Indian Restaurant Anjuna

Takahatafudo Station (connected to the Keio Line, the Keio Dobutsuen Line and the Tama Monorail), located about a 50-minute train ride from Shinjuku, is a place that can often become crowded with people on their way to or from Takahatafudoson Kongoji Temple. Less than a one minute walk from the station – a stone’s throw away from the tracks to the west – you’ll find Anjuna, an Indian restaurant that celebrated its tenth anniversary on April 25, 2010. The owner, Masaki Fujii, a man with extensive culinary experience (including a stint at Ajanta, a popular Indian restaurant in Kojimachi, and eight years as a chef at Chandu, located inside Hilton Tokyo Bay hotel), operates the restaurant under the guiding principle of creating Indian cuisine that can be enjoyed by everyone – even infants. The menu, which tends to centre on South Indian fare (which is well received in Japan), includes over twenty-five different varieties of curry and a variety of tandoori cuisine. A particular favourite here is the restaurant’s ‘A-Set’ dinner course, which, in addition to a keema curry and a chicken curry that comes complete with chicken on the bone, also includes a portion of tandoori chicken and a sheek kebab. The chicken curry, made from simmered down spices, chicken stock and onions, is especially smooth and goes great with rice. Rather than ground spices, this particular curry is made with whole spices, resulting in a blend that, although spicy, has no unpleasant or lingering hot aftertaste. Contrasting the spiciness of the chicken curry is the mild, subdued flavour of the green pea and minced chicken keema curry, which, along with its own mixture of mild-spices, has a wonderful chickeny flavour. Plus, the tandoori chicken, which has been charcoal-grilled at a temperature of approximately 400 degrees, is both juicy and full of flavour.

Anjuna's owner opened the adjoining restaurant, Chappora, in February 2010 and offers a varied mix of international cuisine in the same tradition of quality as its sister restaurant.