AMIKA

Gentle Curry Dishes and Healthy Lunches
[published March 2020]

Amika, located in Ogikubo near the station, deals mainly in Japanese curry and lunch sets, but their specialty is a rare mix of two Japanese favorites: “Omu-rice” rice omelette and curry rice, creating the “omu-curry” dish. Essentially it is omu-rice with Japanese curry. Amika opened in 2012 from its predecessor Le Petale, a curry specialty shop founded in 1998.

Amika mainly serves a daily lunch special and take-out lunch. One must-try dish is the European-style beef curry and rice, which has been passed down from Le Petale. It’s a well-balanced daily lunch special with various vegetables. Dishes are cooked to be less salty and thus gentle on the stomach. The name “Amika” actually means “gentle” in Esperanto, the artificial language invented in 1887 as a means of international communication. The atmosphere of the shop is gentle as well, with its many fun illustrations on the walls, and a cheerful atmosphere that attracts female customers.

The Omu-curry, a soft and moist omelette covered with beef curry (800 yen), is Amika’s main specialty for a reason. Many customers visit the shop to taste the sweetness of the omelette in harmony with spicy curry. The beef for the curry is from Toraya, a local meat supplier in Nishi-Ogikubo. Bite-sized beef is cut from a big chunk and slowly stewed in red wine so that customers can enjoy the juice of the meat. There is also a hint of natural sweetness from caramelized minced onions in the slightly spicy curry. The dish has three toppings: deep-fried chicken, hamburger steak, and deep-fried pork. (150-300 yen)

Besides curry dishes, the shop has two sets meals: Daily Lunch Special and Healthy Lunch Set (600 yen each). These sets change per month, and the various combinations with the main dish and side dishes vary daily. These set meals are also available as a take-out bento box (550 yen), very popular among businessmen and housewives.

Particularly, the main dish in the Healthy Lunch Set is low in calories such as tofu hamburger steak or simmered yellowtail with Japanese radish, and it is designated as a healthy menu item in Suginami Ward.

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