Mouyan Curry Ikebukuro Branch

If you can eat all the curry you want, and the more you eat, the healthier you will be, there is absolutely no choice but not to go if you love curry, right? There is a curry shop in Tokyo that can fulfill such a wish. As of the end of 2024, a total of 12 Mouyan Curryrestaurants are operating in and around Nishi-Shinjuku. All but a few of the affiliated stores offer a curry buffet at lunch time, where you can eat all the curry rice you want, which is gluten-free and full of vegetables.

When I was in Tokyo on an errand the other day, I wanted to get covered in curry at the curry buffet for the first time in a while, so I went to Mouyan Curry‘s third branch, Mouyan Curry Ikebukuro Branch. After all, you can’t eat it in Osaka or Kyoto, so I had to take this opportunity to enjoy it to the fullest…

A secret underground basement atmosphere…this is what Mouyan Curry Ikebukuro Branch is all about!

Mouyan Curry Ikebukuro Branch is located on the east side of JR Ikebukuro Station, in the restaurant district on the way to Sunshine City. I headed to the restaurant with Google Maps open on my phone, but to be honest, the location is a bit confusing. The sign on the ground level is small, and it seems to have been absorbed by the flashy signage of other restaurants. In fact, the stairs going down to the basement are just about shoulder-width apart, so narrow that I thought, “What if someone comes from the other side?”

When I went down the narrow stairs and opened the door to the restaurant, the small space inside was packed with customers. The restaurant is about the size of a large ramen shop, but it has 50 seats (according to the restaurant’s Tabelog). It’s so small that you can’t really move around as much as you’d like…but it somehow creates a secret base-like atmosphere, which somehow uplifts your spirits. The place has a large collection of comic books that you can read as much as you want, and if you have the time, you are likely to spend a lot of time in the space.

Plenty of vegetables and gluten-free! How was the lunch buffet at Mouyan Curry, which is good for you the more you eat, after a long time?

Let me introduce the lunch buffet at Mouyan Curry Ikebukuro Branch, which I tried for the first time in a while. This lunch buffet has the following three courses…

• No refills: 1056 yen
• One refill 1224 yen
• Unlimited refills 1665 yen

Purchase a meal ticket from the touch-panel ticket machine inside the restaurant and hand it to the waiter. The waiter will then give you a plate, and it seems that there are three types of plates, each of which corresponds to a different course. By the way, the buffet lunch I had at Mouyan Curry Dining before was all-you-can-eat for unlimited time and the price was 1,100 yen (tax included). Well, I think the previous lunch buffet was just divine, and I think the current price is more reasonable…

In one corner of the restaurant, there is a buffet counter like this, where you can take all the food you want. The curry lined up on this day was…

• Pork belly stew curry
• Kyushu Spinach Curry
• Very hot 20 spicy sauce
• Himalayan Curry

Four kinds of curry. Rice for this…

• White rice with glutinous barley
• Florida Rice (rice cooked with spices)
• Maeda Rice (rice seasoned with black pepper and soup stock)

Three types of rice are available, plus…

• Nishi-Shinjuku Style Tandoori Chicken
• Mouyan udon noodles
• Softened potatoes
• Onion and pickled scallon
• Okra salad

and more than 15 other side dishes were placed on the table (in addition to these, you can drink as much coffee, rooibos tea, and other drinks as you like).

For the first round, I chose Mouyan Curry‘s standard curry, Pork Belly Stewed Curry. Rice is white rice with glutinous barley, and toppings include tandoori chicken, potatoes, and shredded cabbage.

This Curry with Stewed Pork Belly uses three times the amount of vegetables as usual and takes two weeks from preparation to completion. Moreover, it is gluten-free, using no flour or additives. Even if the price is raised, the all-you-can-eat curry is still a god-like cost performance. The taste is relatively strong with the sourness of tomatoes, followed a little later by the spiciness of medium hotness and spice, and the aroma of Chinese herbs spreading from mouth to nose without being unpleasant. It is not a curry that everyone will like because it has a slightly medicinal flavor, but the fact that the restaurant is crowded with many customers during lunch time is a testament to the taste of this curry.

The Nishi-Shinjuku style tandoori chicken, which is now a specialty of Mouyan Curry. It is seasoned with soy sauce sauce, and the garlic aroma wafting from it stimulates the appetite even more. To say the least, this tandoori chicken is a must when you come to Mouyan Curry. Just keep in mind that it is so popular that there is a limit of two per round of curry…

After finishing this curry, I chose the second round of Himalayan Curry, which I had never had before (Maeda rice, with three toppings: tandoori chicken, masala carrot rapeseed, burdock salad, and bean sprouts). The name “Himalayan” does not sound exotic at all, and this is more of an orthodox curry. However, it is spicier than the pork belly stew curry. If you can’t eat spicy curry, it might be a little tough.

I left the restaurant after finishing these two servings, as my stomach was a bit upset that day. As a result, I felt like I should have had another serving, but I was still more than satisfied. I wonder if this Mouyan Curry will open a restaurant in Kansai again (there used to be a restaurant, but it has closed)? They also have a store in Nagoya, and if the store owner sees this, please reconsider opening a store in Osaka or Kyoto?

At night, in addition to curry, the curry shop offers an izakaya menu… Access to Mouyan Curry Ikebukuro Branch is a 6-minute walk from the nearest station, Ikebukuro Station on the JR Yamanote Line.

In addition to curry, Mouyan Curry Ikebukuro Branch also offers an izakaya (Japanese style bar) menu at night, including beer, snacks, and a la carte dishes. Looking at the night menu, it is quite interesting to see the creative menu items that use spices and curry in addition to curry. And if you drink alcohol with spices, you can somehow avoid getting a bad taste in your mouth… If you want to try a slightly different kind of izakaya lifestyle, give Mouyan Curry Ikebukuro Branch a try.

Now, here are the details of the restaurant…

It is also a 6-minute walk from Higashi-Ikebukuro Station on the Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line.