I don’t know where this is coming from but Japanese people are in love with curry. It is one of the most popular category of food in this country after Japanese food. This does not mean all the curry restaurant in Japan is great. Good curry restaurants are always hard to find and most of the times they are unevenly located in the city. While Jinbocho (神保町) is the area widely known as “curry hotspot“ in Tokyo where you can find many exotic curry restaurants, Tachikawa is also known as many good curry restaurants. My favorite is still Shravan even after trying dozens of curries here but the city is always changing and there comes a new player every year.
I found out earlier that there’s a buffet style curry restaurant opening in Tachikawa. Curry buffet is something I have never heard of in Tokyo. I did not know anything else about this restaurant but this new style for an Indian restaurant got my attention.
The name of this restaurant is called “カレー会議室” which literally translates as “meeting room curry”. Such a weird name for a curry restaurant I know but I guess it’s something that sticks. As soon as I went inside, I noticed the restaurant itself is pretty small. Only a dozen people can fit in the entire restaurant.
Inside the place looked pretty new and clean. I also noticed this is not the authentic type of Indian restaurant. The interior theme is more of Asian than Indian. Just like any other buffet style, there are rice and food on the counter. The system was pretty straightforward. You pay at the cashier upfront. The cashier is right at the gate of the restaurant. Then you can use one of the wooden plates and you take whatever food or drinks available. Return the plate back to the cashier and leave.
Lunch Buffet is 1300 yen plus 10% tax and Dinner Buffet is 1500 yen plus 10% tax. Take out box is kind of like a mini buffet which you get to fill the take-out food box with the same food by yourself and leave without taking a seat in the restaurant. I assume the tax for this take out box is 8%, and not 10%, according to the recently updated tax system.
I thought the pricing is pretty reasonable for all you can eat style buffet.
There are two kinds of rice available at the restaurant and I was happy to see the basmati rice. Compared to Japanese rice, basmati rice is much drier and you won’t get full as quickly.
There were 3 kinds of curry when I visited there, coconut chicken curry, tomato chicken curry, and Pork Vindaloo. All the curry was surprisingly all great. I especially loved the pork vindaloo. It was pretty spicy. I have to admit that I was very surprised by the quality of food. Everyone knows that a buffet food often taste like garbage and keeping your expectation low is usually the best and sound approach. Well it is not the case in this restaurant. Despite the weird name, they are actually doing an excellent job.
Curry is not all about this new restaurant and perhaps it is their key factor to be successful. I usually care about what I eat every day and I try to stay healthy. Eating a decent amount of vegetables is always something hard. There are so many kinds of good quality steamed vegetables as toppings for curry in this restaurant. This is part of your buffet so you can refill these vegetables as many times as you want. These vegetables are not really seasoned so they are as natural as they are. The restaurant says they use no MSG, no flour, no sugar to their curry and less oil as they can. I don’t think the curry is meant for vegan or vegetarians in that sense but this is definitely great for people who want some healthy food with lots of vegetables.
Overall, I am very happy with the quality and the style of this restaurant. Maybe next time I try their take out box and see if it’s worth it.
