Odaiba Takoyaki Museum (Tokyo 2016): Takoyaki Heaven

Quick! When you think of Japanese street food… what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Did you say “takoyaki”? You can find takoyaki in Vancouver, but for the uninitiated, takoyaki is round-shaped dumplings filled with piece of octopus (ie. tako) and then topped with various ingredients.

Part of the fun of eating takoyaki is seeing them made in the special round moulds and how they expertly flip each ball over using only thin metal skewers.

Located on the 4th floor of the Decks shopping complex in the middle of Tokyo Bay is the famous Odaiba Takoyaki Museum. Here, you can sample various types of takoyaki from different parts of Japan.

In addition to the food, you can purchase these little octopus stuffies.

Because there are different vendors here, it’s a bit difficult to decide on which takoyaki to try. If you have a big appetite, you might want to try one from each stall.

It is fairly busy here. The layout is similar to a food court with tables located in the middle of the room.

We wound up ordering from the Takoyaki Hakkan stall. At most of the stalls here, you order your food using one of the vending machines in front of the stall. We opted for the 4 selections for ¥1120. You get 4 each of each variety including one with mayonnaise, a salt version, one with a soup for dipping sauce, and another with soy sauce and vinegar dipping sauce.