Coco Ichibanya ... King of Japanese Curry Rice

It's quite unusual for HY to crave for curry. Since she's carrying our baby, her palate started to change. At mid point of our pregnancy, I was meaning to give her a good dinner treat to mark the milestone and she asked for CoCo Ichibanya. So be it. If HY and our baby likes Japanese curry, so CoCo Ichibanya will be it! 


CoCo Ichibanya is touted as the King of Japanese Curry. Being the largest curry chain in the world with 1268 outlets globally, being crowned King wasn't surprising. As we visit the outlet at 313 Somerset we discovered why the Japanese curry chain is so successful. 


First you get to dictate the amount of rice you want. So you get to pay less for less rice or pay more for more rice. There's also a choice of hotness for the curry (Level 1~5). On top of that, there's all that creativity they put around their curry to satisfy our palates.

Just a simple proof of their creativity, I ordered the Pork Cutlet Curry with Cheese with level 3 hotness. Level 3 hotness was still manageable with some ice water. It was still a good hotness level that didn't mask the fragrant and flavor of the delicious curry. Most Japanese curry seemed to have lost the piquancy of the original Indian curry. However, I thought I've tasted a slight piquancy from this one at CoCo Ichibanya. To top it off my indulgence, there was the cheese hidden underneath the brown tasty curry. I never knew cheese can go so well with curry. The cheese purposely left half melted so that there was the enjoyment of the soft chewiness. HY got her mushroom topping instead of cheese. Apart from mushroom and cheese, there are several other topping to choose from. One of them, Kimchee. Yes, the Korean Kimchee that we all know. Wanna try it?

The pork cutlet was prepared to give that good crunchy bread crumbed exterior and the succulent tender  interior. I think pork loin was used here. 

While we were there for lunch on a Friday afternoon, CoCo Ichibanya was full house. We had to queue for 15 minutes before a table was available for us. Service at the restaurant was efficient. It must be already a standard process from all the experience in all 1268 CoCo Ichibanya's outlets. With this standard of Japanese curry, it's gonna be a competition for all Japanese restaurants that served curry. With such good curry, it would be perfect if they serve premium pork cutlets like what we had in Katsukura in Japan.


313 Orchard Road
#B3-25/27 313@Somerset
Singapore


Opening Hours :
Mon~Fri 10am~10pm
Sat~Sun and Public Holidays 10am~11pm


CoCo Ichibanya Website