Okonomiyaki is an iconic Japanese street food savoury pancake. Who would not like it? Loaded with heaps of shredded cabbage and scallions, topped with protein of your choice, and sizzling delicious Okonomiyaki sauce?
What is Okonomiyaki?
You may already know what it is. This is for those who are new to Japanese cuisine. It is simply a Japanese savoury pancake made primarily from shredded cabbage, flour, eggs and water. Some call it Japanese pizza.
Also it is a very versatile dish that has many adaptations and various topping options. That is why it gets the name Okonomiyaki. “Okonomi” meaning “what you like” and “yaki” meaning grilled as I explained in my post, Understanding Japanese food terms.
Styles of Okonomiyaki
In Japan, the batter and toppings will differ from region to region, but the three main styles are Kansai or Osaka, Hiroshima, and Tokyo. My favourite is the Kansai style because that’s the area I grew up in. It is also the main version of Okonomiyaki and the most common around Japan; and most likely the kind that you see in Japanese restaurants in your city.
Characteristics of Osaka style
The difference of Osaka style recipe is that the shredded cabbage and green onion are mixed and folded into the batter unlike Hiroshima style recipe in which the ingredients are fried in layers. Also, the Osaka style has a larger portion of shredded cabbage than Hiroshima style.
Shredded cabbage
Because the Osaka style has more cabbage and it is mixed into the batter, the way you shred it and the size of the cabbage is quite important. If not done properly, the cabbage would become soggy during cooking. When cooked through it still will have the crispness of cabbage. So it needs to be shredded about 3cm (1.2inch) long in length.
Toppings
The most common topping of Osaka style is thin pork-belly strips which is called “Buta-dama”. However as the name suggests, you can put whatever you like. I often cook this with my students (learning Japanese) in my Japanese class and ask them to bring toppings they like. Some brought a piece of bacon which was a fresh idea for me and it was delicious.
Garnishes
Usually we garnish with red Pickled Ginger
The Okonomiyaki Batter
Now you can make the batter from scratch, or you can also purchase Okonomiyaki savoury pancake premix. Because it is so convenient and easy to use, I often use a premix. It already contains dashi stock powder and baking powder so what you need to do is just add egg and water.
Okonomiyaki Sauce
I usually use store bought Okonomiyaki sauce as they are readily available in Japan like soy sauce. My favourite brand is “Otafuku”. If you can not get any okonomiyaki sauce, I included it in my online shop or you can mix 2tbs tomato sauce, 2tbs worcestershire sauce, 1tsp oyster sauce, and 1tsp honey or maple syrup all together.
Special ingredients: Tenkasu
Tenkasu is a Tempura byproduct. Tenkasu 
But What if I Don’t Have a Teppan?
No problem. Although it may be the best way to cook Okonomiyaki on a big steel plate called “Teppan” just like the one you see at street food markets, you don’t need to own a teppan. You can flip the pancake on your frying pan or use a BBQ if your BBQ has a flat cook surface. I bought a Grill Pan 
Useful tools
Oh, and if you have Wide egg flippers
Osaka Okonomiyaki is a great dish to make with your family and friends if you have a hot plate because you can all cook your Osaka style Okonomiyaki together at the same time and have fun adding different toppings. Hope you enjoy!!
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Osaka Okonomiyaki 大阪風お好み焼き
Video
Ingredients
- 200 ml water
- 1 tsp konbu dashi stock powder
- 160 g plain flour
- 4 egg
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp sugar
- 480 g finely chopped cabbage
- 40 g chopped green shallot
- 40 g Tenkasu
- 160 g thinly sliced pork
- bonito flake to garnish
- pickled ginger to garnish
- Aonori to garnish
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 1/4 cup okonomiyaki sauce
Instructions
- Dissolve the dashi powder into the water to make the dashi stock.
- Place the flour in a large bowl and add salt, sugar, and pour the dashi stock in to mix. Set aside.
- Divide the chopped cabbage, green shallots, and tenkasu into 4 small mixing bowls.
- Add one egg each and 1/4 of flour and dashi mixture to each bowl.
- Mix them well together with a fork.
- Heat cooking plate to 200 degrees and pour the cabbage mixture onto the cooking plate to spread approximately 2cm thickness.
- Place the thinly sliced pork and bonito flake on top of the cabbage mixture.
- When the edge of the okonomiyaki has become firm and cooked, flip it over with two egg flippers.
- Put the lid on and steam grill for a few minutes.
- Turn the okonomiyaki over one more time to check whether the meat is cooked.
- Brush the okonomiyaki with Okonomiyaki sauce and garnish with pickled ginger, more bonito and sprinkle aonori to serve.
Notes
Nutrition
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The okonomiyaki is so yummy !!! It’s crispy yet moist in the inside with the cabbage . Made my own dashi with kombu and katsuobushi brought from Japan that makes it even more delicious <3 thankyou for this recipe. It is now saved in my signature recipes.
Thank you Rebecca 😀
Delicious and easy to make. Instead of any meat topping, I pan fried salmon fillets as an accompaniment. I used chicken stock as that is what I had in my pantry which gave a different but still tasted delicious. I froze our 2 leftovers and look forward to having them at a later date.
Thank you for sharing this recipe!
You are welcome, I am glad you liked it.
No nagaimo?
Hi Jd, the reason I did not add nagaimo in the recipe is that nagaimo is a difficult to get ingredient if you are not living in Japan. I have not find any shop that I can get it regularly in Australia. Though I wanted to share the recipe that we can still make delicious Okonomiyaki without it. If you can get nagaimo where you live, that is great, just add nagaimo and make okonomiyaki tasiter 😀
I love your Okonomiyaki recipe. I had a hard time finding the right ingredients in my hometown in Germany, so I ordered them online. It was worth every penny. I enjoy the japanese cuisine so much, sadly there are not many restaurants which serve traditional japanese food like Okonmiyaki here, so we have to help ourselves. Next I want to try your authentic Gyoza recipe, are the chinese chives necessary? I can’t get them around here. Best regards, Edo
Hi Edo, yay from Germany. I love Germany:D I am glad you liked my Okonomiyaki recipe and making it in Germany! If you can’t find Chinese Chives can you get chives or garlic chives?
Firstly I like to express my admiration for your excellent website.
This recipe has been a great success.
Just one little question.Are your tablespoon measurements using the
Australian 20ml or the 15ml version?
Hi Andreas, Thank you. I did not know there is 20ml tbsp exist!? My tbsp is 15ml 😀
I’m looking forward to making this. If I were to go to a Japanese market, what brand of savory pancake mix would I ask for? Thanks in advance!
The flour you need is called “Okonomiyaki-ko” 😀
I don’t have tenkasu. Can I just omit that?
Hi Cath, yes you can.
Thank you! ❤️
You are welcome Cath 😀
Hi. Thank you for the recipe
This is my fav meal.. I want to try this recipe
If i didn’t have the worcestershire sauce, can i substitute it with something else?
Thank you so much
Hi Tania, you can replace with soy sauce 😀 Do you have soy sauce? See this post too Japanese food substitution.
Thank you for the recipe, especially being in English haha! I lived in the Osaka area for a while so I love to reminisce with it’s yummy food! I did run into a problem because I’m American and didn’t know that the 200 degrees to cook it on was Celsius… I guess I should have questioned that when I saw that it was measured in grams. My batter was too liquidy and fell to the bottom of the pancake but I’m sure that was a mistake on my end. Thank you:)
Hi Ginger, lucky you lived in Osaka. I am from Shirahama, Wakayama prefecture so I love Osaka and often go there. Anyway, I have been trying to change all the measurement for US readers as the majority of Chopstick Chronicles readers are from US. 200°C is equivalent to 390°F 😀 Thank you for reading Chopstick Chronicles 😀
Hi Shihoko,
Made it today and it came out DELICIOUS! I added chopped dried shrimp and spinach to the batter. I also used the Okonomiyaki flour but still added dashi stock instead of just water.
Thank you for the recipe!
You are welcome 😀 Thank you for your lovely comment and 5 star rating!
The version I love from restaurant had mochi as an ingredient. I have a package of hard round mochi discs. Can this be used? If so, how do I prepare and add to the pancake?
