When it comes to taiyaki, you can find numerous places throughout Japan. But one of the popular restaurants specializing in kurikoan style taiyaki is Kurikoan.
Made from soft, fluffy pancake-liked batter put in a mold with filling and baked in the shape of a fish, the restaurants serve kurikoan that changes with the season and each shop sells limited items.
Standards are fillings with red bean, premium cream, kurikoan (chestnuts and red beak) and depending on the season, you can try purple yam, cherry blossom, pumpkin, sweet peach, green tea, etc.
And on the day they are selling taiyaki, they focus on the primary six varieties.
I went to the Kurikoan in Kichijoji and the taiyaki at Kurikoan is inexpensive.
The red beans taiyaki (Ogura utilizing 100% red bean from Hokkaido) is Y176, the custard taiyaki is Y206, the chestnut & redbeans (Kuriko An using Hokkaido Azuki) is Y187, the purple sweet potato bean paste is Y154, cornflakes soybean flour taiyaki is Y185 and a premium cream (cream custard made of Hokkaido Milk) version is Y154.
While I was there, they were selling Pokemon Koikingu (Magikarp) version of their red beans, custard and milk chocolate. There was also a special sakusaku medley where they sold Sakusaku Chocolate, SakuSaku Ichigo (strawberry) and Sakusakukinako (roasted soybean cream) version.
I decided to go with the purple sweet potato bean paste taiyaki and I also got a Pokemon Koikingu custard version and it was quite delicious.
For those wanting to grab some taiyaki, you can also pay via Suica and Pasmo.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience at the Kurikoan. It’s a really cool place to visit because most taiyaki stands tend to focus on three flavors, whereas Kurikoan has nearly 120 varieties where they have the main six standards but then they offer limited edition versions each time. So, if you visit every two weeks or every month, your sure to find something new or different.
If you are ever wanting delicious taiyaki, definitely give kurikoan a try!
