When CoCo Ichibanya first opened 313 Somerset, it didn’t get me very excited. Partly because, as with many other Japanese restaurants which came to Singapore, many of the dishes aren’t as good as the ones in their Japan outlet.

Furthermore, I wasn’t a Japanese Curry lover in the first place. Or maybe I should put it this way, I haven’t tasted a real yummy Japanese Curry to make me fall in love with it. I once bought Japanese Curry roux from supermarket but didn’t quite like it because it wasn’t anything close to what I had in Japan.

Until I visited to give it a chance.

Known as the “King of Japanese Curry”, CoCo Ichibanya originated in Nagoya, Japan more than 30 years ago. It serves over 30 Japanese Curry with unique and creative style along with the best quality ingredient to make tasty curry.

CoCo Ichibanya offers the largest variety of curry rice choices and customers can choose the level of spice, rice portion and curry sauces. You can also add toppings such as tuna, corn, boiled egg, cheese, eggplant, kimchee, bacon, spinach, ripe tomato, fried squid, pork cutlet, beef, fried shrimp etc, from $1.

The rice portion has five sizes, with the standard one at 250g. You can add more rice by an additional 100g till the whole portion is 550g. If you are not keen on having too much carbo, you can reduce your rice by 100g from the standard size and get a $1 discount.

Pork Cutlet Curry with Cheese ($14) has pork cutlet fried till golden brown, which gives a crispy exterior but still retaining its juiciness within. Warm and satisfying curry is poured liberally over the large katsu. Cheese gave an added dimension to the curry.

How did Japanese Curry come about?
Do you know, Curry was introduced to Japan by the British, when Meiji-era Japan opened its doors to foreigners and their goods. During that time, curry was super expensive but it gained popularity quickly, so the Japanese decided to invent their own curry.

Japanese Curry vs Indian Curry
Ingredients such as potatoes, carrots, onions and meat are usually added into Japanese Curry Stew and served with short grain white rice. Curry roux in blocks was later introduced and it became popular in Japanese homes. It has thicker exture and tastes sweeter but less spicy than Indian Curry.

Diners can choose their rice portion, either less or more, and even the spiciness of the curry! Creamed Mushroom Omelet Curry ($13) uses three kinds of mushrooms with special whipped cream. Mushroom lovers will like this!

I really like my plate of Omelet Hashed beef ($14) which is Japanese rice wrapped inside the omelette. The omelette is still abit runny (perfect!) with tasty beef, thick and creamy Curry sauce.

After expanding outside Japan, the restaurant has also created new recipes to cater to non-Japanese palates such as Grilled Pork & Kimchi Curry ($12). I still prefer my Hashed Beef Curry.

Love this, coming back again!

CoCo Ichibanya

Address: 201 Victoria Street #01-10 (S)188067 
Tel : +65 6341 9978

Other CoCo Ichibanya Outlet:

313@Somerset, 13 Orchard Road #B3-25/27 (S)238895
Tel: +65 6636 7280

The Star Vista, 1 Vista Exchange Green #02-06 (S)138617
Tel: +65 6570 2457

Westgate, 3 Gateway Drive #01-02 (S)608532
Tel: +65 6710 7062

Plaza Singapura, 68 Orchard Road #03-73 (S)238839
Tel: +65 6238 7539

Website: http://cocoichibanya.com.sg/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoCoICHIBANYAsingapore