Listed in Michelin Guide Tokyo 2020 Bib Gulman.
Dharmasagara is a restaurant located in Fukuoka, the capital city of Kyushu area. Although the city is the biggest in the region, still many Muslims find it difficult to reach great Halal food in the city.
However, this does not apply to Dharmasagara! The restaurant was located in Ginza, Tokyo and has relocated its restaurant in 2021 to the city called Kurume, a city next to Fukuoka.
What tells us is that their food quality is one of the bests in Japan, from the fact that their restaurant was chosen by Michelin Guide Tokyo for 5 consecutive years!
What is special about Dharmasagara?
There are so many nice Indian restaurants in Japan, but there is a secret why Dharmasagara is considered as one of the bests.
The restaurant was one of the very first South Indian style restaurant. As many of you may know, South Indian curry can be runnier than thick and rich curry in Northern part of the country, to be enjoyed even during intense summer heat.
This characteristic was highly appreciated in Japan, because Japanese food is also specialized in healthy and non-oily food.
They also focus on their ingredients. They have their own farm to grow tasty and reliable vegetables. They do not use any pesticides to grow their vegetables.
There is no need to wonder if the food is Halal or not….because they are certified by Japan Halal Foundation, and their food is not only limited to Halal and vegetarian, but also gluten-free and vegan!
All of the chefs at Dharmasagara are from South India, and they try to serve home-style food, meaning they try their best to serve healthy food to their customers just like their mothers do.

How is their food?
As mentioned earlier, the curry at Dharmasagara features in natural and non-oily flavors. This sometimes makes it more difficult for the chefs to serve food that satisfies customers, because they cannot cheat customers with oil or butter.
We had an opportunity to try their lamb and chicken curry. Once we had a soup, we could tell that the curry is different from what we know -the curry from North India, because it has no thickness at all. Instead, the soup has strong Umami from the Halal meat.

But it does not mean the curry has no spiciness. It actually has so much flavor from pepper, which after all let us feel the hotness of the curry.
We could tell that the food is carefully prepared. Spice, vegetable, meat and its broth are perfectly cooked and stewed, even those who cannot eat hard food or with digest problem can enjoy this dish.
Details of the restaurant
Name: Dharmasagara
Genre: South Indian
Address: 3-83 Ishigaki, Tanushi marumachi, Kurume, Fukuoka 839-1212 福岡県久留米市田主丸町石垣83-3
Tel: 0943-72-5533

The restaurant even has online shopping, and they can deliver their food throughout Japan. The food is delivered frozen and just needs reheating in the microwave.