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Coco’s Japan is very confident in their chilled ramen, but should they be? [Taste test]

Casey Baseel 3 days ago
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Premium-priced hiyashi chuka comes to the American coffee shop’s Japanese branches.

With the summer heat hitting Japan in full force, it’s time to look for ways to stay cool however you can, even when you’re eating, and recently that search took us to Coco’s to try their chilled ramen. And just to be clear, when we say “Coco’s,” we’re not talking about Japanese curry rice restaurant chain Coco Ichibanya. No, we’re actually talking about Coco’s, the American coffee shop that also has branches in Japan.

In its home country, Coco’s is known for reliably tasty, but not necessarily adventurous, American fare. Bacon-and-egg breakfasts, burgers with French fries, slices of apple pie, those kinds of things. But as is sometimes the case when restaurant chains from the U.S. cross the Pacific, Coco’s Japan has a more varied, and also upscale, menu, and right now that includes hiyashi chuka, a chilled ramen dish that Japan loves eating in the summer.

Not only is Coco’s Japan serving chilled ramen, they’re very confident in its quality, as they’re asking 1,419 yen (US$8.75) for it. It’s possible to find hiyashi chuka for close to half that price at casual restaurants, so in setting the price that high, Coco’s has set the bar pretty high for itself.

Coco’s does offer some special ingredients to justify its premium pricing, though. For starters, the standard hiyashi chuka toppings are egg, cucumber, tomato, and ham. Coco’s replaces that last one, though, with roast beef, a much fancier ingredient.

You also get some nice, big shrimp…

…wakame (seaweed)…

…and even okra, which is something we’d never encountered in hiyashi chuka before this.

The presentation is quite beautiful, and we rotated our bowl around to get a good, appreciative look at the chilled ramen from every angle. Having passed the visual test, it was time to move on to the taste test, performed by our Japanese-language writer Takashi Harada, and he’s happy to report that Coco’s hiyashi chuka tastes every bit as good as it looks!

There are quite a few different flavors involved in hiyashi chuka, with even the chilled, vinegary broth having both sweet and sour elements to it. Too much of any one aspect can make the entire meal feel off, but everything here works perfectly together. Takashi was especially impressed by the quality of the tomatoes and okra, which had no unpleasant acidity or bitterness, so much so that he’s now convinced that okra can be a viable addition to the dish. Likewise, roast beef turned out to be an ingenious addition, especially with the little dab of sweet sauce that Coco’s applies to the meat.

The noodles are excellent too, thin and with just the right amount of firmness. And if you want your chilled ramen to still bring some heat to your taste buds, you get a side dish with some very hot spicy mustard if you want to mix it in.

So Coco’s hiyashi chuka isn’t just better than one might expect, but, simply put, very good hiyashi chuka. If you’re looking for something to both fill you up and cool you off this summer, it’s very much worth its price…and if noodles aren’t your thing, they’ve got other traditionally Japanese ways to cool off too.

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