CoCo Ichibanya.
My favourite chain across every Japan trip we’ve taken — build-your-own curry, a kids menu, free cold water. The one we keep coming back to.
CoCo Ichibanya has been my favourite chain across every Japan trip we’ve taken. The reason is the same every time: the sheer range, a curry taste nothing else quite matches, and a bowl you build yourself — sauce, spice, rice, topping — so it lands right for whoever’s eating.
On the last trips I always paid the few extra cents for the vegetarian sauce. This time we both went standard pork curry, normal rice, normal spice. John added a pork cutlet; I went for a handmade chicken tender.
Mine was a clean 10 out of 10 — just perfect. John’s landed at a solid 8: the curry as unbeatable as ever, the cutlet only okay.
We were seated straight away at a booth, but the place fills fast — for a stretch every seat was taken. If that’s how it looks when you arrive, the tip is simply to wait: cooking and eating both move so quickly that a seat usually opens inside five minutes. There’s a hand-wash station right there at the table, a kids menu, and free cold water to drink. With a small child, all of that adds up. Authentic even with the iPad ordering — which, for the record, works in English.
What we ate.
