Okonomiyaki お好み焼き is a popular Japanese pancake which is made out of wheat flour batter and ingredients such as meat, shrimp, egg, cabbage and other.

A lot of Okonomiyaki restaurants have grill on tables where okonomiyaki are cooked in front of them or you grill yourself. Once you order, the staff will give you all the ingredients and mixture in a bowl. You will need to mix this and cook on the grill.

There are many ingredients to choose from: pork, squid, octopus, eggs, shredded cabbage, green onion, shrimp, vegetables, mochi and cheese.

Okonomiyaki is popular in Kansai and Hiroshima regions. Kansai region has traditional style pancake where as Hiroshima style okonomiyaki are more like ‘layered’ pancake with layers of okonomiyaki, fried noodles and fried egg.

Hiroshima is famous for okonomiyaki. There is even a building called Okonomimura, which has 24 okonomiyaki restaurants in the same building.