fish. If the restaurant is not cooking meat product, so if you ask for a pinch of salt instead of Tendon sauce, then this dish can be relatively safe for Muslims traveling in Japan.
At Itsuki, as they specialize in Tempura, all of the dishes they offer are Tendon, however, you can choose your preferred style depending on the mood.
The most basic one has fried vegetables, such as pumpkin, root vegetable and mushroom, which is also suitable for vegetarians. For the better menu, they have conger eel, shrimp or even chicken fillet, using a Halal one!
Some of the menus have soft-boiled egg, that flows on top of the Tendon when broken with chopsticks. We just do not know how they cook this egg as Tempura, in boiling hot oil.
How is the taste of Tendon at Itsuki?
The taste is incredibly amazing.
The dish is served right after they are cooked in oil so the temperature is super hot, with the texture so crispy. They are marinated with a sweet but savory sauce that are using only Halal ingredients, which we could not tell a difference from other Tempura sauce at all.
What has surprised us is not only the taste, but also the portion and the ingredients. They have huge conger eel and shrimps on top of the bowl! They are all perfectly cooked and remains crispness when served.
Tendon is accompanied by a dish of pickles and Miso soup. The price range at Itsuki is from only 1,000 yen (about 7-8 USD). Food in Japan is not very expensive, but this price is more reasonable than other Tendon restaurants.
Overall, the experience at Itsuki was amazing.
Detail of the restaurant
The only thing about the restaurant is waiting time. It was around 2 p.m. on a weekday, but the queue was super long that we had to wait for more than an hour. The restaurant also does not accept reservation, so you have to have enough time when dining at this restaurant.
Name: Tendon Ginza Itsuki (天丼専門 銀座いつき)
Genre: Tendon
Address: 2nd Flr., Ginza Inns, 1-3 Ginza Nishi, Chuo Ward, Tokyo 東京都中央区銀座西3-1先 銀座インズ1 2階
Tel: 03-6263-2988
*No reservation accepted.
