"You're Better Off With Sukiya's ¥490 Curry": What Japanese Diners Say About CoCo Ichibanya's Price
ココイチはなぜ「高い」と言われるのか——608いいねが選んだのは490円の牛丼屋のカレーだった
By Rakutaro · Tokyo, Japan
The most-liked comment on this thread (608 likes) does not argue about how CoCo Ichibanya tastes, it prices it: paying over ¥1,200 for a plate of curry with nothing on it is worse value, it says, than the ¥490 curry at the gyudon chain Sukiya. Underneath, the thread reads like a ledger of what changed. A plain curry you could once get for five hundred and change (75 likes). Rice that used to go up 100g at a time and now goes up 50g at a time (199 likes). Pickled rakkyo that stopped being free (11 likes). A bill that clears ¥1,000 the moment you add one topping (9 likes). The defenders are in here too, and so is the list of what Japanese diners order instead.
“Rather than eating CoCo Ichi's curry with nothing in it at a ridiculous price over 1,200 yen, you're far better off eating Sukiya's 490 yen curry.”
CoCo壱の1200円越えのアホみたいな値段の具なしカレー食うより、490円のすき家のカレー食う方が遥かにいいわ。
Where Japanese people go instead
If I'm eating curry out, I find myself thinking the one at a beef bowl place will do.
外でカレー食べるなら、牛丼屋のやつでいいかなと思っちゃう
— @a.8906168 likesAt the Indian and Nepalese places, 1,300 yen gets you salad, tandoori chicken and a lassi on top, and you'll be more than full. In relative terms they're the cheap option now.
インネパ系は1300円も出せばサラダもタンドリーチキンもラッシーも付いて腹パンパン以上に食える、むしろもう相対的に安いのだ。
— @anrokuzan2377 likesFor katsu curry I'm team Katsuya or Green Corner.
カツカレーならかつやかグリーンコーナー派
— @まじしあ15 likesI live in Fuchu and there's a Coco Ichi here, but I always go to C&C. The morning curry is a bit over 400 yen, and the chicken katsu curry I order is 830. At Coco Ichi it'd be about 1,000.
府中に住んでてCoCo壱あるけど、行くのはいつもC&C。 朝カレーなら400円ちょいだし、自分が注文するチキンカツカレーは830円。CoCo壱だと1000円くらい。
— @03yoshi0814 likes
Places named in this article
- CoCo IchibanyaNationwide
The chain under discussion. A plain pork curry with 300g of rice is ¥646 including tax; the same plate with four sausages is ¥994. Diners in the thread say the value went when one topping started clearing ¥1,000 (9 likes).
Sources: ichibanya.co.jp · ichibanya.co.jp — checked 2026-08-23
- SukiyaNationwide
The beef bowl chain the top comment sends you to instead (608 likes), and the second-most common answer in the thread to where curry gets eaten now (168 and 107 likes). The ¥490 curry quoted in the comments went to ¥550 on 24 March 2026, with a mini bowl at ¥450.
Sources: sukiya.jp — checked 2026-08-23
- KatsuyaNationwide
Where the thread goes for katsu curry rather than paying CoCo Ichi's cutlet topping (15 likes).
- Curry Shop C&CTokyo, mostly on and around the Keio Line
The station curry counter one commenter walks past a CoCo Ichi to reach: morning curry a little over ¥400 and a chicken katsu curry at ¥830, against about ¥1,000 for the CoCo Ichi equivalent, as of the comments (14 likes). The original branch is inside Keio Shinjuku station.
Named in the source comments. Where a note gives a price, opening status or rule, we checked it against the linked source on the date shown — everything else is what the comments said. All of it can change; check the map listing before you go.
FAQ
- How much does CoCo Ichibanya cost in Japan now?
- A plain pork curry with 300g of rice is ¥646 including tax on the official menu, and one topping takes you to the ¥1,000 mark: a four-sausage curry is ¥994. Listed prices are for dining in in Tokyo, Kanagawa and Osaka; other prefectures are ¥21 cheaper and takeaway adds ¥54. Diners here remember ¥380 a plate ten years ago (19 likes).
Sources: ichibanya.co.jp · ichibanya.co.jp · ichibanya.co.jp — checked 2026-08-23
- Why do Japanese people say CoCo Ichibanya got expensive?
- Because the base plate and everything bolted onto it moved at once. Rice increases were halved from 100g steps to 50g steps (199 likes), rakkyo pickles stopped being free (11 likes), and the base curry drifted from about ¥500 to ¥646. Several people date the change to the ownership: the founder left management in 2002 and House Foods took the chain over in a 2015 tender offer (73 likes).
Sources: ja.wikipedia.org · newswitch.jp — checked 2026-08-23
- What do Japanese people eat instead of CoCo Ichibanya?
- Curry at the beef bowl chains, above all. Sukiya's curry was ¥490 when this video went up and rose to ¥550 on 24 March 2026, with a mini at ¥450, which is still well under a topped CoCo Ichi plate (608 and 168 likes). After that come Indian and Nepalese restaurants, where a set runs about ¥1,150 to ¥1,300 with salad, tandoori chicken and a lassi (77 and 25 likes), katsu chains, and curry roux at home.
Sources: sukiya.jp — checked 2026-08-23
- Is CoCo Ichibanya still worth ordering as a visitor?
