So I figured it was about time that I wrote another post about Japan. Mainly because it was only a month ago and it feels like a distant memory that I get depressed about when I think of. As I said in a previous post, it was so absolutely amazing. If you ever get the chance, you absolutely need to go there, no questions asked! It is such a different place, and full of the most amazing culture I think I’ve ever experienced. I don’t know if you can fully understand how different, and amazing, it is until you go and visit. And this is no different when it comes to their food.

When think about what to write about the food in Japan, I don’t even know where to start. There was so much that we tried that was so different to any food that I’ve ever had here, I don’t even know where to begin! Not only is the food so different to the food I’ve had anywhere else (also the language barrier made it a little interesting), it was also so different to any Japanese food I’ve tried in Australia, in a very good way. You could walk into the smallest little restaurant and have the meal of your life, it was just that sort of place!

This is so true of one of the foods we sampled a lot while we were there. When we decided to go to Japan together, my partner said that if we were going to Osaka, we had to try the okonomiyaki. It is one of his favourite Japanese foods, and Osaka is where it was invented. I have to say, I didn’t really see the appeal of this before I left. It is basically a Japanese pancake, which they make out of cabbage and flour and some other ingredients (excuse my ignorance, this is what I knew before going to Japan), pour some sauce and mayo over the top and voila! You have a dish that belongs at a market stall, not a restaurant. So I was a little hesitant to try it in Australia, and not too excited about it in Japan.

But when we got there, my eyes were opened. It is genuinely a dish over in Japan, one which they serve in many of the restaurants, and it is absolutely delicious. I don’t know why it is so different, all I can say is that I hadn’t really given it a chance until Japan, and after that I was absolutely hooked! But the best thing about it is that there are so many different types! Where once I thought there was one standard of Okonomiyaki, I soon realised that each region we went to had a different one that we could sample, and sample we did. So I thought it would be good to do a little wrap up and go through the different types that we tried, where we tried them, and what we thought of the ones that we tried. I will preface this by saying that we are not experts, we are just going on what we felt at the time. But hopefully this helps to broaden your understanding of the Okonomiyaki world of Japan.

The first style: Osaka Okonomiyaki

So Okonomiyaki was actually invented in Osaka, so we were pretty excited to try it here. Actually, between okonomiyaka and takoyaki, both of which originated here, my partner’s meals were set for the 4 nights we spent there. While we were in Osaka we tried as much okonomiyaki as we could in order to get the full experience.

Osaka okonomiyaki is the one that you are probably the most familiar with. It is the traditional pancake version where you get a giant flour and cabbage ball of goodness, usually with the filling of your choice. They cook it for you and bring it to you to remain heated on the grill while you eat it. You often add your own sauce, mayonaise and other condiments to your liking once it is at your table.

I found this style of Okonomiyaki to probably be my favourite. Although it wasn’t super filling, it was definitely enough to leave me satisfied. It was absolutely delicious with all the fillings, and the perfect amount of food. It also tasted the most familiar as this is usually the style you get in Australia.

If you are looking for a great version of the Osaka okonomiyaki, look no further than Kiji. You’ll find it in the bottom of the Umeda sky building in this little area of restaurants that is designed like an old street. There are plenty of great food options here so even if Okonomiyaki isn’t your thing it’s still worth a visit!

It’s hard to find Kiji as there are no english signs, but you can ask the stall holders and they will send you in the right direction. We also looked it up on TripAdvisor and found a picture of the door which has a distinctive red curtain. It is a tiny restaurant and you will probably have to wait, but it is well worth it! The menu has no english on it, but the chefs will help you by letting you know the flavours. After all the effort and confusion, when our Okonomiyaki arrived, it was absolutely delicious. It was the best okonomiyaki I’ve ever had, and the experience really added to it. It was the perfect size and sauce to pancake ratio, and I really cannot fault it! I loved the pork one, but the vegetarian one was surprisingly good as well, as was the beef. This is truly the most authentic okonomiyaki experience, especially as this was what they were known best for.

Hiroshima Okonomiyaki

The next place that we tried okonomiyaki was Hiroshima. We had just arrived and dropped our bags at our apartment, and headed back to the station to go to the peace park. Hiroshima station had a lot of choice when it came to food options, and unlike other food courts in Japan where there were a lot of sit down restaurants, there were a whole heap of restaurants with a couple of seats around the hot plate. When we looked closer we realized that these were okonomiyaki restaurants, but not like any we’d tried in Osaka! So we decided, for research of course, that we needed to grab a seat.