Hi Valerie, you need to chop up the mochi into small chunk and when you pour the Okonomiyaki onto the frying pan or hotplate, top with the mochi chunk to cook, same as other toppings 😀
This okonomiyaki was delicious! 5 out of 5! I think logically it was difficult to understand why you need to make it in four different bowls, rather than one massive bowl and from this, cook four portions? I did this, and they came out perfectly. I especially like the tips for the okonomi sauce, which is really a great all round savoury sauce. I used pointed cabbage and the flavour was so light and sumptuous. Will definitely be making this again
Hi Tica, You can mix them all together like you did. That’s how Okonomiykai cooked when you go to fry your own Okonomiyaki shop and I like that way 😀
Help, how many grams of okonomiyaki premix should i use if i want to make one okonomiyaki? Your instructions only talk about making the batter from scratch and not the premix.
Hi Michelle, if you have pre mixed package, you need to follow the direction on the packet you bought. Main difference is the pre mix has already dashi in it. So you need to replace dashi with water. Amount of liquid you need will not be much different. HOver over the serving number in the recipe card and slide the scale left or right to change the serving number. Hope this help, if you have more questions, please don’t hesitate to ask 😀
Great flavor, very much like the one I had in Osaka. Only had ground pork on hand byt it worked beautifully. Cooked it for 3 minutes per side and was completely done on the inside. Served along with miso soup to complete our meal. Very filling! Thank you for sharing this recipe. Will try Hiroshima Okonomiyaki next.
Fantastic! It does not matter what you have, Okonomi means whatever you like 😀 Yes Try Hiroshima Okonomiyaki, you will love it.
So good, and (important for me) so easy! I made this using your dashi broth recipe, the okonomiyaki sauce recipe you suggested (just couldn’t bring myself to buy the pre-made kind with all that corn syrup) and some shrimp and it was like a little dinner time trip to Japan, enjoying delicious okonomiyaki and looking out my dining room window at the cherry blossoms blooming early in my neighbor’s yard. Thank you so much Shihoko for sharing your wonderful recipes. I’m so jealous of your students who get to learn Japanese AND cook with you — what fun 🙂
Hi Elizabeth 😀 Thank you for your lovely comment and 5 star rating 😀
Coming back 4 years later to say I still love this recipe and your website in general 🙂 Thank you for all the wonderful info an cooking guidance! (Also wanted to let you know the link for picked ginger is broken now. Not an issue for me, since I live 3 blocks from a Japanese store, but for other folks who aren’t as lucky and want to make your excellent okonomiyaki recipe 🙂 )
Owwww Thank you so much Elizabeth <3 for the lovely comment and also about the link 😀
Thanks,We Love it.I make it twice a week now 🙂
You are welcome 😀
Your recipe does not include baking powder but the pre-mixed has baking powder. Why is this?
He Jeremy, because this is not premixed recipe and you don’t need baking powder.
We have to drive 45 minutes to eat okonomiyaki out. Thank you for this recipe! I didn’t have dashi powder, so mixed a little miso paste into the water. It worked fine. I used leftover pork.
YaY Daffodilady, no more 45 min drive 😀
Lacking most of the ingredients, but wishing to use my cabbage, I made a decent version of this recipe. No tuna (reminds me of cat food) so I shredded some king prawn. I had to make the sauces with oyster sauce, miso, Worcestershire sauce, fresh ginger, tamarind sauce, powdered ginger, powdered garlic, sslt & pepper. No tomato as it’s winter and we don’t maks tomato sauce unless it’s a chili sauce base so none in the cupboard. I also added diced red pepper and finely sliced celery to the cabbage. No seaweed either. We often have laver but not in January.
Turned out to be very tasty though. Next time I will source a few ingredients but this was a need to use a vegetable recipe. Plus it is a “do as you like recipe” as the name translates. I call my version Economy Okonomi.
Hi Edwin. Thank you for sharing your ideas. Sounds fantastic.
But there is no tuna in this recipe to begin with?
Amazing recipe. My hunny and I tried this for dinner tonight and it was absolutely delicious. Such a complex flavor profile, and the combination of the crispness of the bacon/outside of the batter combined with the moist inside was just heavenly. The kick of the pickled ginger in there and the sauces on top just made it sinful.
Thank you so much for posting this recipe online. I cannot praise it enough!
Wishing you the best from the west coast!
You are welcome Gaby and thank you for your kind and lovely words. I am glad that you and your partner loved the Okonomiyaki:D