Okonomiyaki

お好み焼き

Osaka's cabbage pancake — flour, dashi, a pile of cabbage, and whatever you like, finished with sauce and mayo.

Recipe by I Want Some Food · Reviewed by the editorial kitchen. Native name preserved: お好み焼き.

0 people cooked this in the public kitchen yet. Kitchen-tested by I Want Some Food. Not a purchased rating.

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Measurement system
Prep
20 min
Cook
15 min
Total
35 min
Difficulty
Medium
Spice
No chilli
Cost
Cheap nightUnder $8 USD · indicative, not a store price
Source photograph of Okonomiyaki. Not official I Want Some Food pixel artwork.
Photo: ume-y via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 2.0. Source

About

Okonomiyaki means grill what you like. The Osaka style is a cabbage-heavy batter, cooked like a thick pancake, layered with pork belly if you want it, and painted with a Worcester-ish sauce, mayo, and katsuobushi that dances. This is that pancake, not the Hiroshima layered noodle mountain.

Ingredients

Ingredients

Sauce

Scaling multiplies the written quantities. Baking still prefers a scale.

Steps

  1. Step 1

    Mix flour, egg and dashi to a thick batter. Fold in cabbage and spring onion. It should look like too much cabbage. That is correct.

    5 min
  2. Step 2

    Heat oil in a pan. Spread half the batter into a thick round. Lay pork on top if using. Cook 4–5 minutes, flip carefully, and cook until the centre is set.

    12 min
  3. Step 3

    Stir soy, sugar and ketchup into a shiny sauce. Paint the pancake, zigzag mayo, shower katsuobushi. Repeat with the rest.

Adapt this recipe

The canonical recipe stays intact. Personal versions are labelled. Serving changes are maths, not AI.

Adaptations · 0 / 15 used. Resets 24 August.

Substitutions

  • Pork Prawns or just cabbage

    Vegetarian bowls skip the flakes too if you need them to.

Tips

  • Tenkasu (tempura scraps) in the batter is the shop crunch.
  • A lid for 2 minutes helps the middle cook without burning the face.

History & culture

Osaka home tables and teppan restaurants. Kids pick toppings. The sauce is as important as the cabbage.

Savoury pancakes have older cousins. The modern okonomiyaki is postwar Osaka, flour and cabbage when meat was short.

Regional variation — Osaka style: mixed batter. Hiroshima style layers noodles. We are writing Osaka.

Provenance: Editorial adaptation. Original editorial adaptation for I Want Some Food. Not copied from another recipe site. Official recipe photography is pending. Photograph: ume-y via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Okonomiyaki%20001.jpg

Questions about this recipe

Answers taken from this dish's times, amounts, swaps and tips — not a chatbot.

How long does Okonomiyaki take?

35 min all in — 20 min prep, 15 min cook. That is the time on this recipe, not a guess.

How many does it serve?

The recipe is written for 2 pancakes. Scale the ingredient list on the page if you are cooking for a different number.

How hard is it?

Medium.

How spicy is it?

No chilli.

What allergens should I watch?

This recipe is labelled for Wheat, Eggs, Fish. Labels are informational — check the packets in your kitchen. This is not medical advice.

Does it fit a diet?

The published recipe is labelled Dairy-free, Nut-free.

What does it cost to cook?

Cheap night — about Under $8 USD, as a grocery budget for this recipe, not a restaurant price.

What equipment do I need?

Frying pan, Mixing bowl.

How much salt do I put in?

This recipe does not list salt as its own ingredient. Saltiness comes from Soy sauce — 2 tbsp. Taste at the end rather than adding a number we did not write.

How much soy sauce?

2 tbsp of Soy sauce.

How much sugar?

1 tbsp of Sugar.

What can I use instead?

Pork → Prawns or just cabbage. Vegetarian bowls skip the flakes too if you need them to.

Any tips from this recipe?

Tenkasu (tempura scraps) in the batter is the shop crunch. A lid for 2 minutes helps the middle cook without burning the face.

Can I use an air fryer?

This method is not written for an air fryer. The core technique on the page still applies.

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