The famous Japanese steakhouse sauce that’s phenomenal for dipping, drizzling and enjoying with your grilled meats, seafood, vegetables, rice, noodles and more! This homemade Yum Yum Sauce recipe is super quick and easy to make and tastes at least a hundred times better than store-bought, and without any junk ingredients!
One of our favorite places to go for date night is our local Japanese steakhouse for a hibachi grill dinner. Todd usually gets his standard, sushi, while I enjoy sampling the grilled chicken, vegetables, rice and noodles….all drizzled with the deservedly popular sweet and slightly tangy Japanese steakhouse sauce known affectionately as “Yum Yum Sauce.” Here’s our homemade yum yum sauce that captures the flavor you know and love!
What is Yum Yum Sauce?
While this sauce is referred to as a Japanese steakhouse sauce, you won’t find it in restaurants in Japan because it is an American invention. But it is a key component to the Japanese restaurant experience in the United States and Canada. It’s uncertain who was the first chef to invent it but chef Terry Ho is credited with being the first to bottle and mass produce it. He had been serving it at his Casual Japanese restaurant and it become so popular that he jumped on the opportunity to bottle it and make it commercially available.
This Japanese-American is also known as white sauce, shrimp sauce, hibachi sauce and yummy sauce. But whichever name you know it by the consensus is that it is indeed YUMMY! No Japanese steakhouse meal is complete without it – whether drizzled on grilled chicken, fried rice and noodles, vegetables and as a dipping sauce for shrimp, potstickers and sushi, it’s simply delicious!
What to Serve with Yum Yum Sauce
This sauce is extremely versatile and the flavors pair will a wide variety of foods. It’s similar to what’s known in the U.S. as “Fry Sauce” (mayonnaise and ketchup) but with additional ingredients. You could consider it fry sauce on flavor steroids! Here are a few ways to use it:
- As a dipping sauce for shrimp
- Drizzled over fried rice and noodles
- With grilled chicken, meat and seafood
- Slathered on hamburger and hot dog buns
- With French fries and sweet potato fries
- As a dipping sauce for potstickers and wontons
- As a vegetable dip
- With sushi and rice balls
- In pasta salads
- In potato salads
- As a salad dressing
- On baked potatoes
Can Yum Yum Sauce Be Made in Advance?
Absolutely, in fact it’s recommended for the best flavor. At minimum it should be made 2 hours in advance but a day in advance is better. