Okonomiyaki in the Kansai or Osaka style is the predominant version of the dish, found throughout most of Japan. The batter is made of flour, grated nagaimo, dashi or water, eggs, shredded cabbage, and usually contains other ingredients such as green onion, meat, octopus, squid, shrimp, vegetables, konjac, mochi, or cheese.
It is sometimes compared to an omelette or a pancake and is sometimes referred to as a "Japanese pizza" or "Osaka soul food". The dish can be prepared in advance, allowing customers to use a teppan or special hotplates to fry after mixing the ingredients. They may also have a diner-style counter where the cook prepares the dish in front of the customers.
It is prepared much like a pancake. The batter and other ingredients are pan-fried on both sides on a teppan using metal spatulas that are later used to cut the dish when it has finished cooking. Cooked okonomiyaki is topped with ingredients that include okonomiyaki sauce (made with Worcestershire sauce), aonori (seaweed flakes), katsuobushi (bonito flakes), Japanese mayonnaise, and pickled ginger (beni shōga).
When served with a layer of fried noodles (either yakisoba or udon), the resulting dish is called modan-yaki, the name of which may be derived from the English word "modern" or as a contraction of mori dakusan, meaning "a lot" or "piled high" signifying the volume of food from having both noodles and okonomiyaki. Negiyaki is a thinner variation of okonomiyaki made with a great deal of scallions, comparable to Korean pajeon and Chinese green onion pancakes.