Tendon restaurant in Bansong-dong, Dongtan: anago tendon at Onsen

Onsen Dongtan: location, hours and parking

Onsen Dongtan is at 49-11 Banso-dong, Dongtan-gu, Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, and it is open every day from 11:30 to 21:00. Break time is 14:40-17:00, last order is at 20:00, and there is parking in front of the restaurant.

I spent my school days in Incheon, so I already knew Onsen as a great tendon place! It turns out there is an Onsen Dongtan just a 15-minute drive from my house. It already has a reputation as a top Japanese restaurant in Dongtan, so I went without hesitating :)

Reservations and parking at Onsen Dongtan

You can book Onsen Dongtan through Naver Reservation, and same-day booking seems possible 👍 We live nearby, so we just walked in without a reservation, but when I checked Naver Place afterwards, reservations were open.

The parking spots are right in front of the restaurant. You can fit about 3-4 cars.

Onsen Dongtan menu and prices

Tendon, the signature dish at Onsen Dongtan, costs ₩10,900-₩16,900, and there is a menu board out front so you can check prices beforehand. Park, and inside in one second flat!

I like that Onsen Dongtan has a menu board out front, so you can get a sense of the prices in advance.

Here is the menu 🗒 The signature tendon comes in several varieties from ₩10,900 to ₩16,900, and besides tendon there are these:

• Tendon: ₩10,900-₩16,900
• Curry: ₩10,900-₩13,900
• Udon, soba and other noodles: ₩8,900
• Tempura sides: ₩4,500-₩4,900

Onsen Dongtan is a pay-first restaurant, so after choosing, we went inside and ordered and paid right away. Even when there is a wait, you have to register your tendon order along with your name. Since it is a tempura rice bowl, cooking takes about 15 minutes after ordering.

Inside Onsen Dongtan: good for eating alone?

The inside of Onsen Dongtan is modern and clean, with bar tables that suit solo diners plus tables for 2 and 4. It really was modern and tidy.

There are two large tables on the left and about 7 tables for 2 or 4 on the right.

The large tables feel like bar tables where you sit side by side with your party. Pretty cool, right? They would be great for eating alone too!

I liked that the restroom is inside. The sink is separate, which made washing hands before and after the meal easy.

There are sturdy kids' chairs too!

It is an open kitchen behind clear glass walls, so you can see for yourself how clean it is 👍

Onsen Dongtan self-serve bar: what can you refill?

The self-serve bar at Onsen Dongtan has side dishes, soup and rice, and you can refill as much as you need.

There is also kkakdugi (cubed radish kimchi) at the self-serve bar, so you can eat it to your taste. The piping hot soup is refillable as much as you like, too.

The best part was the rice refill! My husband, who eats a lot, naturally went back for a refill of rice.

There is even children's tableware for families. Each table is set with disposable cups, tarae sauce (a soy-based sauce) and shichimi powder (Japanese chili spice blend). The water isn't plain bottled water but boiled water, which touched my heart!

Onsen Tendon vs. Anago Tendon: how were they different?

At Onsen Dongtan, I picked the Onsen Tendon (₩10,900), my husband picked the Anago Tendon (₩16,900), and we also ordered one cider (₩2,000).

The basic side dishes were pickled radish greens (?) and danmuji (yellow pickled radish). I brought kkakdugi from the self-serve bar, and it was fresh, new kimchi with a lively flavor rather than deeply fermented kimchi.

The tendon came out faster than I expected! It was a Sunday evening and there were quite a few customers, yet it took less than 15 minutes.

My Onsen Tendon and my husband's Anago Tendon! The Onsen Tendon already looks amazing, but the Anago Tendon definitely made me gasp, haha.

The Onsen Tendon comes with 7 kinds of tempura: shrimp, tamago (egg), seaweed, sweet pumpkin, oyster mushroom, eggplant and shishito pepper.

The Anago Tendon adds anago (conger eel) and lotus root tempura to the Onsen Tendon lineup.

How to enjoy Onsen tendon

If you follow the eating instructions on the table and first set the tempura on the lid plate, the crunch lasts until the end of the meal. Kept separate like that, it was truly crispy to the very end.

My husband's Anago Tendon had so many pieces of tempura that it was hard to fit them all on the plate, haha.

First I took a bite of the seaweed tempura! The thin batter crunched apart and blended with the savory seaweed inside, like an appetizer within the tendon.

In the bowl emptied of tempura, I broke open the tamago (egg tempura) and mixed the yolk and sauce into the white rice with great effort. It tasted like soy sauce egg rice all by itself, and it was good.

Trying the tempura at Onsen Dongtan one by one

Still, you only get the true tendon flavor when it comes with the tempura, right? The first thing I reached for was the shrimp tempura, and its bouncy shrimp texture was excellent.

Badly fried eggplant tempura soaks up too much oil and gets greasy, but Onsen, a tendon specialist, was clearly different. It brings out the eggplant's own flavor, and the thin batter adds crunch.

I couldn't resist watching my husband eat, so I stole a bite of the anago tempura! The flesh is plump and moist. It felt like it was good for both health and taste!

The sweet pumpkin tempura had a sweetness I really loved.

I wondered how they would fry mushrooms, but the oyster mushroom tempura was natural, with no awkwardness, and kept the mushroom's aroma.

The last thing I ate was the shishito pepper tempura, whose slight spicy kick cut the richness properly, making it a perfect, clean finish.

Onsen Dongtan: honest overall review

Onsen Dongtan has easy parking, a clean interior, and a proper tendon experience that brings out everything great about the dish, so it was a very satisfying meal. With such varied seating, it is good for eating alone and for visiting as a family.

The tempura, the star of tendon, was a work of art, and it reminded me again that when it comes to tendon, it's Onsen 😊