Kaneko Hannosuke Skips the Tendon This Time: Its Overseas-First Tempura Counter Lands in Xinyi

Say "Kaneko Hannosuke" to most Taiwanese, and the image that pops up is a rice bowl piled high with conger eel, shrimp, and a soft-boiled egg. But the brand's new spot landing in B2 of Far Eastern Garden City in Xinyi is running a completely different playbook — "Nihonbashi Tenpura Meshi Kaneko Hannosuke," the brand's first overseas store, built around fresh-fried tempura served straight from the counter.

The difference comes down to timing: a tendon is assembled all at once, with fried tempura piled on rice and doused in sauce so the rice soaks up the oil's aroma. "Tenpura Meshi," on the other hand, has the chef fry in batches paced to match how fast you're eating — fry a round, eat a round — closer to the rhythm of traditional counter-style tempura, just priced to be accessible. The Nihonbashi flagship sits at roughly 3.57 on Tabelog, with over 1,800 reviews and nearly 90,000 bookmarks, and made the "Tempura Top 100 2025" list. Lunch and dinner run about 1,000 to 1,999 yen — and next to high-end tempura institutions that easily charge upwards of 10,000 yen, that price point is really the brand's whole pitch.

The Taipei store follows the same logic, with only about 20 seats arranged around a U-shaped wooden counter, the frying station front and center as the stage of the whole room. Even the serving order is choreographed: it opens with seasonal vegetables, shiso chicken, and squid, moves into sweet shrimp and white fish, and closes with the signature conger eel — about 30cm long and the brand's most recognizable dish.

Another highlight is how the soft-boiled egg tempura is meant to be eaten — not popped straight into your mouth, but set on hot rice and split open so the yolk runs into the grains before you mix in the sauce, instantly turning the plain rice into a dish of its own; regulars at the Japan flagship often share this exact technique. The store also offers unlimited servings of three pickles, including yuzu squid, which can likewise be mixed into rice and works as a tangy palate cleanser between rounds of fried food. For seasoning, there are four options — the house secret sauce, sun-dried salt, Japanese plum sauce, and the brand's signature "Daigomi Black Shichimi" pepper blend — meant to be tried plain first, then paired according to the fat and sweetness of each item, whether shrimp, white fish, chicken, or conger eel. That's the part of the counter experience the brand deliberately leaves for diners to figure out on their own.

The opening date for Taiwan's first location has yet to be announced, and the full menu and pricing are still pending official word from the brand and Far Eastern Garden City.