Coco Ichibanya in Japan is the country’s number 1 casual Japanese curry restaurant (as Ichibanya literally translates as ‘number 1’), famed for its classic curry, katsu and rice dishes.
Ordering in Coco Ichibanya via a tablet is simple (there are multiple language settings) and most of the stores are busy day and night (especially at lunchtime with workers).
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Coco Ichibanya also works as a family friendly chain restaurant in Japan as they do cut-price kids meals – Coco Ichibanya Tokyo is definitely one the capital’s cheapest eats too.
A nice touch is that you can customise your curry in terms of spiciness, sides and size of rice.
From prices to the Coco Ichibanya menu, here is our ultimate guide to Japan’s Coco Ichibanya chain with photos.
This article was originally published on 3 June 2024.
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How many Coco Ichibanya Restaurants in Japan are there?
As of 2025, there are around 1,400 Coco Ichibanya Japan restaurants – plus branches all over the world in countries like Taiwan, the USA, UK, China, South Korea and Singapore.
The highest density of restaurants is Coco Ichibanya Tokyo, followed by Osaka.
One of Japan’s cheapest and biggest restaurant chains, Coco Ichibanya is only beaten in size by Sukiya, with over 2,000 branches, and Yoshinoya with around 1,300 branches.
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What is Coco Ichibanya? / Company History
CoCo Ichibanya curry house aka “CoCoICHI”, is a popular Japanese restaurant chain renowned for their curry rice dishes at cheap prices.
Founded in 1978, the very first Coco Ichibanya in Japan was opened in Nishi-Biwajima-cho, just outside of Nagoya (which is handy, because there are lots of nice things to do in Nagoya).
In 1981, Coco Ichibanya began encouraging employees and others to start their own restaurants and by 1994, the 300th Coco Ichibanya had opened.
The number of restaurants has now more than quadrupled – now that is a lot of Japanese curry and rice! No small wonder it is now Japan’s biggest curry restaurant chain.
CoCo Ichibanya is so popular in Japan and overseas that you can buy branded curry sauce kits and sauces. Check out the range on Amazon >
Coco Ichibanya also had a range of gachapon toys (more on this later), plus branded Takara Tomy Tomica toy Coco Ichibanya delivery vans!
We wanted this curry collectible so much we went on a mission on our last trip to find one of the Tomy Tomica Coco Ichibanya vans and eventually found one second hand at Kenbox in Shinjuku.
We’ve also seen Coco Ichibanya convenience store curry ready meals and rice balls in countries like Taiwan (we had one and it was tasty!)
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Why is Coco Ichibanya so popular and famous?
Coco Ichibanya is BIG in Japan, mainly because it is convenient to order, quick to eat, cheap but also because you can customise your curry.
Popular with workers for a quick lunch or with families for an inexpensive evening meal, the key to CoCoICHI’s success is being able to create your own curry in terms of spiciness, sides and portion sizes. There are over 40 different varieties and flavour combos you can create.
The limited edition Coco Ichibanya specials keep diners coming back for more.
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Japan Coco Ichibanya menu
The menu at Coco Ichibanya is generally available to view on in-store tablets (although some of the older branches still use plastic menus). But even these have English language menu versions upon request – the waiting staff usually automatically brings it if they see you struggling!
The Coco Ichibanya menu consists of rice and curry either with meat (usually chicken or pork, seafood (squid or crab croquette) or vegetable curries. We are quite partial to the pork cutlet curry and sausage curry (consisting of two little sausages).
If these don’t take you fancy or aren’t your curry culinary choice, Coco Ichibanya Japan’s menu also has a cheese curry and rice, scrambled egg curry and soy bean (natto) curry.
If you don’t like curry…then why are you reading this? Just joking – CoCoICHI also has side salads (Caesar salad, potato salad etc) for non curry fans (or to combine with your main, if you are hungry). Ice-cream and kid’s portions are available too.
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Coco Ichibanya Prices
Curry costs at Coco Ichibanya Japan are reasonable. Example 2025 prices at Coco Ichibanya for their most popular dishes are:
- Pork cutlet curry for 998 Yen
- Sausage curry or crab croquette curry for 994 Yen
- Chicken cutlet curry for 994 Yen
- Eggplant curry for 826 Yen
- Children’s hamburger meal for 456 Yen
So all main curry meals cost around 1,000 Yen including tax (which is around £4.90 or $6.50 USD) – Coco Ichibanya menu prices are all correct as of October 2025.
Once you’ve ordered and eaten your food, you just pay for your meal at the end at the CoCoICHI cash register.
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Gachapon miniature curries
So popular is Coco Ichibanya in Japan, the brand also has its own range of gachapon toys that are widely available across many gachapon stores in Japan (plus in some of the restaurant too).
There have been several series of Coco Ichibanya gachapon toys which includes various miniature curries in toy form – so authentic, they look good enough to eat (but please don’t).
And it isn’t just Coco Ichibanya getting into gachapons – most Japanese chain restaurants have some form of gashapon toy collection such as Saizeriya, Denny’s, Kura Sushi and Mos Burger. You can even get tiny Pocky chocolate capsule toys and mini Mister Donut in plastic form.
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Other things to know
- Driving in Japan? There are Coco Coco Ichibanya drive thru restaurants (although none in downtown Tokyo alas) – who needs McDonalds eh?
- Most CoCo Ichibanyas in Japan open early morning (usually between 9am and 11am) and close around midnight – hours may be longer in the bigger cities like Tokyo, Osaka and Sapporo
- Some stores have been known to launch their own branch exclusive curry combos like the Waseda Fried Ham and Mashed Potato Curry at Waseda-dori in Tokyo (a popular student hang-out).
- One of the new side sauces they trialled recently is tartar sauce – the jury is still out on this one.
- Coco Ichibanya also has a bakery brand – Spice Up! Cocoichi Bakery. There is a location in their home district of home prefecture of Aichi plus a new Coco Ichibanya bakery in Shinjuku L Tower. Products include pork curry bread for 350 Yen and cheese curry bread for 390 Yen
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If you like Coco Ichibanya Japan..
Coco Ichibanya Japan is good and great value BUT we prefer the more flavourful and darker Kanazawa style curry of the other main Japanese curry chain Go! Go! Curry.
Famous for their Go Go Gorilla logo, we aren’t monkeying around when we say give Go! Go! Curry a go next time you are in Japan.
Typical dishes include chicken and pork katsu curry, sausage or shrimp curry plus their calorie busting World Champion Curry (possibly only suitable for sumo wrestlers).
You can add toppings to your curry like cheese, kimchi and rakkyo Chinese onion (pickled ginger is available for free).
There are over 70 Go! Go! Curry restaurants in Japan (plus some in the USA). It is King (Kong) of the curry restaurants in our opinion!
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