CoCo Ichibanya (San Diego)

CoCo Ichibanya is a popular Japanese curry chain that recently opened its first location in San Diego. The chain has hundreds of locations worldwide.

I had been eagerly anticipating the opening of this restaurant. Coco Ichibanya is always my first stop when I visit Japan. I’ve also tried their store in Los Angeles and while I don’t think it is the same as eating it in Japan (different ingredients, etc), I do still think it is a good spot for curry and San Diego doesn’t have many dedicated Japanese curry restaurants.

We drove by the first few weeks of soft opening but the line was almost always wrapped around the plaza. They also were not yet taking phone orders and I wasn’t willing to wait. Now things have settled down. My last visit was at the end of May and they were not doing dine-in yet, but they do take phone orders and you can also place orders through delivery apps like Doordash and Postmates.

The menu is very extensive and you can also make your own combinations as well.

This is what we’ve tried so far:

Vegetables & Chicken Cutlet
I thought the chicken cutlet was nicely fried. The vegetables were a little sparse–it was mainly potatoes.

Fried Chicken & Teryaki Fried Chicken
Not pictured is the curry which was served in a separate container. The fried chicken is usually my go-to order when in Japan. This was my first time seeing teriyaki fried chicken on the menu. This wasn’t my favorite. The batter was a bit dry.

Stewed Beef, Meatballs

There were some inconsistencies with our orders (some curries were much spicier than others even when we ordered the same level of spicy) but hopefully that is something that will change once the restaurant isn’t so new.

Menu:

Coco Ichibanya
4428 Convoy St Ste 110 San Diego, CA 92111