CoCo ICHIBANYA (Japanese: CoCo壱番屋) is a popular and affordable curry chain in Japan, with each branch offering unique local curry flavors.
For example, in the Kanazawa area, they offer Kanazawa Curry; in Hokkaido, they serve Hokkaido Soup Curry.
Occasionally, they introduce seasonal ingredients like fried oysters during local harvest seasons.
Below is a summary of my dining experiences at CoCo ICHIBANYA.
CoCo ICHIBANYA – Kanazawa
The Katamachi area in Kanazawa is usually bustling, but on the evening we visited, we couldn’t find any open ramen shops.
So, we ended up at the only open CoCo ICHIBANYA, which had a flag advertising Kanazawa Curry. We decided to give it a try.
(It’s hard to believe we couldn’t find anything to eat at 6 PM… XD)
Anyway, since we had tried the soup curry at CoCo ICHIBANYA in Sapporo,
it seemed fitting to try Kanazawa Curry here.
And this is what it looked like.
It seemed like a regular pork cutlet curry.
I couldn’t tell what made Kanazawa Curry special.
I guess curry isn’t supposed to be chewy or have a bite, so that’s that.
This sauce can be added to the curry, but I didn’t try it.
Lately, I’ve preferred eating things plain.
Finally, here’s our bill.
This bill is special because it’s a combination of two bills.
The reason for the combination is as follows.
The staff made a mistake; we ordered curry with cheese, but the bill had cheese listed, while the curry didn’t have any cheese.
After we pointed it out, they took it back and added the cheese, but then gave us an extra bill for the cheese…
It was ridiculous; we had to pay for two servings of cheese for one dish… XD
Fortunately, after talking to someone who seemed like a manager, they removed the extra charge.
PS: The characteristic of Kanazawa Curry is that it’s served on a stainless steel plate, with dark curry, shredded cabbage, and pork cutlet, drizzled with pork cutlet sauce.
So, it’s a pity I didn’t drizzle the pork cutlet sauce.
CoCo ICHIBANYA – Sapporo, Hokkaido
The CoCo ICHIBANYA branch in Sapporo, Hokkaido offers soup curry.
Although CoCo ICHIBANYA’s soup curry can’t compare to famous Sapporo spots ,
the ingredients are still quite rich, including bell peppers, carrots, half an egg, and chicken.
The broth is indeed curry… It’s just their regular curry diluted with water and cooked a bit more, but the broth isn’t bad….
(Clearly, I’m not picky)
The other bowl is just plain rice, but it’s a pity they didn’t provide lemon.
The chicken is pre-fried.
It’s somewhat like a chicken cutlet, but it’s quite tasty!!
Even if sold as a chicken cutlet, it would be great!!
Here’s the bell pepper that was hiding earlier, it’s quite tender.
I like this texture~
CoCo ICHIBANYA – Kyoto
This is the CoCo ICHIBANYA in Kyoto, serving a regular seafood curry
This is the rice from CoCo ICHIBANYA~ It’s amazing…
These oysters are from Hiroshima, very fresh~
This is one of the places I often visit when traveling in Japan, CoCo ICHIBANYA
CoCo ICHIBANYA is a popular and affordable curry chain in Japan, with many branches across the country, including Taiwan.
The restaurant mainly offers curry rice (also udon), with limited choices. While the taste is decent, don’t set your expectations too high.
References
■ CoCo ICHIBANYA official website
『Original Source：https://nicklee.tw/1593/curry-coco/』
