CoCo Ichibanya

Cocoichibanya is a well known Japanese curry chain across Asia. It’s not the best, but it’s decent for the price. For some reason the portions in HK are a lot smaller than other places like mainland China and Korea… I always get the pork cutlet curry or tonkatsu curry and in Korea they always give a huge portion! Perhaps I just eat too much… The curry itself was a bit bland for me but other than that it was ok. Anyways the cocos here is decent and usually there’s no queue if you are looking for a place to eat in hysan place!

I had never gone to this place hadn’t it been because a friend dragged me there. He said it was a Japanese curry place and I thought it was going to be some kind of small hidden place in a side street. Instead, it was a chain, very chain-​like in fact, but oh well, we were there, so let’s try.
It was at lunch time but there were only a few tables taken, so we sat by the window and the staff was quick to serve us. Besides their set menu (mini soup, salad, dessert and drink) I love the fact that you have a ton of different options and yet if you don’t like those, you can pick up your ingredients and mix it with the curry sauce. Since I wasn’t very keen on the set curries (I am not a fan of fried breaded fish or meat, I think it’s really unhealthy) I went for the free ordering — I picked a spicy curry sauce, no rice and three toppings: egg, tuna and eggplant. I know, strange combination, and I knew it was going to be quite an experiment that could leave me hungry but I tried nevertheless, and I was gladly surprised, especially by the sauce — it was spicy enough for me, a little weak consistency wise, but definitely tasty! I mixed up the ingredients and hey! I did have a good meal, and surely filling. Even though the best value for money is in their already set dishes and lunch, I don’t mind paying a little extra when I can eat just whatever I want, a few simple ingredients all combined in a rich sauce: that’s a winner for me!