Entree Kibbles: Kogane Yama Tendon - Beside Chir Chir Chicken @ Bugis Junction [Singapore]

In usual circumstances, i would not check out a place that was just featured on the media as i would have expected a long queue outside the shop and likely insane waiting time simply to get my butt in.

But as can be seen from my recent postings, i am on the roll when it comes to tendon. Hence, i couldn't resist thinking about this new dining establishment that i read about that very morning in The Sunday Times, and i was on my way to Bugis for karaoke at Manekineko!

It was like ten minutes before noon and i was actually pleasantly surprised that the crowd had yet to descend for lunch; we managed to secure seats immediately.

Interior of the small eatery (photo taken when we were about to leave); clean, simple and didn't feel as cramped as the one at Tendon Ginza Itsuki.

Those who prefer to dine alone or do people-watching can consider the window seat with tall chairs. Since it faces the main corridor, be prepared for curious shoppers looking in to check out what the restaurant has to offer.

Four selections of tendon (mixed, chicken, prawn or vegetable), option of either rice, udon (extra charge) or soba (extra charge), choice of non-spicy / spicy (three levels) sauce and you can upgrade to a set at $2 for chawanmushi and green tea / miso soup.

I am not interested to think too much when it's my first meal on a Sunday and i went with mixed bowl, boring rice, non-spicy sauce and the upgrade. Apart from the exquisite looking plate on the table, i was most drawn to the shimmering gold spoon!

Chawanmushi - scalding hot; do eat with caution and remember to blow it a few second before dumping the whole load into your mouth. Watery and silky-smooth, this was easily one of the better chawanmushi i had although Alex didn't quite like the high water content.

Miso Soup - nothing special and i regretted not opting for the green tea instead.

Mixed Tendon - unlike the last two tendon-specialised restaurants i blogged about (namely, Don Meijin and Kohaku), Kogane Yama didn't follow the attractive presentation that featured a plate in the bowl that helped to prop up the tempuras even though it had its own eye-catching method; the deep fried Shiso Leaf!

Ingredient count - in addition to the leaf, there's the piece of seaweed, two segments of french beans, one portion of enoki mushrooms, a slice of green pepper, two pieces of sweet potatoes, one shiitake mushroom, one chicken chunk and two prawns with intact heads.

While the batter was generally light without being cloyingly oily, i had a major grouch on the apparent insufficient sweet sauce that's supposed to drench the tempura; it's like eating salad without much dressing to enhance their palatability!

To be fair, the long wait of more than 20 minutes to have the hot bowl of tendon placed on our table meant that the ingredients were likely freshly deep fried and items like the chicken was nicely seasoned with a soft, juicy bite.

On one hand, prawns with heads had better visual appeal. On the other hand, it would mean that the customers had to take the trouble to decapitate them and there's always the risk of biting into an acrid, yucky segment that had been contaminated by the prawns' brain.

I do appreciate the fact that there wasn't much rice in the tendon since i am not exactly a big rice eater. However, i took issue with the texture of the grains; they were mushy and that's probably due to excessive water being added in when cooking the rice. p.s. i am speaking from personal experience as i am guilty of cooking mushy sushi rice once.

The addition of fish roes was helpful in covering the bad texture of the rice but then again, i would definitely welcome more sauce in place of fish roes!

You know what's funny? A customer right ahead of me at the cashier counter was complaining about the rice texture which i totally can relate to. And while i was saying my piece to the cashier, the same gentleman returned to comment that he would like more sauce too!

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