So I’m only going off my initial reaction, but Hiroshima okonomiyaki does seem to involve a lot more steps than the original Osaka kind. This may have just been because we were actually seated at the grill whereas everywhere else we didn’t see the okonomiyaki process, but it does seem to have a lot more ingredients. The main difference I found was that instead of it being one giant pancake, it is comprised of a crepe on the bottom, then noodles and toppings, and an egg cracked over the top. If you’re looking for something more filling than the traditional okonomiyaki, this is your ticket. It was a pretty serious process though, they had someone in the kitchen for every step: one for the crepe, one for the toppings, one for the noodles and one for the eggs and putting it all together. It was like a beautiful assembly line of deliciousness, and at the end you got a steaming hot plate of tasty okonomiyaki.

Although it is quite a process to prepare, the time spent making these is well worth it for the dish you get at the end. The flavours are absolutely delicious, especially because the noodles go all crunchy on the grill. You can get whatever toppings you want, and they have the usual okonomiyaki sauce and mayo, so still that classic flavour!

I think I still preferred the traditional okonomiyaki, but this was definitely a close second. It was a lot more filling, and really fun to watch it getting prepared. To try out Hiroshima okonomiyaki, I think your best bet is anywhere in Hiroshima station. There are plenty of options available, and all seemed to have a huge line at lunch time. It moves really quickly though, so just pick a line and prepare to be fed!

Kyoto Okonomiyaki

The final style of okonomiyaki that we tried was the Kyoto style. You can get either one that’s similar to the osaka style like a thick pancake, or one which is thinner like the Hiroshima style but without the noodles. The only difference is that it uses scallions instead of cabbage. They were also a bit thinner, and didn’t seem to use as much batter. My partner was a little skeptical when he first read that this was the difference, and really wasn’t sure if he wanted to try it. However, the okonomiyaki was calling and so we marched ourselves down to the highest rated okonomiyaki place in Kyoto: Donguri.

Donguri was a little difficult to find. It’s in the main shopping area of Kyoto, near the Teramachi shopping mall and department stores. We walked past it a couple of times because it’s down some stairs and a little bit tucked away, but we found the sign in the end and were seated really quickly. Each seating area has its own grill plate and a little private booth area, and there were plenty of options on the menu so you could have food other than okonomiyaki (the restaurant is really well known for its lotus roots with prawn). They also do an awesome dessert with black sesame ice cream which my partner went nuts for, so make sure you leave some room if you can!

Probably my least favourite okonomiyaki was the Kyoto style. I didn’t really enjoy the texture as much, and it wasn’t really anything that jumped out as being really unique or unusual. The okonomiyaki itself was a lot thinner than the Osaka variety, and full of scallions which have a much stronger flavour than the cabbage counterpart. That being said, it was still a tasty dish on its own, I just probably preferred the Osaka style. I also found it wasn’t a very big meal so you really needed extras to fill you up over dinner time.

Donguri had delicious food, and even though it was a little touristy, it was a great place to go to try out okonomiyaki. It was also really well priced, so you didn’t need to worry about ordering sides to fill you up! If you’re looking for a cheap meal in Kyoto (I found the food here to be a bit pricier, perhaps this was just where we were staying) then I’d highly recommend this place.

Honourable mention: Our Tokyo Okonomiyaki experience

I wanted to mention one other place that we tried, although we didn’t necessarily try a different style. When we were in Asakusa, a beautiful area of Tokyo with all these streets full of market stalls and restaurants, we found a little restaurant tucked away that seemed to do okonomiyaki called Asakusa Monja. It was a tiny restaurant with an upstairs, and there were barely any tourists, but they had a basic english menu that we ordered off. We then realised that, unlike what we were used to when it came to okonomiyaki where the dish is served cooked on your grill, this restaurant was a make your own okonomiyaki restaurant.

So the ingredients for our chosen okonomiyakis were brought to our table, and the waitress explained as best she could how to make it and off we went. Basically the batter was already prepared and you got a bowl with all the ingredients that you mixed together with egg and poured onto the grill. So although you didn’t prepare the food, you got to do the cooking part! It was actually the most fun okonomiyaki experience we had the whole trip because it was so hands on. The only problem was the waiting because it smelt so delicious while it cooked!

If you are looking for a different experience in Tokyo and want to try okonomiyaki I would look no further than this was restaurant. It was really fun and the okonomiyaki was awesome!

So there you have my okonomiyaki wrap up. We really did do a grand tour of Japan’s okonomiyaki, and it was awesome trying all the different styles and seeing how they were different. I think the original Osaka style is still my favourite, but it was good to try things that you can’t really get in Australia as well. I hope this list helps you if you decide to take your own okonomiyaki pilgrimage across Japan!

Until next time, happy eating!

Ella xx