Tengu

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

Ramen, raw energy, and no reservations

The name says something. In Japanese mythology, a tengu is a wild, reddish-brown demonic figure — the reincarnation of someone a little too full of themselves. The restaurant on Rådmansgatan 12 carries that spirit lightly: industrial bones, an open kitchen, waitstaff in white shirts who are, as the White Guide puts it, "delightfully nonchalant." The crowd that fills the room is a tidy, discreetly well-dressed thirty-something set, and the bartenders know exactly what they want.

Tengu sits on the ground floor of A House, a hundred metres from Babette, and draws a neighbourhood following that includes ramen enthusiast Jonas Lindgren and restaurateur Jon Lacotte. That local density is telling — this is a place people come back to, not a one-time destination.

The food

The menu divides cleanly into sharing plates and ramen. On the plates side: chicken karaage with yuzu-kosho mayonnaise, sashimi at the chef's choice, wagyu A5 tataki, spicy miso cucumber, and kinpira — sesame-braised burdock root with lotus root and carrots. These are precise, unfussy dishes built around Japanese pantry staples.

The ramen selection is the anchor. Shoyu arrives in a pork and chicken broth with dashi, pork fat, soy, menma, egg, and pork belly. The Tantanmen runs on chicken broth with Sichuan pepper, sesame, cashew nuts, and spicy pork mince. The Shio brings mussels into the bowl alongside the usual pork belly and spring onion. Every ramen can be ordered spicy, gluten-free noodles are available, and a vegetarian or vegan option is always on.

Desserts keep the Japanese thread going: matcha ice cream, yuzu sorbet, yuzu cheesecake.

Drinks

The beverage list is as considered as the food. Draft Kirin Ichiban sits alongside Omnipollo's Belgian-style pale ale and a gluten-free pilsner. The sake selection runs to four labels including a Keigetsu Nigori and a Tamagawa Omachi Nama Genshu. Shochu — sweet potato, rice, sugar cane — fills out the spirits shelf alongside Nikka whisky. House cocktails include a Whiskey Highball with Japanese whisky and a Tengu GT with gin, tonic, and yuzu.

Walk-in, dogs welcome

Tengu takes no reservations. You show up, you get a table or you wait — a policy that keeps the room honest and the energy high. Dogs are welcome, which fits the unstuffy register of the whole place. The White Guide's Fine level recognition in 2026 confirms what the neighbourhood already knew: this is serious Asian cooking delivered without ceremony, and that's exactly the point.