Dinner
Hurry Curry vs. Curry House
On Sawtelle in West LA there are two opposing Japanese Curry joints, Hurry Curry of Tokyoand Curry House. Hurry Curry was the first place where I was introduced to the joy of curry sauce poured over spaghetti. Curry House offers the same dish of various curry concoctions that are served in a bowl to be ladeled over noodles by the diner.
To make a fair comparison, I ordered essentially the same dish at each restaurant, chicken katsu (breaded cutlet) with spicy curry over spaghetti. The presentation at both places is similar, a plate of unsauced spaghetti served with a bowl of steaming curry roux on the side. The presentation at Hurry Curry tends to be a bit nicer, with some extra veggies on the noodles and the chicken is cut into pieces and placed around the rim of the plate.
When you order your curry, you are asked what level of spice you would like, from mild to spicy. Neither Hurry Curry or Curry House offer anything close to the spice packed in Indian curries. Curry House can barely call even their hottest curry “spicy”, it is very mild. Hurry Curry does have a subtle spice to their curry, but if you’re looking for heat, you really have to ask them to crank it up.
Both places serve standard Japanese beers and Hurry Curry serves some creative sake drinks if you are interested in that type of coctail. I tend to think that Sapporo and curry were meant for each other, so I do not stray from that combo.
Parking on Sawtelle is typically tight. The small center that Hurry Curry is in has complimentary valet parking (they just ask for tips) and in Curry House’s building there is underground parking, which sometimes they charge for and sometimes they don’t.
For larger parties, Curry House is more accomodating, the restaurant is bigger and they have some larger tables. Hurry Curry is smaller and they are willing to move tables to seat larger parties. Overall service I have found to be better at Hurry Curry, with friendlier and more attentive servers.
In the end, I tip the scale towards Hurry Curry. The prices are nearly identical between the two, the menus are similar, but I like the quality of the food and service better at Hurry Curry.
Hurry Curry
2131 Sawtelle Blvd.
West Los Angeles
California 90025
Curry House
2130 S. Sawtelle Blvd. #200
Los Angeles, CA 90025
tel. (310) 479-8477
(you can see from the addresses how close the two are)
By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.
Discussion
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i agree with you, hurry curry has better japanese-style curry. since i’m a japanese who grew up eating curry (over rice, not on spaghetti - i guess i’m more of a traditionalist than you), here’s my 2 cents for all that’s worth…curry house is owned by house curry company, and thus their curries tasted identical to boxed house curries sold in any japanese market. hurry curry’s roux has more complex flavor, with plenty of grilled onions and maybe a hint of apple, and i can tell it’s homemade, not store-bought. i’m a bit disappointed in hurry curry’s presentation after they changed owners recently, though - i had to ask for condiments, and the fish cutlets were a bit tougher than i remember. go for curry house only if you have a crowd who can’t make up their minds about what kind of japanese food to eat (since curry house do have a good range of selection), otherwise go hurry curry!
Just went to Hurry Curry last week. It was good. I like the place just next door, too, Little Hong Kong, I think? I have been pleased with everywhere I’ve eaten in that minimall.
I agree, there are a lot of good finds in that mini mall. I have eaten at Little Hong Kong multiple times, mostly for takeout when I am in a hurry. I find the service there to be incredibly freindly, I believe that the owner is in there quite a bit and is quick to help out when it gets busy.
I looooove Hurry Curry! :)
One of the company’s missions for curry at Curry House is “Adapting Japanese recipes to American palates”. So if its not spicy for you, it because they want to introduce it to bland American taste buds. Take your wary curry-virgin buddies to CH and then move them onto better restaurants.
Even though I’ve only been to Hurry Curry about 3 times and Curry House more than 10 times, I for some reason like Curry House a lot better. I can’t really put my finger on it but I think that the servings are larger (more Americanized) at Curry House than Hurry Curry. I love eating very spicy food and it’s true that both of their “spicy” curry is pretty weak. They are trying to infuse it with American standards so that’s why Curry House is not so “really really spicy”. Plus once a year Curry House has these “lucky bags” which are $20, but they contain a $20 gift certificate and free coupons for their off the hook salad dressing and discounted coupons on misc. asian foods found at the markets (tofu). Everyone knows that parking sucks in the Hurry Curry parking lot too. By the way, I’m almost done finishing up my Chicken Katsu Curry (spicy) and I’m quite satisfied.
Omg, I miss Hurry curry, I used to go there all the time but since I moved to Palo Alto I’m missing out–does anyone have a similar recipe to hurry curry?
Ok.. I frequent these two restaurants probably 3 or 4 times a week, and I alternate between them. I moved to Vegas a year ago and was really missing it. There’s no japanese curry there. Now I’m back in LA on business for only a few months, and I’m there almost daily.
For the curry flavor, Hurry Curry is better. But Curry House has some other nice entres (such as Steak Ju). And I alternate to mix it up.
Other noteworthy things is that Curry House has a location in downtown LA and several other cities (one in O.C.) and Hurry Curry has one in Pasadena.
PLEASE! - One of these two restaurants - Please open a location in Henderson, NV!!!!!