New in town: Zhu Wu 助屋 – Japanese tendon under $8 at Redhill Food Centre, but at what other cost?

It’s surprising it took this long for a Japanese stall to open at Redhill Food Centre considering its renown as a gastronomic haven. At a shockingly affordable price range, Zhu Wu 助屋 primarily offers a range of tempura don (tendon).

The stall’s simple blue ukiyoe banner is hard to spot in the hawker centre’s sea of bright signages so you might fare better looking out for their noren banners. My focus was entirely on their prices – these were at least half of what’s usually charged elsewhere!

I ended up making 5 total orders with my dining partner.

The plating choices were somewhat perplexing. Traditionally, tendon is served in a sizeable donburi with its accompanying assortment of tempura. The stall instead has tempura occupying excessively disproportional plates which thoroughly threw off our serving size estimates.

Sharing the Unagi Don (S$9.50) was an unwise idea in retrospect as most unagi in restaurants can barely accommodate one. The small okra tempura were covered only by a thin film of batter, making it a hard swallow given my distaste for ladyfingers. As for the unagi, entirely serviceable barring its measly size.

Discover sake & tempura pairings at Yamakita, open only 5 hours a day

Frustrated with the Tenya Tendon‘s inane plating, I deposited the bowl of rice onto my plate for a better gauge of what S$6.50 looked like. Despite tempered expectations, the tempura completely undershot. Much like the okra, batter coverage was unscrupulous and led to a weak crunch. Thankfully, the ebi was spared and had proper crisp. Its other saving grace was a bowl of tentsuyu dip to compensate missing texture with flavour.

Add-ons like enoki mushrooms, sweet potato and green pepper tempura are also available at S$1 each.

The Udon with egg (S$4.50) at least looked the part. Tragically, its dashi stock was underused, leading to seriously lacking flavour. Compounding that was the noodle’s overly soft texture (had it somehow been overcooked?), uncharacteristic of typical udon. I couldn’t bring myself to finish the bowl.

Unsurprisingly, Zhu Wu 助屋 is run by a couple new to the hawker scene. Contrary to what I had assumed, their name is not in Kanji, but mandarin. After a short chat, it was clear they were already working on their culinary shortcomings. Even with consideration for their inexperience, it’s still difficult to recommend subpar dishes.

From a glass half-full perspective, they will pose a legitimate threat to restaurant-quality tendon if quality improves as those prices are quite a bargain. Here’s hoping that Zhu Wu 助屋 does become a proper go-to spot for excellent, affordable Japanese tendon in the future.

New in town: Apricus Cafe – Quaint cafe in Sengkang with Tempura Shimeji Mushrooms and roasted rice soft serve