About Us - HIDEN CURRY "offering crafted, authentic Japanese Curry"

Hiden Japanese Curry Lab

An esoteric taste of Japanese culture

Hiden Japanese Curry Lab is the newly opened gourmet gem in Coal Drops Yard, offering crafted, authentic Japanese Curry in London.

Using only the freshest ingredients, Kitchen chefs prepare every single batch absolutely from scratch, with painstaking attention to details and our secret blend of spices.

Serving signature Beef Curry ,Vegan Curry and Chicken Mild Curry, we want to create an ever changing, surprising sweet, hot and savoury, rich browny sauce, rigorously served with rice and topped with in-house fermented garnish.

Designed around the quintessentially Japanese aesthetic sense of shibui, Hiden is a revised version of a traditional hole-in-the-whole speciality shop, with tiny space for a handful people to seat and the option for takeaway.

Curry

First introduced to Japan during the Meiji era (1868–1912) by the British, when India was under colonial rule, Western-style Indian curry was initially served to the Japanese Imperial Navy to prevent thiamine (vitamin B-1) deficiency.

Today, curry rice (カレーライス – pronounced karē raisu) is a national dish weekly prepared at home or eaten at the many curry restaurants and eateries that cluster the archipelago.

Other than the versions presented by Hiden Japanese Curry Lab, Japanese curry can be served as a soup with noodles (karē udon or karē ramen); stuffed in deep-fried bread buns (karē pan); as fried rice (dry curry, dorai karē); in a hot stone bowl similar to Korean bibimbap (ishiyaki karē); with crispy breaded pork or chicken cutlet (katsu karē).

Compared to the other Asian curries, the Japanese version is sweeter and – usually less hot. At Hiden, Chefs increased the level of spice-ness to adapt to the British taste.

Typically, the basic combination of curry rice consists in sautéed onions, carrots, potatoes and beef or pork and cooked in broth. But there are no stigmas to it.

The sauce is similar to a rich and thick demi-glace that’s woven with spices and earthy flavors.

When cooked at home, lots of households use pre-made curry roux moulded in cubes that melt once added to water. Many personalise the end result by adding different ingredients – like grated apple, honey, coffee, etc – to enhance the flavor and the complexity of the dish.