Kaneko Hannosuke: Tendon tempura in Brentwood Burnaby
Brentwood is a busy and modern spot for young families and adults to spend time and one of my favourite spots in Brentwood is actually the food court inside Brentwood Mall. There are so many options to choose from and I wish they would stay open for dinner past 7pm.
Kaneko Hannosuke is one of the food court stalls inside Brentwood Mall’s Tables. They specialize in Japanese style tempura bowls and meal sets. We were invited to try their food and here is how our experience went!
Recommended: Read my review of Tendon Kohaku – another Japanese tempura restaurant also located in Brentwood.
Kaneko Hannosuke
4567 Lougheed Hwy. F10, Burnaby, BC V5C 3Z6
The vibe
So Kaneko Hannosuke is a food court stall inside Tables, Brentwood Mall’s food court. The stall itself is quite open so you can see them make the food and fry things. You order at the counter and pick it up on the other side when your buzzer rings.
While you are waiting for your buzzer to ring, feel free to find a seat anywhere in the food court. The space is quite modern and has high ceilings and you will get quite a bit of natural light if you sit by the windows. They have large sharing tables with stool seating or smaller tables with chairs. Overall, there is a lot of seating available. We came at 5:30pm on a weekday night and it was still quite busy!
Food review
Disclaimer: As part of an Instagram collab, we got to try everything featured in this post for free. I’ve included prices in this review for your reference, priced in CAD and rounded to the nearest dollar for simplicity.
Premium tendon ($21) + Oyster ($4) + Eggplant ($4)
Let’s start with their signature item – the tendon sets! All tendon sets come with a miso soup and some pickled veggies.
This is their premium and most expensive rice bowl. It looks very impressive with the big chunk of conger eel laid out horizontally in the back. Other tempura items include 2 shrimp, kakiage (the menu says seafood, but mine was all squid), soft boiled egg, seaweed, 2 green beans, and a layer of rice.
You get a little bottle of tempura sauce or light soy sauce to pour all over the bowl and this is what gives it an additional depth of flavour. It’s also not too salty.
Overall, this is a pretty filling set of food. One thing to note is that the packaging makes the bowl look huge but actually there is like a tray compartment at the top so the entire bowl is not actually filled with rice. They separate it like this to make it easier for you to eat, but it can look misleading. However, I found the amount of rice to be perfect for me.
My favourites include the shrimp, kakiage, and soft boiled egg (it was cooked so perfectly 😚). I found my piece of the conger eel to be a little fishy but my husband had a similar set and he didn’t find his that fishy.
In terms of how it is fried, I think the batter could have been crispier 😐. I’m not sure if maybe we came near the end of the day, but the batter was a little soft. For a place that specializes in one thing, I was really expecting the tempura/fried batter to be superior, but it fell short of expectations.
In addition to the items that come with the premium tendon set, I added the deep fried oysters and eggplant. I was surprised to see the $3.50 price tags come with 2x of each item (i.e. 2 oysters, 2 pieces of eggplant). I was really expecting just one. So given this, I think $3.50 for 2x fried oysters is a really good deal 👍! The oysters were big and juicy on the inside and not too fishy either. Eggplant was also yummy and not oily.
Premium tempura set ($25)
New on the menu are these tempura sets that come with your choice of Inaniwa udon or soba noodle. We chose the udon as it looked a bit more unique and it wasn’t the thick udon I am familiar with. The soup broth was quite decent and had some flavour. It was actually quite comforting and quite a big bowl of noodles.
Similar to the premium tendon set, the actual tempura items are the same: conger eel, shrimp, kakiage, soft-boiled egg, seaweed, and green beans. It also comes with a small plate of pickled veggies that help cut through some of that fried taste.
Final thoughts
Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
We had a pretty filling dinner at Kaneko Hannosuke inside the Brentwood Mall food court, Tables. For the price, I think the premium set is not bad because you get such a large variety of fried items and dinner for under $25 is very reasonable. I also think it is quite fancy for food court food!
Again, I think the batter could be better or fried better. For items, I may pass on the conger eel and try some of their other menu items like the chicken, salmon, fish, etc. Definitely get the oysters if you like fried oysters!
When comparing the soba vs. the tendon set, I do prefer to eat tempura with rice over noodles, but my husband loves a warm udon soup with tempura so I think it’s more just up to your individual preference.
Since this is a food court, it is quite busy. I saw their weekday special (Mon-Thu) curry pork cutlet for $15 was sold out and so were all their specialty drinks.
Sincerely, Loewe