New north Macon restaurant offers authentic Japanese cuisine. Chicken Donburi anyone?

A fast casual restaurant with authentic Japanese cuisine just opened in north Macon.

Tenmii Japanese Eatery is a new restaurant concept developed by a Warner Robins couple, who are natives of Indonesia, with the help of their financial partner, who owns an Atlanta restaurant.

“We created Tenmii because we want to introduce more authentic Japanese food choices to the community,” said Kusmayadi “Han” Djunaidi, who owns and operates the new spot with his wife, Vita Tjhin.

“It’s going to be me that’s mostly cooking in the restaurant,” Djunaidi said. “I’m basically going to manage back and front of the restaurant and my wife is going to help me basically mostly in the front and help me a little bit in the back.”

Their financial partner, Thresia Wiguna, spent 1-½ years researching and developing the recipes, Djunaidi said.

“I want to give her credit for creating such delicious meals,” he said.

Tenmii Japanese Eatery was created based on an idea for fast casual Japanese food that is different from fast casual hibachi, teriyaki and sushi, Djunaidi said.

“Starting with Pork Chashu, Japanese Kare, Tenmii chicken and many others, Tenmii will bring new flavor and experience to the community,” said Djunaidi, who’s been in the restaurant business nearly 20 years. “Each recipe made to perfection to bring affordable food with premium ingredient, without neglecting great flavors and good taste.”

The food

“What we do is like a Japanese rice bowl. It’s called Donburi rice bowl,” Djunaidi said. “We have a salad bowl, a plate, and a sandwich, a Sando, Japanese sandwich ... and then we have like Chicken Donburi which is like grilled chicken on top of rice.

“And we have … we call it .. Chizu Cheese … chicken with cheese on top of it, and we can substitute everything with the tofu.”

For those new to Japanese cuisine, Djunaidi suggested trying the Tenmii Pork Chashu Bowl.

“That’s our main feature that is really, really good,” he said. “For the second one, I would say the Chicken Donburi, which is the chicken bowl.”

According to the menu, the pork for the Tenmii Pork Chashu Bowl is slow braised for 36 hours in shoyu, Japanese-style soy sauce. Also, fried tofu may be substituted for the chicken in the Chicken Donburi.

The couple’s first restaurant was in New York City in Manhattan where they owned and operated a franchise Subway shop. Djunaidi also helped open a fast casual Greek restaurant that he managed in New Jersey.

“Me and my wife were planning to open up a restaurant anyway and then we do consulting with my friend, (Wiguna), which is the account investor with us,” Djunaidi said.

“We calculate the food cost and everything else and we think this makes sense, especially in the Macon area. I don’t see like any Donburi bowls in the Macon area. I know there’s like hibachi and that kind of stuff ... What we created is actually like something new.”

They chose the Bass Road location in part because of growth in the area.

Good to know

They offer dine-in, takeout, an automated telephone ordering line and online ordering. They plan to add third-party delivery through services like Uber Eats, DoorDash and Grubhub.

“People can come to the counter and see our menu and place the order,” Djunaidi said. “If they want to dine in, we’ll bring the food to them, of course. But if it’s like a takeout, we have a takeout place where they just pick it up.

“If they want to order by phone, we have an automated phone system that people can place the order right away. If they want to ask a question, there’s an option if they want to talk to us directly.”

All in a name

“Tenmii itself come from Japanese word tenmei which means to bring happiness to others,” Djunaidi said. “This is our motto and our main goal — happiness toward our customers.

“We want to bring joy when they taste our food and when they feel the ambiance at Tenmii restaurant, and we’re also committed to bring happiness for our associates by creating a fun and exciting workplace.”

If you happen to meet Djunaidi at the restaurant, call him “Han.”

“It’s much easier,” he said. “Han, everybody calls me instead of Kusmayadi because that’s a long name and not everybody can call me that.”

Han is actually his Chinese name from Indonesia, he said.

“Since I was a kid, everybody called me that name. So I got used to it. “

The restaurant opened Thursday.

“I’m very thankful from social media where everybody is supporting us … I’m hoping that we can serve better delicious foods that can be one of their favorites.”

Located at 1625 Bass Road, Suite 330, is in the North Macon Plaza, the restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. The number is 478-203-9488.