Curry chain CoCo Ichibanya (affectionately nicknamed “Kokoichi” by fans) has rolled out a late-night surcharge, price hikes on 12 topping items, and a ¥60 increase on its pork shabu-shabu topping. What started as a thread griping about the price hikes gradually morphed into a full-blown debate over whether Kokoichi is actually expensive or cheap. Posters began pasting menu photos from rival chains like Matsuya, Royal Host, and Go Go Curry for comparison, with opinions splitting over everything from how much rice you can pile on to impressions of the customer base.
Late-night surcharge ← don't care
Price hike on 12 toppings ← screw off
Pork shabu topping +¥60 ← die, die, die [note: "４ね" is a pun spelling out "shine" (die) using the number 4, read "shi"]
Re: #8
Matsuya gets the "this'll do" crowd, so its customer base is broad.
Kokoichi gets the broke types who dress to the nines like it's their "treat of the month!"
People calling Kokoichi's customer base "good" have probably never once set foot in Shabu-yo [note: Shabu-yo is a popular all-you-can-eat shabu-shabu chain] their whole life. Doubt they even go out to eat with other people in general.
Re: #43
Go try both and compare for yourself. At Matsuya you might actually walk away paying just the menu price — at CoCo Ichi, that menu price is never the final total.
Checked Royal Host and they happen to be running a curry fair right now. Every time I look at another chain's menu, I'm more convinced Kokoichi is one of the cheapest restaurant chains out there.
Go Go Curry — and this was the price back in 2022?
Kokoichi being the cheap one is settled at this point.
Background and key points
Ichibanya, the company behind CoCo Ichibanya, has repeatedly revised its prices in recent years amid rising ingredient and labor costs, and this round of late-night surcharges and topping price adjustments appears to be part of that same trend. What actually divided opinion in the thread wasn’t a simple question of “expensive vs. cheap” but a mismatch in what people were comparing. Beef bowl chains typically run on fixed, set-meal pricing, whereas CoCo Ichibanya lets customers freely customize rice portion, curry roux spice level, and toppings, so the final bill can swing wildly depending on the order. Those angry about the price hikes were pointing to the total cost of a typical order, while defenders cited the 300g standard rice serving or per-item prices after coupon discounts — the two sides ended up talking past each other. It’s also worth noting that impressions about the customer base being “good” or “bad” are purely subjective and not backed by any actual data.
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