CoCoICHI - Vegan-friendly curry menu

At the beginning of December, there was a great news for vegetarians and vegans. CoCoICHI (CURRY HOUSE CoCo ICHIBANYA), a big Japanese curry shop chain, has introduced vegetarian curry menu in all their shops (more than 1200) in Japan. In addition, they introduced vegetarian soup curry, which will be on the menu until the end of February.

Today I went to one of four shops in Hamamatsu to have vegetarian soup curry. The menu was written in Japanese and English. Though they use the word “vegetarian”, these are vegan curry in fact.

The same applies to vegetarian soup curry. It contains as many as eight kinds of vegetables: potato, cabbage, carrot, eggplant, pumpkin, okra, cauliflower, and lotus root. It has also two tofu nuggets with corn. The soup looked spicy, and it really was. The inside of my mouth felt tingly, and I even sweat a little. I also noticed sweetness of the soup, which might have come from these vegetables.

On the counter, there was a box of fukujinzuke, pickles made of radishes, lotus roots, eggplants, etc. Japanese curry is always served with them. In CoCoICHI, customers can take the pickles freely.

Before I heard about vegetarian soup curry, I had never come to CoCoICHI. While I was there, I saw families and middle-aged men eating some other kinds of curry. It is a popular restaurant chain with mass appeal. I wish their vegetarian curry and soup curry will be included in the regular menu even after the end of February and other big restaurant chains will emulate this model for vegetarians and vegans.

In addition to a variety of dishes, CoCoICHI provides their customers with a wide range of options. They can select the curry sauce, quantity of rice, spice level, and add-ons and toppings, which I think very nice.

Near the door, there were several kinds of retort-pouch curry sold at reasonable prices, including this vegetable curry (vegan).

Before I left CoCoICHI, I got a drink passport which allows me to get a free drink when ordering curry in a CoCoICHI shop until the end of February. I’ll surely come again to have vegetarian curry next time.

CURRY HOUSE CoCo ICHIBANYA Hamamatsu Mishima
Address: 145-1 Mishima-cho, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka
Tel: 053-444-3533
Open hours: 11:00 - 24:00
Access: Take bus No.4 from the bus terminal to Uriuchi-Higashi (5-minute ride)
             20-minute walk from the south exit of JR Hamamatsu Station (go straight along the bus route)      

On my way back to JR Hamamatsu Station