Review: CoCo Curry House, Sannomiya Branch Kobe, Japan

The boy has a serious weakness for katsu curry and I'm not adverse to it myself; we'd been trying to kill a hankering for curry and an attempt to find a CoCo Curry of which I have fond memories. We'd all but given up shopping on our last day in Kobe when we just wanted to fall over and die. At this point we saw the welcoming yellow sign and walked in to rest our feet and fill our tummies.



Unfortunately we noted the fine print of "we have a menu in English" after we'd ordered in Japanese. Damnit.



The food is decidedly family fare yoshoko - Western food done Japanese style; you can tailor your curry sauce to your preferred taste and get it with your choice of meats, breaded or otherwise. Being tired and hungry we opted to cheat and get the standard Pork Katsu Curry. If I'd had access to an English menu though I'd have got some croquettes, damn the Japanese do good croquettes.



Handmade Special Hirekatsu with Curry Rice 880 Yen

We ordered the "special" fillets which are handmade fresh and contain a higher grade of meat than normal. The Hirekatsu usually means the fillet of pork rather than the loin, though there is little other difference, it just depends what type of meat you like and how the meat/crumb ratio is.



Handmade Tonkatsu Special with Curry Rice 880 Yen

If you are so inclined though there are any number of varations to katsu curry you can have; sweet or spicey sauce, low or seering heat, crab or mince croquettes, squid, mushroom, eggplant, beef, hamburger and multiple kinds of pork. Keep in mind for the Aussies that beef is very expensive in Japan and you will only get one or two mouthfuls of meat in your sauce.

The rice here is much like that at any fast food lunchtime place - not great but edible. The meat and sauce however are wonderfully good quality and much better than more expensive places we have been to. CoCo Curry is definitely one to keep your eye out for when you want recognisable food or are just dying tired after shopping/site seeing; there are multiple locations in all the major cities in Japan.



Tasty sauce

This is a thick tonkatsu/BBQ style sauce that you can add to the curry which really makes the flavour pop. Unfortunately I think it does so through MSG as I had a reaction to the food for some time afterwards. There are also endless pickles and other condiments that one can add if so desired.



One thing I will say about CoCo is that you should under no circumstances drink their iced coffee. I drank a lot of iced coffee in my time in Japan, this was hands down the worst. Worse than 80 Yen generic vending machine coffee, worse than on the plane, just awful. It was so bad that I forgot to take a picture.

CoCo Curry House - Sannomiya
http://www.ichibanya.co.jp/comp/index.html

日本兵庫県神戸市中央区北長狭通１丁目２
１６三宮エビスビル‎
078-327-2663‎
Opposite the JR Sannomiya Train Station Entry

Soft drinks only
Walk ins okay