Best Katsu Sauce to Buy for Coating Cutlets

If you’re a fan of Japanese food, you’ve probably encountered tonkatsu sauce, also called katsu sauce. This thick, brown sauce is typically served with, you guessed it, tonkatsu, a breaded pork cutlet that’s often served with shredded cabbage. And you can often find it perched on top of Japanese curries dishes, or even sliced up in sandwiches known as “katsu-sandos.” 

But what’s the best tonkatsu sauce? Well, it should deliver a mix of sweet and tangy flavors that really complements just about any meat—we’ll be talking about the best pork cutlet sauce as well as the best chicken katsu sauce in this ranking. 

The sauce originally developed from the English Worcestershire sauce, only they dropped the fish ingredients and added sweeteners and fruit, resulting in a sweeter, less spicy sauce. There are still hints of the original Worcestershire sauce flavor—often in the notes of onion and garlic—katsu sauce has evolved into its own particular flavor, although there are a number of different variations. 

Lucky for you (and me and any other katsu lover out there), a few brands have brought this sweet and savory sauce over to the States. And each takes their own approach to that katsu taste. So, we decided to try out the major brands and give you a rundown of their flavors. Here’s the best katsu sauce to buy at the store. 

Best Smoky Flavor

Kikkoman Katsu Sauce

Walmart

Probably the best known katsu sauce here in the states, Kikkoman Katsu Sauce features a tangy, smoky sauce that’s probably closest to American barbecue sauce. The tanginess comes from a blend of vinegar and soy sauce, mixed with onion and garlic. But there’s also some apple and sugar in the mix, which rounds out the flavor with some sweetness too. If you’re looking for spice and smoke over sweetness, this is the best cutlet sauce for you.

Rating:

7/10

Sporks

Best Korean Cutlet Sauce

Daesang Pork Cutlet Sauce (Pineapple Flavor)

Amazon

This Korean sauce may not use the word tonkatsu on the label, but it’s definitely got that katsu flavor, although it has a tomato paste base and adds pineapple juice to the mix. And while you’d think that might make it overly sweet, it just adds a slight extra layer of sweetness, to go along with its notes of apple juice and high fructose corn syrup. Overall, it reminds me of a blend of good quality ketchup and A-1 sauce. And if that sounds good to you, it’s definitely worth a try.

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

Best Traditional

Bull-Dog Tonkatsu Sauce

Amazon

If you’re looking for authentic tonkatsu flavor, you’ve got to start with this Japanese brand, which claims to have caused the “tonkatsu boom.” This one’s definitely sweeter than most of the others, with a mix of apple, carrot, prune and lemon juice, mixed with high fructose corn syrup. But it also has plenty of onion, garlic and ginger to cut that sweetness and give it plenty of tangy spice. If you’re just trying katsu sauce for the first time, this is the best Japanese cutlet sauce to buy.

Rating:

9/10

Sporks

Best of the Best

Otafuku Katsu Sauce

Amazon

This Japanese brand is probably the closest to the classic Worcestershire sauce flavor, with plenty of vinegar and soy sauce, which gives it a salty, tangy taste. The sweetness comes from an interesting mix of fruit ingredients, including raisin juice concentrate, apple puree, and peach puree, but it’s mainly there to cut down the sauce’s bite, as it’s nowhere near as sweet as the other three katsu sauces on this list. Oh, and it’s also vegan, gluten-free, and boasts that it contains no high-fructose corn syrup or artificial flavors and colors. So, if you’re concerned about any of those issues, this might be the best katsu sauce for you. But even if you just care about flavor, it’s the best chicken katsu sauce and the best pork cutlet sauce—it’s the best cutlet sauce, period.

Rating:

9/10

Sporks