Tenjou was on my list for a while. The menu looked pretty decent, and the prices weren’t ridiculous. One of the pictures showed the egg rice (omurice), which looked pretty good. As a general Japanese restaurant, it seemed to have plenty to offer in the Flatiron area, especially something for everyone. We stopped by while in the area without reservations, and it was very easy to walk in for 2 people.
Ambiance & Service
The restaurant makes use of a lot of light, walnut-like accents. The clientele seemed to be on the younger side, and on a Saturday late afternoon, there seemed to be a lot of bustling.
The service was a bit of a hit and miss. It was mostly university students working, and they were short-staffed until prime dinner time. I had to flag down the wait staff to both order and checkout. One annoying note is that upon payment, make sure you check the total. By default, their tip is after tax and not before.
Food
The Moshi Yuzu Original ($7 - left) was tart, bubbly, and full of that yuzu flavor.
The Moshi Yuzu White Peach ($7 - right) was similar to the above, but it had the sweetness of the extracted white peaches, and it had a much more balanced profile of sweet meets tart.
The Unagi (Eel) Don ($26) came with eel, green onion, sesame seeds, shrimp tempura, and seaweed salad. This was a classic rice bowl, where the eel was tasty, and so were all the ingredients.
The House of Three ($20) came with tuna, salmon, yellowtail, and asparagus with sweet miso sauce and eel sauce and regular mayo. The tuna, salmon, and yellowtail were seared. This roll was surprisingly pretty good even without dipping in soy sauce. My partner really enjoyed it when they aren’t normally a fan of rolls.
The Sapporo Miso Ramen ($20) came with chashu pork, half marinated egg, corn, scallion, and sliced kikurage. The broth was creamy, and the bowl came with wavy noodles. The miso flavors were notable, but they started to drown out after eating a few minutes. Overall, it wasn’t the best miso ramen I’ve had, but it played it safe. The broth wasn’t watery, and the flavors were there. The pork and egg were very typical.
Overall Impression
Tenjou is a no-frills general Japanese restaurant, specializing in ramen and some rice dishes. There is nothing to write home about, so if you were interested in general Japanese food in the Flatiron area, this can be an option.
Yelp & Google Jabs
Wow. Fantastic poke bowl and nigiri. Some of the best tuna I’ve ever had, and didn’t break the bank. Go.
I’ve heard in the restaurant industry that many restaurants receive tuna from similar suppliers. So it’s up to the restaurant to figure out their pricing strategy. It’s also possible that the tuna just simply wasn’t the best quality, so they can charge what they charge. I found the tuna to be acceptably fresh.
Bland and Americanized. Regret wasting my money here. It’s hard to find a good Japanese restaurant in Manhattan
This is probably a bot, but the response should be that it’s not hard to find a good Japanese restaurant in Manhattan. I’ve also notice on restaurant’s Yelp profiles, there are a lot of accounts posting their first review.
Revisions
- Sep 6, 2026 - Initial revision.