CoCo Ichibanya

CoCo is a major Japanese curry chain restaurant. They actually have over a thousand locations around the world but for whatever reason, locations in HK are treated like luxury restaurants.
If you’re familiar with the chain, this place works pretty similarly, although not as efficiently as they do in Japan. You can choose whether or not to make it spicy, how much rice you want, and your toppings, like eggs or corn. I recommend a softboiled egg. As for the main item in the dish, you can’t go wrong with pork cutlet. You can also do a set meal for a few more dollars, which can include drinks, soup, salad, or dessert.
The location in Silvercord, like any other popular place in any other major district in HK, will have a line. I think I had to wait around an hour to get a party of six seated. Luckily since you’re in a mall, you can always have one sucker wait in line for you while the rest of you go shopping.

Haven’t really had much Japanese curry and it sounded like a good hangover lunch. It’s interesting to have curry with a sweeter kind of flavor due to the added herbs and spices. I got it very hot, and it wasn’t too hot really, but still decent. I had a hamburger with it, which was decent, but I would try something else if I go back. You can get a combo so I got a mini salad and an iced tea, it was a good lunch but nothing too special.

well well well~ yet another curry place I’m writing about.
I am living out the motto that life has to be spiced up. Curry as a dish contains an intricate combination of herbs and spices; having curry every now and then helps spicing one’s life up, you can take my word for that~ ha
As you may know, Coco is amongst one of the most famous brands in Japan selling curry rice; as you may also know, the Japanese make curry quite differently, Japanese curry is milder, smoother and sweeter. Even going for the hotter option (辛口), it was still a lot milder than that of Indian or Thai curry. The curry served in coco also has a slight tang to it as if tomatoes are added, this also gives another dimension to the sauce and makes it lighter than other curry sauces.
I have been to this joint multiple time and am a huge fan of the curry and omelet rice. The curry matches so very well with the egg; a slight let down often happen is that the omelet is over cooked; it would be perfect if the egg is still runny and mingle with the curry sauce. I am already drooling by the mere thought of it.
For my latest visit, the omelet rice was sold out (unfortunately) and so I went for the curry with beef burger patty. Better still, it was topped with cheese! The patty was rather juicy; I am happy having the patty and rice alone~ but together with the curry sauce that the rice and the patty was totally submerged in, it was so good that you have to admire the brilliance of the person who came up with such an idea. Burger patty could be overly rich and greasy in times due to the fat content in the minced beef; the slight tang of the curry sauce acts as the perfect counter point to balance the richness out. The resulting mouthful is flavorful, rich but not overly so such that you would not take another bite.
A perfect plate of curry rice together with a side of salad and soda which altogether costs less than $ 80; not an exceptionally great deal I concur, but for a slight indulging meal once in awhile, this is a place up your bucket list for your consideration~

Coco Ichibanya is one of my favorite places to go for Japanese curry. I like Japanese curry more than I do Indian or Thai curry because I’m not very bold with my spices — I can’t take too much spicy or I’ll feel like my tongue’s on fire and need to down about ten glasses of ice water. Japanese curry is perfect for me. It’s not too spicy and is even a little sweet too, and this place does a great job of it!
There is a pretty large variety of curry you can get here — curry with omelette and pork cutlet, curry with fried shrimp, vegetarian curry with omelette… you get the picture. I always get curry that has omelette because the egg drenched in curry sauce and mixed with rice is seriously a winning combination! I usually order either the curry with pork cutlet or the curry with mushroom, both with omelette.
Here at Coco, you can customize the amount of rice you want as well as the level of spiciness. I normally keep the amount of rice as normal, and have my spiciness be ‘mild’.
The curry rice comes with the rice basically swimming in the sauce, making it very fragrant and not at all dry. I’ve said it once but I’ll say it again — the omelette goes with the curry sauce and the rice in an unimaginably delicious way. The fried pork cutlet is always nice and tender, and the mushroom, a far healthier option, is soft and goes really well with the curry sauce. I often find myself being able to finish most of the rice, but not the pork cutlet and the mushrooms though.
I definitely recommend coming to Coco if you’re craving Japanese curry. It’s affordable and there’s plenty of variety to choose from. If you’re not a wuss like I am when it comes to taking spicy, you’ll be glad to know that the higher levels of spice are actually pretty hot (as told by my spicy-​loving friend) so there’s something for everyone here!