Tendon（Tempura rice bowl）　Yoshibee｜Sannomiya, Kobe

I visited Yoshibee, a tendon (tempura rice bowl) restaurant located on the basement first floor of Center Plaza West in Sannomiya.

There’s a katsudon restaurant in the Sannomiya and Motomachi area with the same name—Yoshibee—so many people have probably seen the name before. Upon looking into it, I found that the restaurants were originally operated by the same company, but were later handed over to a former employee. So while they share the same name, they are now run separately.

I’ve been to the Yoshibee katsudon restaurant many times, but this was actually my first time visiting the one that specializes in tendon (tempura rice bowls). The restaurant is located on the Motomachi side of the basement floor of Center Plaza in Sannomiya. It’s a small establishment with just six seats, situated on the corner of the passageway.

The menu consists of two options: Tendon (tempura rice bowl) and Ten-tama don (tempura with egg rice bowl). You can add a bowl of red miso soup for an additional 50 yen. Each bowl comes in a regular size or a large portion for an extra 100 yen. This time, I ordered the large tendon with red miso soup.

The tendon was 750 yen and the red miso soup was 50 yen, making a total of just 800 yen—very affordable.

The tendon comes with three shrimp, a piece of seaweed, and a shiso leaf. The rice is soaked in sauce, and the tempura is more moist than crispy—an old-fashioned style of tendon commonly found in Japan.

The Ten-tama don, which I didn’t order this time, is a rice bowl where the tempura is simmered with egg, similar to a katsudon. It’s a dish you don’t often see elsewhere, so I’d like to try it the next time I visit.