Why you should experience Planet of Curry in Tokyo, Japan.
Planet of Curry is a curry shop where Shimokitazawa's independent food culture, rotating cooks, spice-driven experimentation and vividly composed plates turn Japanese curry into a continuously changing creative project.
Set along the northern lanes of Shimokitazawa near Ichibangai and just steps from the neighborhood's dense cluster of vintage shops and small restaurants, the current shop continues a curry project born nearby in 2016. Scorched keema remains a signature, with minced meat, whole spices, herbs and colorful vegetable accompaniments arranged across the rice before mixing changes the balance of the plate. Chicken curry and mapo keema push the repertoire through different spice structures, while chrysanthemum petals and other garnishes give the food a visual character closely tied to the restaurant's name. The result is a Shimokitazawa curry shop where spice, acidity, herbs, vegetables and minced meat are designed to change with successive spoonfuls.
What you should know about Planet of Curry.
Planet of Curry is best known for emerging on April 23, 2016 from Benham no Koma, the vegetable-focused sister restaurant of Shimokitazawa Jukuseishitsu, with former Jukuseishitsu staff member Yu Goto taking charge of the new curry operation. The predecessor had already participated in Shimokitazawa Curry Festival for three consecutive years, giving the new shop an immediate connection with the event that had begun reshaping the neighborhood's food reputation. Planet of Curry entered the 2016 festival under its new name with a two-keema plate combining dry keema and a limited chicken keema, while the regular kitchen centered vegetables and spice through dishes such as pork-and-shishito curry and a tart green soup curry. A major shift followed in early 2017 when three cooks, Chie Naka, Shuntaro Iizuka and Yukina Abe, alternated through the kitchen before another management change that May redirected the cooking toward Indian home-style preparations. Third-generation manager Aoki, who had joined the opening team as a part-time employee, later described the restaurant's unusual succession principle: incoming cooks were encouraged to contribute their own ideas instead of reproducing a fixed inherited recipe book.
Scorched keema gives the plate its deepest concentration, carrying browned minced meat and spice against rice before surrounding vegetables, herbs and condiments begin pulling the flavor toward sharper, fresher territory. Early versions made that progression explicit through tomato, cucumber, coriander, lemon and strained yogurt, whose acidity and creaminess changed the keema as the components were mixed. Current cooking continues the principle through chicken curry, mapo keema and colorful accompaniments, allowing separate preparations to merge gradually across the rice. Planet of Curry makes variation part of the pleasure, preserving a culinary culture in which successive cooks have been free to alter the spice world orbiting the restaurant's enduring keema foundation.
How to fold Planet of Curry into your trip.
Planet of Curry works as the meal destination within a Shimokitazawa route connecting medieval Setagaya history, the theater entrepreneur who changed the district's cultural trajectory and the former railway land recast for independent businesses.
Begin at Kitazawa Hachiman Shrine, founded during the Bunmei era of 1469-1487 under Setagaya lord Kira Yoriyasu as protection for the northeastern approach to Setagaya Castle, with the shrine's parish still spanning Kitazawa and Daizawa. Continue to Honda Theatre, opened by former actor Kazuo Honda in 1982 after he had already created Honda Studio in 1980 and The Suzunari in 1981, beginning the theater network that helped make Shimokitazawa nationally associated with small-stage performance. Conclude at BONUS TRACK, opened on April 1, 2020 across former Odakyu railway land after the line moved underground, with Tsubame Architects designing five low-rise wooden buildings for a project operated by Sanposha. The progression carries Shimokitazawa from Kira-era history through Honda's independent theater movement and the reuse of former railway land before Planet of Curry closes the route with another local project built around creative independence.
Where your story begins.
Foresyte Travel reveals places that feel extraordinary long before you arrive.
Experience premium editorial crafted for luxury travelers.