- What you are paying for is the build, not the sauce. Rice runs from 150g to 400g in 50g steps, the spice scale runs from mild upward, and the topping list is the point of the chain. Defenders here still go a couple of times a year and say it is worth the money (49 and 5 likes). To keep it near ¥1,000, order the base curry and stop at one topping.
Sources: ichibanya.co.jp — checked 2026-08-23
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What Japanese people said — picked from the top 200 of 1,065 comments
Way too expensive.
高すぎ
The price rises at Coco Ichi really have been bad. It used to come in under 1,000 yen and now it's over 1,300. And the rice has got worse too.
確かにココイチの値上げは酷い。以前は1000円以内で食べられたのが1300円超になってる。 しかも御飯が不味くなった。
I stopped feeling like going once the extra rice went from 100g at a time to 50g at a time. Coco Ichi hasn't been right since the previous president stepped down 😢
ライス増量が100gから50g単位に なってから行く気にならなくなった。 CoCo壱は前社長が退任してから おかしくなりましたね😢
Ten years ago a plate of curry was 380 yen and now it's 640. And I thought it was expensive ten years ago...
10年前はカレー一杯380円だったのに 今や640円 10年前でも高いと思ってたのに…
They always said ramen has a 1,000 yen wall, but it turns out curry rice has an even higher and thicker one. They didn't know it was there and kept putting prices up, and that's why people turned on them.
ラーメンには『1000円の壁』があると言われたがカレーライスの方がより高くて厚い壁があったわけだね。そこを知らずに易々と値上げを繰り返したから嫌われた。
We're at the point where one topping takes you past 1,000 yen... Add rice and you're over 1,000 for certain. To be fair, Coco Ichibanya's standard rice (300g) is about two bowls' worth for a normal household. But cutting it to the 200g or so you'd use for a plate of curry at home doesn't make it much cheaper. It has got a lot more expensive in the last two years, that's how it feels. And yes, custom does seem to be drifting away lately. Touchscreen ordering has become standard as well, so maybe some people find it a nuisance? All the same, there's a curry there I like, so I still go.
1つトッピングするだけで1000円越える時代… ライス増やしたら間違いなく1000円越える。 元々CoCo壱番屋さんのライス普通（300g）は、一般家庭の茶碗2杯くらいあるのもまた事実。 かといって一般家庭のカレー一皿分の200gくらいにしてもさほど安くならない。 ここ2年でかなり高くなったな、と。 確かに最近、客離れが進んでるような。 他にもタッチ注文が主流になり、煩わしくなったと感じる人も？ まぁそれでも好きなカレーがあるから行くのだけどね。
I stopped going once rakkyo started costing extra. With curry it's rakkyo you want, not fukujinzuke.
らっきょうが有料になってから行かなくなったな カレーには福神漬けでなくらっきょうなのよ
Watery, doesn't even taste good, and stupidly expensive. A curry place with nothing going for it.
シャバシャバでおいしくもないのにバカみたいに高いという、何の魅力もなカレー屋。
It used to be tasty and cheap, you know. I don't go any more, sadly!
昔は美味しくて安かったんですけどね、もう今は行っていないです、残念！
I haven't been since you stopped being able to eat there for five hundred and change.
５００円ちょいくらいで食べれなくなってから行ってない
I can make a decent curry at home in the first place, so I'm not going to a curry place that's fairly tasty and stupidly expensive.
そもそも家で作るカレーがある程度美味く作れるのに、そこそこ美味くてバカ高いカレー屋なんか行かない。
It's miles from the founder's philosophy now. Just House running it on the side. Expensive, the curry itself nothing special, a curry place for people who want to pile on toppings and nobody else.
もう創業者の理念とはかけ離れたただのハウスが片手間でやってるだけの高いけどカレー自体は別に普通で色んなトッピングしたい奴だけが来るカレー屋でしかない
Being able to tune your curry exactly how you fancied it that day, from that huge topping list, was a genuinely new idea and it was fun, but the whole thing rested on the price being casual. The further that price drifts from supermarket and convenience store side dishes plus a pouch of curry, the more people are going to stop turning up. Ramen and curry are different in how hard they are to make at home. Making your own ramen isn't realistic, but curry is hard to get wrong, because we have that great invention, curry roux.
豊富なトッピングによってその日の気分で細かく自分の好きなカレーにカスタムできるって革新的で楽しかったけど、あくまで手軽な金額で食べられた上でが前提だったからスーパーやコンビニの惣菜とレトルトのカレーでより安く食べれるって金額の差が広がるほどそりゃ客足遠のくよな ラーメンとカレーじゃ自宅で作れる難易度や手間に違いがあって、ラーメン屋のラーメンは自家製は現実的じゃないけど、カレーは誰が作ってもそうそう不味くはならないカレールーって偉大なモノがあるからね
Even so, about once every six months I still get the urge to go, and every time I do I think, that's steep. Everything's gone up, sure, but this is a lot even so. It used to be the symbol of fast food curry, and it doesn't feel like that any more.
まぁそれでも半年に1回ぐらいは食べに行きたくなるけど、行くたびに(たっけぇ…)ってなる 高騰してるとはいえいくらなんでも高いんよな、ファーストフードカレーの象徴的存在だったのに、もうそんなイメージないしな
I don't think it's expensive at all. The curry they serve is worth the price.
全然高いと思わない。値段に見合ったカレーを提供しているので。