A thousand-percent-return-again restaurant if not for the bad customer service. Visited Tendon Kohaku @ Suntec City for a Thursday Lunch and ordered (1) Kohaku Tendon Set, (2) Chawanmushi, and (3) Ice Lemon Tea. The Kohaku Tendon Set includes: 2x Prawn, 2x French Beans, 1x Chicken Breast, 1x Squid, 1x Pumpkin, 1x Baby Corn, 1x Crab Stick, and 1x Shiitake Mushroom. It also came with a complimentary Miso Soup with a Rice option to choose between a Japanese White Rice or a Japanese Multi Grain, with a Sauce option to choose between Original, Spicy, or Mala Sauce. I chose Japanese White Rice and Original Sauce.
Ambience: 6/10 (for a lunch with your colleague)
It is a decent spot to have a lunch with your colleagues - very cosy and comfortable with a great atmosphere that will invite conversation filled with fun and laughter.
Service: 2/10
It saddens me to say this but the customer service was far from pleasant. The staff was very unwilling to accomodate to the additional requests that we had and always gave a vibe that she was trying to chase us out of the restaurant. For instance, my colleague had a request to have less ice in his cup and switch his ice lemon tea to a coca-cola. However, upon hearing our request, the staff frowned, took the items, and stomped away in a jiffy. This touchpoint with the staff left us so confused as it wasn't a very unreasonable request. Going into the meal - around 15 minutes in, one of my colleague who was a very fast eater had already finished his Kohaku Tendon Set. The same staff came over, cleared his plate very loudly while the rest of us was still eating - almost seemingly intentionally to signal us that we should be on our way soon, and walked away. At this point, I was left a touched annoyed as I felt that this was not how customers should be treated. Nevertheless, I brushed it off as my own sensitivity. But after another 15 minutes later, the same staff came over to us and asked if she could clear all our plates as she, i quote, "needs the table". At this point I have only just finished the Tendon Kohaku, halfway through the Chawanmushi, and have yet to begin drinking the Ice Lemon Tea. In fact, it has only been slightly over 30 minutes since we have begun our meals. Thus, this entire customer service experience I've received at Tendon Kohaku @ Suntec City left me extremely disappointed.
Flavour: 8/10
This is the best Tendon that I've eaten at this price point in Singapore hands down thus far. The quality of the ingredients and the flavours were impeccable. The batter was light and crispy throughout, the flavours of the vegetables were elevated, brilliantly executed, satisfying, and tasted garden-fresh (yes, it was THAT good), while the chicken breast was moist and tender. The chicken breast especially surprised me because you would typically expect it to taste slightly on the drier side as it is not a fatty cut of the meat. The Chawanmushi and Miso Soup taste about what you would expect of the dish.
Overall, the flavours took me by storm as the dish was truly very well-executed. This would have been a thousand-percent-return-again restaurant if not for the horrible customer service experience.
