NOUVEAU NIPPON
New Japanese restaurant goes beyond ordinary
With a name that sounds culturally indicative and a location that is nothing but matter-ofcourse, Tenshino was thought, prior to our arrival, to be another high-flying Japanese restaurant serving up classic Japanese fare.
But as our party of three stepped into the warmly lit, aesthetically decked-out venue lulled by downtempo lounge music, I knew we were to be surprised.
Tenshino first opened a month ago on the second-floor space of Pullman Bangkok King Power. It is the hotel’s own restaurant brand conceptualised to offer a unique dining experience that blends the finest ingredients of Japan and France with the brand’s original culinary approach.
Adding a more eclectic touch to the meal is a strikingly rich interior concept by Danish designer Hans Bogetoft Christensen. The restaurant’s boho-chic setting is dominated by exotic patterns, warm hues, woven textures and vintage fringes. A drink bar, long communal table and comfy upholstered booths provide the intimate-looking space with a sociable, club-like contrast.
At this introductory stage, the menu is quite small, comprised of 30 savoury items and seven sweets — most of them for sharing. The kitchen is led by executive chef Yohei Okita from Tokyo.
The seafood comes fresh three times a week f rom Tokyo’s famous Tsukiji fish market. While other produce is imported from the world’s best sources — including Perigord f oie gras, Utah Bay oyster, Brittany turbot and Challans duck from France,
Iberico pork from Spain, seasonal truffle from Italy, and Maine lobster and Alaskan king crab from the US.
Should fresh-from-the-ocean delicacies be your kind of gastronomic luxury, I recommend that you not miss the sushi or sashimi of the day.
Our sushi for the day (1,170 baht) was served on a black stone plate and resembled an art installation. Of it, sizeable portions of akami (lean tuna), botan ebi (sweet prawn), otoro (fatty tuna belly), hamachi (yellow tail) and flash-torched hotate (scallop) came on special sushi rice seethed with artisan red vinegar and exhibited flawless quality.
My oyster-loving companions found delights from the freshly shucked Monsieur Jean-Paul shellfish from Utah Bay (180 baht each) that came topped with Tenshino’s original recipe of raspberry sake granite.
From a 10-item list of warm starters, squid and uni dumplings (820 baht) offered a piping indulgence that combined comforting taste and mouthfeel of Chinese dim sum with a Japanese top-class oceanic goody from Hokkaido.
The description of the next starter, Daikon Crab Cake (290 baht), was quite misleading. But the taste of the dish, featuring daikon mochi (glutenous turnip cake) in subtle consomme seethed with a generous helping of naturally sweet crabmeat and topped with fragrant mitsuba (Japanese wild parsley) microgreens, was so good I could forgive such a mishap. Coming to think later with a diffident mind, the dish was nonetheless nothing short of daikon, crab or cake.
We tried four main entrées, which sent us straight to a culinary paradise.
The first to delight was Tenshino’s take on classic lobster thermidor. The impeccably executed dish (1,780 baht) presented a large lobster, cut open in halves and baked with Jean-Yves Bordier gourmet seaweed butter, yuzu citrus ponzu and togarashi (seven-flavour mixture of Japanese chilli pepper) that proved a delicious East-meets-West unification.
Atlantic sole dashi and mushroom (1,190 baht), which came next, looked a bit homespun but tasted otherwise. In a consommé flavoured with lime-zest-bathed cottony-white fillet of French sole that’s been neatly rolled with nori seaweed. Giving a gummily crispy punch to the soup was the shimeji mushroom that came in the form of tempura. Wagyu beef suki (1,870 baht) was, according to the restaurant’s staff, among the best-selling mains. Of it, expansive slices of highly marbled, A5 Kagoshima beef were flash-dipped in bubbling hot sake-infused sukiyaki broth and enjoyed with fresh egg and Japanese vegetables. Beef fans should prepare yourselves for taste bud ecstasy that’s worth killing for.
Promising as much heavenly experience to pork connoisseurs was the Iberico pluma (660 baht). Supple slices of grilled marinated Spanish pork shoulder exhibited an extraordinary succulence and springy mouthfeel complemented by a smoky flamecharred finish. With a poached egg, savoury sweet sauce and garnish of pickled ginger and roasted chilli oil, the dish is ideal to eat with rice.
Tenshino did as excellent a job on sweet as it did on savoury dishes. Desserts are not to be missed here. And if you are to pick only two choices, go for the rich and creamy yuzu tiramisu (250 baht) and chestnut flan with raspberry sauce (290 baht).
The restaurant has a semi-enclosed room that seats up to 16 guests. Service was fair.