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The story
On 5ch’s Nandemo Jikkyou-G (“Whatever’s On”) board, posts clashed between “CoCo Ichi is delicious” and “no, it’s bad and overpriced,” turning into a fight less about the curry’s actual flavor and more about people getting branded “fanboys.” Opinions split right down the middle over whether to judge the curry with toppings included, and how it stacks up against retort-pouch curry, Go!Go! Curry, and House’s curry roux.
What people said
Retort-pouch curry tastes better.
If you think CoCo Ichi is good, how bad are you at cooking?
Calling retort-pouch curry "home cooking" is really something.
Thinking retort curry tastes good… what have you been eating your whole life?
The only chains I've ever actually thought were bad in my whole life are Ikkakuya and Tokyo Chikarameshi.
For me, CoCo Ichi just gets added to that list.
If you think it's bad, your taste buds are the minority.
A business can survive even if most people think the food is bad.
Exhibit A: Ramen Jiro.
If you think House's curry roux is bad, you basically can't eat Japanese curry at all.
Well, nobody wants to pay to eat out for something worse than a retort pouch.
Stuff like standing soba stalls gets away with tasting bad because it's quick and convenient.
Nobody's actually mad, so you lose.
That'd be the fanboys. Nobody gets this worked up otherwise.
That thin, watery curry built for toppings has its own charm too.
Even my home curry is thin and runny.
Go!Go! Curry with its big chunky ingredients is out of the question.
Isn't the whole point of eating out that cooking at home is a hassle??
By that logic, I really don't get people who go to McDonald's either.
Sorry, I don't cook at home — I don't do anything that pathetic — so I wouldn't know.
What do you mean by that?
You only ever eat out?
I eat at home maybe three times a year.
Sounds like a sad little monster who convinces himself the things he can't do are "pathetic" just so he can run from them.
Nobody's paying 1,000 yen for something on the level of standing soba.
Since becoming an adult, it's been nothing but Indian curry for me.
The fanboys are scary.
So tell me a retort curry that's as good as or better than CoCo Ichi — I'd actually like to buy it.
Topvalu's Tasmania Beef Curry.
Judging by the "it's expensive!" complaints, it's probably people who can only afford the sad, plain, no-topping version.
It only works because of the customization. Eat the plain pork curry by itself and it's probably worse than a retort pouch.
But unlike ramen, there really aren't many curry chain options, are there.
If it doesn't have to be a curry specialist, there are actually quite a few options.
So the first curry I ever thought wasn't tasty was Go!Go! Curry 😢
I had it at an internet cafe and it was just really salty 😢 Maybe they made it wrong?
Go!Go! is salty, yeah.
Go!Go! Curry is meant to be eaten with the cabbage cutting the richness.
It's strong-flavored, yeah 🥺
I don't mind if it's a bit pricey.
Sorry, but I used to work part-time at a hotel — that's retort curry.
They just dump it in a pot, bring it to a boil for flavor, and top it with raisins or fried onions. Done.
If it tastes good, that's fine by me. Whether it's from a pouch or not isn't really the issue.
We're talking about whether it tastes good or not — bringing up "retort vs. homemade" is missing the point.
You don't see that much in other chain restaurant threads.
What even is a "CoCo Ichi fanboy"?
There are just a lot of people who assume it can't possibly be good.
People only favor it out of despair that no other place gives them any options.
If CoCo Ichi offered zero customization either, I get that nobody would eat there.
Background and Key Points
CoCo Ichibanya (“CoCo Ichi”) was founded in 1978 in Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture, and has grown into the world’s largest curry-rice chain, with well over 1,200 outlets in Japan plus locations across Asia, Hawaii, and the mainland US; since 2020 it has operated as a subsidiary of Zensho Holdings, which also owns the Sukiya beef-bowl chain. Its defining feature isn’t a fixed recipe but a build-your-own system: diners choose spice level (1 to roughly 10, with the hottest tiers costing extra), rice portion, and toppings like katsu, cheese, or vegetables, so a bowl can run anywhere from around 500 yen plain to well over 1,500 yen loaded up. That system is the backdrop non-Japanese readers need, since without it the “expensive” complaints and the “it’s basically a blank canvas” defenses in the thread are talking past each other.
The thread’s actual fault line wasn’t “tasty vs. terrible” in the abstract — it was what counts as a fair comparison. One camp judged CoCo Ichi against home-cooked curry made with House Foods’ packaged roux (Vermont Curry, Java Curry) or convenience-store retort pouches; the other insisted the plain, no-topping version isn’t the point, and that dismissing a restaurant chain as worse than a 300-yen pouch reflects declining standards, not the food itself. The Ramen Jiro comparison in the thread is a real analogy: Jiro is also a chain whose devoted fanbase gets mocked as cultish, which is likely why “fanboy” became the thread’s real insult rather than any specific flavor complaint.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyou-G) thread “Regular guy: “CoCo Ichi is good!” — NanG’s “idiot cattle” crowd (a self-mocking nickname for the board’s users): “CoCo Ichi is bad! And overpriced!”.”
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