If you were to ask me to recommend you a good Japanese curry place in Singapore,  I would recommend you to try out CoCo Ichibanya!

CoCo Ichibanya Singapore

CoCo Ichibanya is an international Japanese curry chain that opened its doors here in Singapore back in 2011. I remember when the bf and I initially tried it back then – we were hooked ever since! We both love Japanese curry and would use the standard at CoCo Ichibanya to compare it against other Japanese curries that have tried from other places. To date, less than 5 curry places have surpassed the standard 😜

Moving on, I’m glad to announce that CoCo Ichibanya has just opened its 5th outlet in Singapore over at the new wing of Plaza Singapura recently!

Was kindly invited by Agnes and Mayuri to drop by for a food tasting at Coco Ichibanya and I brought Crystal as my plus one as she had never tried it before!

CoCo Ichibanya
Plaza Singapura #03-73
Website: http://cocoichibanya.com.sg/

The Place

As with all Coco Ichibanya outlets, the place is pretty small but cozy and is able to sit up to 51 diners within the area. Fridays and weekends are their busiest periods and you can expect to wait in line during this timing! We were there on a Monday night and you can already see that the restaurant is pretty full huh?

The Menu

For your reference, here’s the full menu at Coco Ichibanya (as of Jan 2016!) below for your easy reference!

Just to share that it used to be beef stock used in the curry but it has since then changed to a vegetarian stock to cater to the mass market! Don’t worry though, the taste still remained the same! Note the new additions to the menu with more curry choices, salad, side dishes and desserts since then! (:

What I really like about CoCo Ichibanya is that I am able to customize my own curry to my own preference. To order, I just have to decide on the meat I want before choosing the quantity of rice and then choosing my spice level and additional toppings if any.

I highly recommend that you add in the Set B which offers the most value with a miso soup, mini salad and drink to go along with your meal(:

These are the toppings available for your selection!

And the full range of curry to choose from. So what do you feel like having? Meat/seafood or vegetables? (:

My personal favorite and recommendation is the pork katsu curry which I will never fail to order whenever I’m at Coco Ichibanya (yes, I’m boring!). Meanwhile, the bf will always go for either the thinly sliced pork curry or omurice with curry!

There’s also salad for sharing or for individuals.

A new range of sides and desserts for your selection(:

And of course, the drinks menu!

The Food & Drinks

I was the only person who ordered a drink during the tasting session – an orange juice heh.

First up, the Chicken Teriyaki Mayo Salad to share. The chicken was tender while the sweet teriyaki mayo paired really well with fresh veggies. Only wished they were generous with the sauce though~

We ordered one of the omurice with pork katsu (level 2 spiciness). Wonderfully breaded and perfectly fried pork katsu paired with the rice and fluffy egg, this is one of the best value meals to order at Coco Ichibanya!(:

As there were only 3 ladies at the tasting, it would be crazy to order numerous plates of curry rice to try. Hence, we ordered a couple of meats to share and a plate of rice each so that we could have the best of both worlds!

Here are some of the dishes we tried:

– Wagyu Beef Steak ( served medium rare )

– Grilled Garlic Prawn

– Grilled Squid with Mayonnaise

– Hamburg

– Thinly sliced pork

All of the dishes were then paired with the curry sauces below.

If you were wondering what’s the difference between them – it’s the spiciness level! Was glad I had the opportunity to try them all here as I never dared to try ordering them in case it was too spicy!

For your reference, here are the levels below:
– Mild (Children)
– Standard ( Original )
– Level 1 x1
– Level 2 x4
– Level 3 x12
– Level 4 x16
– Level 5 x24

Oh and did we try them all from the lowest level to the highest! It started off great till the huge jump between level 2 and 3 and then level 4 to 5. I realized that my spiciness tolerance level is up to Level 2 because the rest almost killed me. Seriously, level 3 – 5 almost numbed my tongue!!

Crystal particularly enjoyed level 4 the most but she said she wouldn’t be able to finish the curry as it would be too overwhelmingly spicy even for her. Ugh.. Can’t imagine eating a whole plate of level 4 or 5 curry, I think your stomach will just BURNNNNN!

No joke, this is a Standard (Original) curry sauce compared to the Level 5 curry sauce. You can just spy all the copious amounts of red chilli flakes inside, crazy!!

We ended off with 3 different dessert as below:

Chocolate Mille Crepe

I don’t particular favour Mille crepes in general because most of the ones I’ve tasted fail my taste test (looking at you Lady M and EwF) but surprisingly, I was quite happy with Coco Ichibanya’s rendition. It’s not too bad(:

Matcha Cheesecake

I don’t take Matcha or cheesecake so Crystal shared this with Mayuri. Positive feedback from her though!

Vanilla Ice Cream Puff

Now this is MY kind of dessert! A delicious cold vanilla ice cream sandwiched within a puff – YUM!

 

Overall, I had a wonderful time at Coco Ichibanya that night and I have successful converted Crystal into a fan! With no doubt, we would be back again for some good Japanese curry from Coco Ichibanya when the craving hits (most likely very soon!). Now if only an outlet would open in the East side – that would be make it so convenient! (:

Would like to end off by giving a huge thanks to Agnes for the invitation, Mayuri for hosting us and of course, the lovely staff at CoCo Ichibanya for taking care of us during the entire tasting!(:

Note: This is an invited food tasting but all opinions are of my own.

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Till later,
♥ mitsueki

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