Tenshima Tempura Restaurant at Millenia Walk: Ten Seats and Wagyu Tempura

Tenshima seats exactly ten people per service, at a single hinoki counter inside 9 Raffles Boulevard, #01-09/10 Millenia Walk, Singapore 039596. Lunch omakase starts at S$198, dinner is S$450, and the restaurant picked up its first Michelin star in the 2026 Singapore guide announced on 4 August. If you are hunting for a tempura restaurant near Marina Bay where every piece goes straight from the copper pot to your plate, this is the one to book first.

Takahiro Shima runs the counter himself, and the name over the door is his own. The Peak described Tenshima as a portmanteau of the chef's family name and the cuisine he cooks, which is why you will see it written as ten plus Shima. He opened here in 2023, and the magazine called it newly opened that September, after more than 16 years cooking kaiseki-style courses.

Two earlier jobs explain his style. Shima worked at Tentsuru, the tempura room inside The St. Regis Singapore, and at Ginza Tenharu before going solo. That background shows in the pacing. Appetisers arrive in the kaiseki manner, small and seasonal, before the oil comes up to heat. Only then does the frying begin, one piece at a time, with the chef watching the bubbles slow before he lifts each item out.

Three menus appear on the 2026 PDFs posted to the official website. Omakase Lunch at S$198 brings an appetiser, a palate cleanser, seven kinds of tempura, one specialty tempura, a choice of tendon or tencha, and dessert. Omakase Lunch at S$280 adds a signature appetiser and one signature tempura on top of that sequence, which is the version most food writers seem to order.

Omakase Dinner at S$450 is the full show. It opens with three seasonal appetisers, then a palate cleanser, six kinds of tempura, three specialty pieces and one signature piece. The rice course offers a choice of tendon, tencha or anagodon, and dessert closes the meal. Diners who can only come at midday can ask for the dinner course at lunch, according to the menu notes, which is useful for visitors flying out in the evening.

Older reviews from 2023 quote S$180 for lunch and S$400 for dinner. Those figures are out of date now, so budget from the 2026 menus instead. Corkage is S$100 per bottle if you bring your own sake or Champagne, a policy stated on the restaurant website.

A5 Miyazaki wagyu is the dish that made Tenshima's name. The beef is battered and fried briefly, then served with a half-boiled egg yolk and sukiyaki sauce, so it eats like a crisp, compressed version of a sukiyaki pot. The Peak singled it out as a signature dish, and Tatler's January 2026 feature on the restaurant called the place a temple of masterful tempura.

Seafood does most of the work around it. Reviewers have written about Kumamoto tiger prawns, sea bream, abalone and even shark's fin passing through the oil. One luxurious bite pairs uni and caviar on a sheet of seaweed tempura. Vegetables get equal attention: a slow-steamed sweet potato that needs patience to fry through, sweet corn, and asparagus, plus smelt when it is in season.

Condiments come lined up in front of each seat. There is a house salt, a curry salt, Okinawa pink salt, lemon, the classic tentsuyu dipping sauce and pickled plum. The curry salt is the one regulars mention most, because it lifts the vegetables without masking the batter. Try a prawn with plain salt first, then the same kind of piece with tentsuyu, to see how much the coating changes once it is wet.

The room itself is built around the fryer. Japanese cypress forms the counter, mikageishi granite and washi paper motifs line the walls, and the copper equipment sits in full view of every guest. The website says the materials were chosen so they would not hold the smell of oil, a small detail that matters when you are heading back to the office in a pressed shirt after lunch.

Booking runs through TableCheck or by email to reservations@ten-shima.com, and both services are capped at ten guests. Cancel less than 72 hours ahead, or fail to turn up, and the restaurant charges S$450 per person. Since the Michelin announcement, weekend seats have become harder to get, so a weekday lunch is the realistic first visit for most people.

Guests are asked not to wear heavy perfume, because scent travels across a counter this small and competes with the smell of sesame oil. Arrive on time for the last lunch seating at 1:30pm or the last dinner seating at 8pm. If every seat is taken, Keyaki at the Pan Pacific is a short walk away inside Marina Square, and its set lunches are a gentler introduction to tempura at a lower price.

Not every review is glowing, and it is worth knowing why. The Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow blog published a review on 27 April 2026 describing an impressive first visit and an ordinary second one. The writer called the tofu starter entirely forgettable, said the uni tasted tired, and complained about slow pacing and small portions at close to S$300 for lunch.

That critique still praised the tendon, and that matches what most other diners report. The honest takeaway is to skip the cheapest lunch if you only plan to come once, because the signature wagyu piece sits in the S$280 menu, not the S$198 one. If you are mostly curious about the rice bowl, the entry lunch is enough, and you can save the dinner for a celebration.

Promenade station on the Circle and Downtown lines (CC4/DT15) is the closest stop. Follow the signs into Millenia Walk, and the restaurant sits on the ground level of the mall. The walk from the platform takes only a few minutes under cover, which helps during the afternoon thunderstorms that roll over Marina Centre in October.

After lunch, cut through Millenia Walk into Marina Square next door, which the mall's own directions describe as a continuous indoor route. Or head outside toward the Singapore Flyer, which the Singapore Tourism Board lists as about a seven-minute walk from Promenade. From the waterfront there you can follow the bay toward the Esplanade and walk off the tendon before dinner plans.

Tenshima, at 9 Raffles Boulevard, #01-09/10 Millenia Walk, Singapore 039596. Lunch runs 12:30pm to 3pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and dinner runs 6:30pm to 10pm from Tuesday to Sunday. The restaurant is closed all day Monday and has no lunch on Thursday. Plan for close to two hours at dinner, and tell the team about allergies when you book, because the menu is set by the chef each day.