The Brentwood unit that quietly lost its longtime tempura bowl shop did not sit empty for long.
Hungry Tiger Grill Kitchen has opened inside Madison Centre in Burnaby, taking over the space that Tendon Kohaku left behind when it shut down after about five years.
This one comes with a familiar last name.
Hungry Tiger is the sister restaurant to Hungry Duck, the grilled-meat-over-rice spot on West 4th in Kitsilano.
The focus is Japanese fire-grilled meats served donburi style, piled over rice in a bowl.
The signature is the butadon, a grilled pork bowl with roots in Hokkaido, and the menu runs through chicken, beef short rib, and a chargrilled bone-in pork roast.
The pitch is smoky, fast, and affordable, what they call honest value, with the option to swap your rice base for something like soba, fried rice, or a noodle salad.
Here is where Hungry Tiger pulls ahead of its older sibling.
The Brentwood menu is noticeably deeper than Hungry Duck’s, with soba, curry bowls, and vermicelli options you will not find on West 4th.
Every meal also comes with access to a salad bar, which is the part that ACTUALLY surprised us.
It is not a sprawling spread, to be clear.
What you get is the usual shredded cabbage with roasted sesame dressing, plus julienned green onion and some pickled daikon and carrot.
You can go back for as much as you want, though, and for a grilled meat bowl that is a genuinely nice touch when you want a few vegetables with all that protein.
The opening is also part of a bigger shuffle.
The same group behind Hungry Tiger also runs Tendon Kohaku and Kokoro Mazesoba, and lately it has been swapping concepts in and out of its locations around the region.
For the neighbourhood, the upside is simple.
A dark unit at Madison Centre is a grill house again, and one with a salad bar to boot.
Hungry Tiger now joins other recently opened Burnaby food spots like Alfa Tea, One Cafe Crystal Mall, and Memory Corner.
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Address: 106B-1901 Rosser Avenue, Burnaby BC