カレーライス (transl. curry rice) or kare raisu is an unusual Japanese dish as far as I am concerned, because as a south-east Asian, curry comes from the Indian sub-continent[1]. My first dalliance with this dish was possibly from anime / J-drama / SCANDAL-related TV show (highly likely) which lead to me actually trying to make it (I still make it to this day). I have had it in Tōkyō and in various Japanese eateries in UK. This time, I wanted to try one from CoCo ICHIBANYA, a Japanese kare raisu chain that first opened at my local mall a couple of years ago. However, at that time it wasn’t halal/had pork. Interestingly, it shut about a year later, I think.

I then saw it in Pavilion KL and noted Muslim patrons as well as staff. And after noting that it was halal[2] after Googling, I was all for trying it.

However, I had a meal with the family at the food court recently and as everyone else had different meals in mind, I headed to my usual ramen place at Ichiban Ramen and tried their chicken katsu kare raisu. Trying very hard not too be biased, I had a feeling that I was gonna enjoy my CoCo experience a bit more when I tried it next.

The curry was mild-to-medium in its spiciness, had the fruity taste you’d expect in Japanese curry but the added slight kick which I wondered if it came from an added local curry powder added to it. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice. The chicken katsu could have been a bigger choice of breast meat though.

A few days later saw me taking the MRT[3] to meet a friend for an early lunch at CoCo. I opted for the Chicken Cutlet Omelette Curry, which seems to be a mix of a traditional katsu kare raisu with the soft omelette you get on an omuraisu.

You also get to choose the spice level (in Japan, level 2 is the recommended one which I took just because I haven’t be too brave to go all out) as well as the amount of rice (opted for the normal amount).

The curry was as expected – good balance of spice and sweetness, probably slightly less spicy than the one I had at La Toque in Narita. I felt that the omelette was a welcome addition to the mix, without making it too much to take in (I had a, err… light breakfast of two roti canais earlier lol). I had orange juice to wash it all down, and that was all right.

Actually, there wasn’t much else to say as I didn’t have any further add-ons to my plate (you could add veg, meat or cheese), nor did I order dessert (if I remember correctly, dessert comprises mainly ice cream here). Just to add, if eating sausage kare raisu is your thing, have the cheese add-on and perhaps you[4] could re-create this:

It was relatively quiet when we were there as it was before the KL office lunch hour, which suited me fine. Not too sure how busy they’d get if I had arrived later!

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[1]The purist would be aghast with the usage of the term ‘curry’ to describe the variety of dishes like rogan ghosht, dansak, dopiaza etc, which to me is just, err… curry.
[2]The chain also has a halal outlet in Akihabara!
[3]First time on it while playing local tourist.
[4]Fans of a certain Ōsaka all girl rock quartet.