A note on the words: despite the name, Ethiopia is a Tokyo curry institution serving Indian-style spice curry, running since 1988 and famous in the Jimbocho district; the steamed potato served on arrival is its trademark otoshi (the small starter that comes with your seat). Achar is a spiced Indian-style pickle. Prices are as of this writing (August 2026).
Ethiopia Curry Kitchen, Takadanobaba on Tabelog (English) — opening hours, payment details and the Japanese address are kept up to date there, not here.
Drinkers, thank you for waiting. It is Hangover Meshi time.
What a day! On a night like that I want to eat something good before heading home — so I made a detour to Takadanobaba! “Ethiopia”, the famous curry house of Jimbocho and Ochanomizu, has a branch here too: “Ethiopia Curry Kitchen, Takadanobaba”! It is a fair walk from Takadanobaba Station.
Inside there are two or three tables for two, plus a counter.
This place is built for eating curry, not for settling in to drink!
Chicken curry — 1,050 yen
Beef curry — 1,050 yen
Vegetable curry — 1,100 yen
Prawn curry — 1,200 yen
The notice says you can choose a heat level anywhere from 0 to 70, but I simply asked for “hot” (which is 3). When they tell you that extra-hot is a “12” on that scale, it is a little frightening!
The first thing to arrive: a steamed potato!
It is not a place for a drinking session — but one bottle of beer, surely…!
While I was drinking, they brought over some achar as a snack! Delightful!
And there was one more thing I had ordered to drink alongside!
A raid on the side menu, purely for drinking purposes.
There was no photo of it anywhere, but the name alone conveys quite enough promise! Ethiopia takes the usual “tandoori chicken” and reworks it as a fried dish.
Chicken thoroughly worked over with tandoori spices, battered and fried crisp.
Bite in: the crunch of the coating, then the bright fragrance of tandoori masala rising from within, then a surge of chicken juices. Cumin, coriander, paprika and turmeric wind into the savour of the chicken — it is fried chicken, but the flavour is pure tandoori! There is no possible world in which this fails to suit beer!!!
And here is the beef curry. The royal road at Ethiopia! Hot, so a 3.
Oh, come on…
I asked for less rice and there is still a mountain of it!
Had I not said “less”, the outcome might have been truly extraordinary.
Well — let us eat!
In the mouth, first the medicinal-herb spices — clove, coriander, turmeric — rising softly, then the slow-simmered beef falling tenderly apart, and finally the savour of long-cooked vegetables arriving behind. The thin, flowing sauce soaks straight into the rice: delicious. The sauce alone is good, of course, but eaten with rice the whole thing climbs a grade! Each step of heat apparently adds one shake of cayenne. At “hot” that is three shakes — and the heat registers clearly.
There is a great deal of rice, so I ended up completely full — but it was delicious!
So — a bit of a walk from the station, but having Jimbocho’s superb spice curry within reach is a gift! A flavour running since 1988, the boiled-potato otoshi, the spicing, the clean edge of the heat — every part of it carries the composure of a house that has survived one of Tokyo’s toughest curry districts. The unexpected star was the tandoori fried chicken. If you are ordering a beer, order that alongside it! You will not regret it.
May you meet something good to eat today too.
Ethiopia Curry Kitchen, Takadanobaba (curry / Omokagebashi Station, Nishi-Waseda Station, Gakushuin-shita Station)
Tabelog dinner rating ★★★☆☆ 3.8
I ate here and paid for it myself. Nothing on this site is a comped meal.
