Name: OKAN SOUTHBANK
Address: County Hall, Belvedere Rd, London, SE1 7PB, GB
Telephone: 07746 025394
Price range: €€
Rating: 3.4

United Kingdom

Greater London

OKAN SOUTHBANK

Japan

Okonomiyaki is a savoury griddle cake from Japan built mostly of shredded cabbage held together with a thin batter of flour, egg, dashi and grated nagaimo yam, cooked on a teppan and finished with a sweet-sharp brown sauce, mayonnaise, dried bonito flakes and powdered nori. The name means roughly "grilled as you like it", and the "as you like" covers the add-ins: thin pork belly slices laid on top are the standard, squid, prawn, cheese and mochi are common, and the Osaka style mixes everything into the batter before it hits the plate. Hiroshima has its own version that is layered rather than mixed, a crêpe-thin base topped with a mound of cabbage, pork, a tangle of fried yakisoba noodles and a fried egg, and the two cities disagree sharply about which is the real one. Both grew out of cheap wartime and post-war flour-based street food, and both are eaten in specialist restaurants where the diner often cooks at a hotplate set into the table.

Osaka-style batter is light on flour and heavy on cabbage: roughly a cup of batter to a small head of cabbage cut into short, fine ribbons, with the nagaimo giving lift and a soft, almost custardy interior. Tenkasu, the crisp tempura scraps, go in for texture and pickled red ginger for bite. The mix is poured onto a well-oiled teppan at a moderate heat into a round about two centimetres thick, pork laid on the raw top, and left alone for five or six minutes; pressing it down squeezes out the air and makes it dense, which is the main amateur mistake. It is flipped once with two spatulas, cooked another five minutes, then flipped back so the pork is on top before the sauce goes on. The sauce is a thick, fruity Worcestershire relative sold specifically for the dish, striped with Japanese mayonnaise, then bonito flakes that curl in the heat, and aonori.

A good okonomiyaki is tall and springy, browned and lightly crisp on both faces, and soft, steaming and clearly cabbage-forward inside, with the cabbage cooked through but still a little sweet and not watery. The pork should be rendered and crisp at the edges, and the sauce and mayonnaise should sit on top in visible stripes, not soak in. Mark down a flat, heavy, floury disc, a raw or wet centre, cabbage that has leaked and made the base soggy, pork that is pale and limp, and a cake drowned in sauce to hide any of this. Hiroshima style should be judged on the noodles being fried crisp underneath and the layers holding together when cut. It is cut into wedges with the spatula and eaten from the plate; a knife and fork are not a mark against the restaurant, but a cold okonomiyaki is.

Okonomiyaki

This is the first time I am trying it. This version is with Wagyu.

Overall it is a tasty food but that is not something I would try again. The wagyu was cooked well but still has to chew some. I am sure about the eggs. When I try it with Garlic sauce which was on the side it felt better.

OKAN SOUTHBANK

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