Gindaco Sangenjaya

Gindaco delivers with frankly terrific takoyaki. These balls are made in cast iron griddles shaped a little like egg cartons, which allow the batter to be turned by hand into perfect spheres. Takoyaki originates from Osaka, of course, but is now usually bought from yatai (street stalls) which cluster around parks, fairgrounds and shrines on festival days. Gindaco have simply brought takoyaki indoors, and systematised the product with a slightly crisper shell than you’d expect from a yatai. The traditional, classic version contains small chunks of boiled octopus (tako) and comes with eight golfball-sized portions brushed with takoyaki sauce (a bit like Worcestershire sauce), squirts of mayonnaise, a sprinkling of dry aonori seaweed sheet, and then dried bonito flakes (katsuobushi) that wiggle in the heat like animated pencil shavings. Gindaco also make several slight variations on the original, all of them tasty. They also serve the croissant taiyaki, a cross-bred food between – you guessed it – a croissant and taiyaki (a fish-shaped cake filled with bean paste).