Karls Balls
“Karl uses only the finest and freshest ingredients available and cuts each piece of octopus skillfully and lovingly by hand.”
“6 balls for $7 seems like a fair price for what are objectively the best takoyaki I've found so far in the city.”
“And would have liked a lot of bonito flakes.”
Karls Balls
Take-out: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$ Price range Under $10
3 reviews
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As I understand it, there's not actually a permanent location for Karl's – they pop up at various food markets around the city. I do wish there was a more permanent location, though, because these takoyaki are on-point. We ran into the stand when Astor Place was closed for a street market yesterday, and there was a bit of crowd that's fascinated by the concept of eating octopus, seeing how the takoyaki gets made, and the general confusion of several folks (I heard "I didn't know octopus had balls" more than a few times while waiting for my batch). The line could have been a bit more organized, but it's really just Karl (an ex-chef in East Village Japanese restaurants) and his wife crushing tray after tray of takoyaki. It's done in the properly traditional fashion – pour in the batter and use a couple of small tongs to continuously flip the balls until the batter cooks and solidifies. As for the final product itself – it's got the shaved bonito flakes, the scallions, and Karl's 'special sauce' (which I would generically call a slightly smoky Asian-style BBQ sauce) that really does the trick in adding a really distinctive flavor to the takoyaki. The balls themselves are also cooked really well – perhaps a tad thicker than some other spots, but I like that more, as the balls don't collapse into themselves when you take a small bite to let the heat out.
6 balls for $7 seems like a fair price for what are objectively the best takoyaki I've found so far in the city. Hopefully I will see them around Manhattan more…my wife and I are always down to get our fill of these Osaka-area specialties, particularly when they are as well-done as Karl's are!
I'm not a huge octopus fan and these balls are definitely for huge octopus fans. It's basically dough mixed with octopus lightly fried with these fried onion type topping and a bunch of sauces. My only complaint is that we got here right at 6 PM, they took our order and no food for about 30 minutes. They know how long it takes to make their balls and they should have told us! It also seemed a bit undercooked and you don't want seafood to be undercooked. The amount of octopus you get for $5 alone is worth it and I definitely don't know where else you can get seafood like this so check it out if you're interested but keep expectations low.
They make it well.
Would have liked it to be a little more crispier and cooked on the inside. Tasted mushy and rushed. And would have liked a lot of bonito flakes. Octopus pieces are great!
WATA!!!!!