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Best all-you-can-eat okonomiyaki in Japan? Restaurant chain serves up a feast for under $14

Oona McGee Nov 18, 2024
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There are good reasons why this is the largest okonomiyaki chain in Japan.

On the vast dining spectrum in Japan there are some dishes that appeal to a wide variety of tastes, and okonomiyaki is one of them. Made with a mixture of flour and eggs, this savoury pancake can contain all sorts of additional ingredients to suit the diner’s taste (“okonomi” translates as “how you like it” while “yaki” means “grilled”), and some of the best chains specialising in the dish have dozens of options on the menu.

Dohtonbori (pictured below) is Japan’s top okonomiyaki chain restaurant in terms of locations, and one of the reasons for its immense popularity is the fantastic all-you-can-eat courses.

▼ The grandest course gives you over 112 different dishes to choose from, all for just 3,500 yen (US$22.62).

If you’re looking for something a little cheaper, the chain has you covered there too, with the Casual Course giving you a 76-item menu for 2,800 yen and the Simple Course giving you a 35-item menu for 2,100 yen.

The time limit is two hours for all courses, and diners can only order more once they’ve finished everything on their plate. Our reporter Takuya Inaba didn’t have a lot of dough in his wallet when he visited, so he decided to try the Simple Course.

That still gave him a lot of dough for his dough, with the following 13 types of okonomiyaki to choose from: Squid & Egg, Prawn & Egg, Octopus & Egg, Pork & Egg, Beef Tendon, Seoul, Standard Mix, Mochi & Cheese, Spicy Pork Cheese, Squid King, Double Squid Kimchee & Egg, Garlic & Egg, and Corn Curry.

With this being his first time at the chain, Takuya decided to try the Standard Mix first, to get an idea of what the chain was about.

If you’ve never eaten out at an okonomiyaki restaurant before, it can be quite daunting as diners generally cook their own dishes on the griddle in front of them. You don’t have to worry here, though, as Dohtonbori has a set of instructions on how to grill yourself the perfect okonomiyaki.

Being a total amateur, Takuya was worried about whether he’d be able to make a delicious meal for himself, but he dutifully followed the instructions to first mix the ingredients well to incorporate air for a light and fluffy result, before adding oil to the grill and spreading the okonomiyaki ingredients over it to form a disc with a diameter of roughly 15 centimetres (6 inches).

After five minutes, he flipped it over with the spatula and waited another five minutes for it to cook on the other side. Then he flipped it over for a final five minutes, after which time he topped it with sauce, mayonnaise and green laver.

These cooking instructions worked like a charm because Takuya was able to create a super fluffy, delicious okonomiyaki. The blend of ingredients was incredibly tasty too, with the cabbage providing sweetness and the pork and squid working well to create a perfect harmony that didn’t overpower the flavour of the sauce.

▼ For his next dish, Takuya couldn’t resist trying a monjayaki.

This dish is particularly popular in Tokyo, acting as a rival in the savoury pancake world to the okonomiyaki, which hails from Osaka. It starts off similarly, with the ingredients served in a bowl that needs mixing…

▼ …but the grilling process, outlined below, is very different.

Whereas the okonomiyaki is flipped over several times to give it a well-cooked texture, the monjayaki is never flipped, instead being spread out thinly across the grill and eaten straight off the hot plate with small, metal spatulas.

Emboldened by his success with the okonomiyaki, Takuya followed the instructions to create a delicious Standard Monjayaki, spreading the ingredients on the grill and creating a hole in the middle, into which he poured the dashi stock.

The aroma of the stock rising up off the hot plate was absolutely divine, and when he tasted it, it was outstanding, with the flavour of the ingredients shining through in every mouthful.

Compared to the many okonomiyaki and monjayaki options, there wasn’t much to choose from on the side menu, but Takuya nabbed himself a Pork Yakisoba, which required his grilling skills once again…

▼ …and the Stir-fried Bean Sprouts, which also grilled up nicely.

Takuya was happy to forgive the relative lack of side dishes because he preferred to make up his money in okonomiyaki and monjayaki dishes, eating another four during the course of his meal.

Although he was initially concerned about getting his money’s worth with all the time it takes to grill each meal and eat it before ordering the next dish, he needn’t have worried because he got to enjoy half-a-dozen okonomiyaki and monjayaki dishes plus a couple of sides for 2,100 yen, or $13.57, which was a fantastic deal.

Aside from the amount of food he was able to enjoy at this price point, it was the quality of everything he tried that impressed him the most. If you love okonomiyaki or are keen to try it for the first time, Takuya highly recommends seeking out a Dohtonbori in Japan as it’ll easily become your new favourite chain. Plus, it might even inspire you to try it at home, in which case, this quick and easy recipe from Lawson will make you a maestro in the kitchen.

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