Takoyaki sauce is a sweet-savory brown sauce specifically for takoyaki. You can buy commercial brands or make it from scratch.
Takoyaki Sauce is used for takoyaki (AKA octopus Balls or octopus dumplings). It’s a sweet-savory sauce generously slathered over takoyaki, with a sprinkle of aonori seaweed, katsuobushi bonito flakes, and a side of beni shoga.
Table of contents
What Is Takoyaki Sauce
Takoyaki sauce is a sweet brown sauce that’s a must for takoyaki. Takoyaki is a Japanese street food seen at festivals and events and an Osaka specialty food cooked in a special takoyaki grill pan.
What Does It Taste Like
The sauce is sweet-savory and slightly thick to make it pourable.
How to Make Homemade Takoyaki Sauce
If you can’t find commercial varieties, you can make it with the condiments in your pantry. All you need is Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, mentsuyu, and sugar.
Recipes Using Takoyaki Sauce
Where To Buy
You can find it at Asian or Japanese grocery stores or even online, like Amazon.
Substitutions
You can swap it for yakisoba sauce, tonkatsu sauce, or okonomi sauce. The balance of sweet and savory flavors, ingredients, and viscosity slightly differ, but it won’t be a huge noticeable difference. Unless you plan to make huge batches of takoyaki in the future, it’s OK to substitute with other Japanese brown sauces.
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Hello Nami!
I just recently came back from my amazing trip to Japan and actually bought a bottle of Takoyaki sauce out of impulse, not really knowing what it was haha, when I got back home to Australia though I realised I can’t make takoyaki because I don’t own a cake pop / takoyaki maker .. so I was wondering what are some other ways I can use up my unopened bottle of takoyaki sauce? As a stir fry sauce perhaps? 🙂
Thank you for your amazing recipes by the way, they make me so nostalgic of my trip!
Hi Crystal! Takoyaki sauce is similar to Tonkatsu and Yakisoba sauce, so you can use it for those recipes, or I’d recommend to use for panko fried dishes such as Korokke (croquette), Ebi Fry (fried prawn), Chicken katsu, tonkatsu, etc etc.
I sometimes use it for fried rice too – only when I put katsu in the fried rice… so delicious. 😀
Thank you so much for reading my blog! I’m so glad to hear you enjoy it. 🙂
I am absolutely in LOVE with Japan. Their culture, music, style, and food!! I’m so happy I found your website!! I am only missing a way to get most of the ingredients to make these amazing dishes! My parents call me crazy to see their teenage daughter wanting takoyaki sauce or hon dashi for christmas or her birthday. To be honest, I haven’t even cooked one Japanese meal yet, but I really want to!!! Do you know a way I can order Japanese ingredients fast and easy?
Hi Tatiana! I’m happy to hear that you enjoy Japanese cultures, and that you found my site! I’m not sure where you live, but if you live in the US. There are some online Japanese stores that are available such as:
http://www.marukaiestore.com/
http://shop.mitsuwa.com/eng/eindex
http://www.asianfoodgrocer.com/
Hope this helps. 🙂
Hi 🙂 I have gone through a lot of your recipes and have felt very inspired to cook! You have a ton of awesome recipes as well, and I am very grateful for them I’ve always wanted to make my own Chuno sauce, especially for Takoyaki and Yakosoba.
On I wanted to leave a message also to ask if you can check the Takoyaki sauce recipe, you have T tbsp mentsuyu. I just thought I’d let you know in case there were other people who were interested. Thank you for a wonderful site!
Hi Emi! Thank you so much for your kind words and I’m so happy you’re inspired to cook Japanese food! 🙂
Thank you for letting me know. I actually worked on all the recipes for Tonkatsu, Yakisoba, and Takoyaki sauces today and I have to say Takoyaki sauce was the closest to the real one! I’m so proud of myself. 😀
Please check the link again as I fixed it and updated. THANK YOU!
https://www.justonecookbook.com/pantry/tonkatsu-sauce/