Takoriki 2020

If you know me, you know I LOVE TAKOYAKI. In big capital letters. I even wrote a review of ALL the takoyaki stalls in Dotonbori (LINK) πŸ˜‹

In 2017, I found a takoyaki stall at a random station 20 minutes away from Dotonbori, and at the time, Mick told me this was a Michelin star equivalent takoyaki. I don’t remember the name but I still think about the taste. It was this delicious soupy ball of wonder that exploded with flavour in our mouths.🀀 And the most surprising thing, no sauce was needed for the impact.
Well today, we made it a mission to eat at the legitimate takoyaki stall, Takoriki, that had qualified for a Michelin star on the official website.
Takoriki is a cute little store in the suburbs of Osaka, 15 minutes away from Dotonbori, run by a small family. There is a dine-in and drink option however there are only 4 seats. It is a very tiny restaurant. The staff made our takoyaki fresh and we ended up waiting about 15 minutes for our food.
There was something really satisfying about watching the staff cook our takoyaki. They were very careful and graceful with handling the balls. We could see the attention to details, the precision in measuring, the colours changing… They even weighed the mayonnaise to sauce ratio to make sure their customers got the perfect batch of takoyaki.
I was in love with how beautiful this box and the takoyaki was!! Look at the presentation, the way the takoyaki still held their shape despite my 5-minute photo session. The colours were vibrant and appealing to my hunger. The sweet umami smell wafted and caressed my nose, causing my stomach to tremble in anticipation 😍 It was love at first sight.
The takoyaki was not sagging or breaking apart as I held them up for this photo.

​ When we received our bundle of joy, we noticed the box was premium. It wasn’t like the usual thick plastic or cardboard, but a thin piece of wood with the Takoriki logo burned and carved in 😍 Just holding the container felt luxurious.
The octopus was a large serving, chopped up and compacted into the bite. We could taste the freshness of the seafood from the bouncy, chewable texture of the octopus. The filling (batter) was savoury, elevated by the umami flavour of the octopus. The filling was still very soft and oozed into our mouths. It was well seasoned and not too salty. The outer crispy layer to filling ratio was balanced, 1:9 😚.

The outside was delicately grilled. Everything held its shape, even after a few minutes of waiting for the takoyaki to cool down and all my photos. The sauce and mayonnaise ratio was perfectly balanced and not overwhelming, thanks to them weighing the serving.

The sauce was sweet and the mayonnaise was rich and both brought out the savouriness and umami flavours of the octopus. The added green flakes added the most subtle crispy texture.
It was insatiable.

DELICIOUS!!!

Absolute perfection in a bite. If I could time travel, I would relive this moment over and over. If this does not convince you on how good this takoyaki is, then I guess you have to go try it for yourself, right? πŸ˜‰

Thank you very much for reading! γ‚γ‚ŠγŒγ¨γ†γ”γ–γ„γΎγ™!

P.S. I was running out of compliments but seriously, this was the bomb! Give it a go if you plan to visit Japan! πŸ’•

1 Comment

  1. September 21, 2021 / 11:33 am

    Wow, awesome weblog format! How lengthy have you ever been running a blog for? you make blogging look easy. The full look of your website is excellent, as smartly as the content!!

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