Kaneko Hannosuke: Japanese Tempura Bowls in Vancouver

Kaneko Hannosuke is a popular Japanese restaurant known for their rice bowls topped with tempura like conger eel, shrimp, squid, and soft boiled egg. They pride themselves of using fresh ingredients and all bowls are made to order.

I just came back from Japan a few months ago and Kaneko Hannosuke was on my list, but with a baby in tow, it was hard to come here for lunch. Fortunately, they just opened it’s first Canadian location in Vancouver.

It’s surprisingly one of the only dedicated tempura bowl places in Vancouver. I am quite surprised, but glad it’s adding diversity to Vancouver as we have a lot of sushi restaurants already. Time for some tempura!

Interior

The interior is a decent size, but its really packed right now as it just opened. I came here on a weekday lunch and arrived 15 minutes early to ensure a seat. The restaurant didn’t fully fill up till around noon, then there was a line forming outside.

Babies

For babies, there are booster seats available as well as plastic cups with water, bowl, and a spoon that Kaneko Hannosuke provides. It was good that we didn’t have to bring our own booster seat.

There is also a smaller tendon bowl on the menu for kids too, but I wouldn’t recommend it for smaller kids like our little one who is 11 months old and she threw up after cause it was too oily. Totally my own fault cause she’s not ready for the tempura life yet.

Menu

How to Eat Tendon

At the table, there are instruction on how to eat tendon. Here is a summary:

1. Take a big bite of the conger eel and shrimp topped with their sauce
2. Taste the rice with the sauce
3. Halfway through the bowl, break the soft egg and mix with the rice for a smoother texture
4. There is spicy powder on the side if you choose to add it to your dish. black bean tea and side dishes are served to relieve fullness.

Premium Tempura Bowl

This bowl has conger eel, shrimp, assorted seafood tempura, soft boiled egg, seaweed, green bean, special sauce, and rice. For a North American appetite, this sounds like a big bowl, but in reality, it isn’t.

The bowl is actually thick and raised, so it looks like there is a lot.

If it’s your first time here, you gotta go with the premium as the conger eel tempura is very famous.

My husband came here twice already and he noted that the consistency of the conger ell tempura can be a hit or miss. One of his friends got a weird super boney piece which wasn’t enjoyable. Luckily, for him both of his premium tempura bowls had good cut of conger eel.

Special Tempura Bowl

This has the white fish, shrimp, assorted seafood tempura, soft boiled egg, seaweed, green bean, special sauce, and rice. This isn’t as big but still very enjoyable. The difference is the white fish. I enjoyed the sauces and followed the steps to maximize my enjoyability.

I did find that some pieces of tempura were crisp and some others were soggy depending on how much sauce it is covered in.

Tempura Bowl for Kid

The tempura bowl for a kid is the smallest, but has the key ingredients like shrimp, pumpkin, soft boiled egg, seaweed, and green bean tempura over rice. This is a good size for older kids. It was too oily for my 11 month, who eats everything.

Matcha Ice cream

We ended the lunch sharing a scoop of matcha ice cream to break the oiliness of the dishes. It was decent, but not that great of a matcha ice cream. Not very strong at all.

Final Thoughts

Overall, it’s great that tendon is now in Vancouver as it’s different than any other tempura bowl you can find in the city. Expectation are definitely high for this place as it’s a International chain from Japan. How does this compare to tendon in Japan? Definitely similar as it wasn’t the best tendon ever. It was ok for what it was.

We found there was issue with service as we were overcharged on our bill. They charged us for 4 tempura bowls when we got 3. Good thing I checked the bill as I thought our bill was really high. Another thing with service is that if you have a large group, your bowls will come at different time and sometimes there will be a large gap in when the bowls arrive. So, maybe one person bowls arrive and then 5 minutes later the rest arrive.

There is also consistency with the tempura as well. Some items overcooked, or the cuts of conger eel aren’t good.

As they just recently opened, I am sure they are working on tweaking the little issues as they go. Will I got back? High chance as it’s really the only place to get a selection of Tempura bowls. It’s not something I’ll have often, but when I’m craving it, I’ll come here again.

Address:
1725 Robson St, Vancouver, BC