Tendon of halal-certified seafood & vegetable tempura, secret sweet sauce
Tendon Ginza Itsuki is a 14-seat counter tucked on the second floor of Ginza Inz 1, frying tempura to order for a bowl of rice glossed in a not-so-secret sweet-soy sauce -- and doing it entirely halal-certified, which is rarer in central Tokyo than the crowds outside would suggest.
The standard tendon (¥1,000) piles two shrimp, two pieces of chicken, and four seasonal vegetables over rice, plus a side of chawanmushi, miso soup, and pickles -- a full lunch for the price of a coffee elsewhere in Ginza. Step up to the ¥1,500 version and the bowl gains snow crab, a whole conger eel, and a half-cooked egg tempura that breaks open into the sauce as you cut it. Itsuki has held Japan Halal Foundation certification since 2018, with no alcohol used in the sauce, halal-certified chicken, and a kitchen and storage area kept separate from standard prep -- one of the more thoroughly documented halal setups among Tokyo's tempura counters, and the reason the queue outside skews toward hijab-wearing visitors as often as it does Ginza office workers on their lunch break.
It's a stand-and-wait kind of place: 14 counter seats, no reservations taken, and cash only -- leave the cards at the hotel. The second-floor location, about two minutes from Yurakucho Station, is easy to miss from street level, but the smell of hot oil drifting down the stairwell usually gives it away. Demand has stayed strong enough that a second branch opened inside Tokyu Plaza Ginza in 2025, though the original counter -- cramped, a little loud, unmistakably local -- is still the one worth the wait.
✓ Last verified Jul 2026
Hours and details can change — please confirm before you visit.
★ Customisable Japanese curry rice with halal toppings; pick your rice size and spice level
Permanently closed. CoCo Ichibanya's halal-certified Akihabara branch and its Shinjuku sister shop shut during the 2020 pandemic and have not reopened — as of 2026 there is no halal-certified CoCo Ichibanya in Japan. For halal Japanese curry and other options, see our halal fast-food chains guide and halal Tokyo guide.
A Sri Lankan-Muslim owner's wholly halal-certified ramen shop where collagen-rich chicken broth meets a fiery soy-sauce kick, steps from Assalaam Mosque.
A reservation-only Ginza counter where an entirely gluten-free kushiage omakase is fried in rice oil with rice-flour breadcrumbs — a rare safe haven for coeliacs.
A fifth-generation wagyu family's alcohol-free basement grill in Ginza serving 100% halal-certified Japanese wagyu steaks and burgers, so every traveller can taste real wagyu. (The halal kitchen is the basement venue.)
The 1947 Ginza institution that invented katsu curry itself, plating a crisp pork cutlet over rich Western-style curry at the very spot where the dish was born.
