Is Go!Go!Curry in Akihabara worth eating at? A Straight Answer from an Akihabara Tour Guide

Guide · Akihabara

Part of: Where to Eat in Akihabara: 4 Shops Compared

Browse more: Maid Cafés, Collab Cafés & Where to Eat

I ate here on 1 August 2026 at 20:19 and photographed the whole menu board. Prices below are what the machine was charging that night.

Gogo Curry in Akihabara is worth it if you want a filling, genuinely regional meal for under ¥1,200 and don't mind a counter seat. It's Kanazawa curry: a near-black, thick roux on a metal plate with a pork cutlet and raw cabbage. I run anime tours here and send guests to this exact shop when they want something real and fast, not another konbini onigiri.

What is Kanazawa curry?

A regional style from Ishikawa Prefecture — dark, thick roux on a stainless plate, topped with a breaded pork cutlet and shredded raw cabbage, eaten with a fork. Nothing like Indian or Thai curry: it descends from British-navy curry via the Meiji era, then went darker and heavier in Kanazawa specifically. Not spicy by default.

This is the point most first-timers miss: it is a regional style, not "Japanese curry" in general, so it will not taste like the curry you might have had at a different chain elsewhere in Tokyo. If you have only had one Japanese curry before and assumed that was the whole category, this branch is the fastest way to learn otherwise — dark instead of golden, thick instead of a thin sauce, and served on the plate rather than folded into a bowl.

It is also the lunch I suggest most often when guests on my Akihabara anime tour want something filling and cheap before the afternoon shops.

How much does it cost?

¥750 for a plain curry, ¥1,000–¥1,350 for the pork cutlet version most people order. I photographed the ticket machine on 1 August 2026, so this table is a real snapshot, not a scraped 2019 blog price.

Toppings ¥100–¥450. Drinks ¥250–¥450.

What should you order the first time?

The pork katsu curry, size M, ¥1,050 — the shop's own wall menu marks it as the top seller. If you don't eat pork, chicken katsu is the same price. Sizes scale in rice weight, not sauce, so order M if you're unsure; the L is a real meal on its own.

How do you order without speaking Japanese?

Pay the ticket machine first, then press your dish — it won't let you choose anything until it's paid. Every dish has an English label under the Japanese name. Hand the printed ticket to the counter staff. This trips people up because most Western fast food does it the other way around.

What's the catch?

No vegetarian or vegan options — the roux itself is meat-based. Counter seating only, about ten stools, no room for luggage. Cash only at this branch, so bring ¥1,000 notes. It's loud, fast, and people are in and out in fifteen minutes — not a place to linger if there's a queue.

Each of those is really the same trade-off from a different angle: this is a fast-turnover counter shop, not a sit-down restaurant, and every choice about seating, payment and menu follows from that. Ten stools means there is nowhere to put a day bag or a suitcase, so if you are moving between hotels, do this stop with a light bag rather than mid-transfer. Cash-only means the machine will not help you if you arrive with only a card — check your wallet before you queue, not after you've ordered.

None of that makes it a bad stop; it makes it the wrong stop for a leisurely sit-down meal and the right one for a fast, filling lunch between shops. Knowing which category it falls into before you arrive saves you from expecting the wrong thing and being disappointed by a shop that was never trying to be anything other than fast.

When should you go?

Open 09:55–21:55 daily. Go before 11:30 or after 20:00 to dodge the worst of the line — though I was there at 20:19 on a Saturday and every stool was full. Any date with a 5 in it (5th, 15th, 25th) is "Go Go Day," and you get a free topping voucher for your next visit.

The :55 isn't random — the chain is named for Hideki Matsui's number 55, and most branches set their hours to end in :55 because of it. It is a small detail, but it is the kind of thing that tells you this is a chain built around one very specific piece of branding rather than a generic curry shop that happened to open near the station — the whole identity, down to the clock, is deliberate.

Where exactly is it?

1-16-1 Kanda Sakuma-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Ohashi Building 1F — about 2 minutes from JR Akihabara's Showa-dori exit, the quiet side away from the maid cafés. It's signed "秋葉原1号店" (Akihabara Store No. 1), meaning first in this area, not first in the chain — there's more than one Go!Go!Curry nearby, so check you're heading to this address.

Open in Google Maps → · Official store page →

Is it worth going out of your way for?

If you're already in Akihabara, yes. If you're across town, there are other branches — the value here is a five-minute walk from the anime shops for less than a station sandwich.

The comparison that matters is not "is this the best curry in Tokyo" — it isn't trying to be — but "is this better than what I would otherwise eat between shops." Against a konbini rice ball eaten standing up, or skipping lunch entirely to keep shopping, a hot plate of curry two minutes from the station wins easily. Against a special-occasion restaurant meal you have planned for the evening, it is not competing at all, and it shouldn't be judged that way.

In one table

Frequently asked questions

Is Go!Go!Curry spicy? No, not by default. There's a spicy option on the wall menu, but by Thai or Indian standards it's mild.

Can I eat there without speaking Japanese? Yes. Pay the machine, take the ticket, hand it over, sit down — no Japanese required.

Is it halal or vegetarian friendly? No. The roux is meat-based and every topping is meat or seafood.

How is this different from CoCo Ichibanya? CoCo Ichibanya lets you customise spice and portion across a long menu with a lighter sauce. Go!Go!Curry is one house style, darker and thicker, on metal.

Can we eat here on a tour? Yes, and we sometimes do — it's fast, which matters between stops. Tell me in advance if anyone doesn't eat meat and I'll pick somewhere else.

Sources and honesty note

Prices and menu items are transcribed from photos I took inside the shop on 1 August 2026. Address and hours come from Go!Go!Curry's own store page; the Matsui connection comes from the company's corporate site. I could not confirm whether this branch has gone cashless since its listing was last updated, so the article says to bring cash.

No affiliate links here. I eat here because it's near where I work.

About the author. I am Yuuki, an anime tour guide based in Akihabara. I run private anime tours in English most weeks, and I have watched over 1,500 anime series, which is either a qualification or a warning depending on your point of view.

See the Akihabara anime tour →

Sources: Japan National Tourism Organization, Delicious Japan — Hokuriku / Tokai, which describes Kanazawa curry as thick, heavy curry over rice, slightly sweet, garnished with shredded cabbage; Go!Go!Curry, Akihabara Store No. 1 — official store page.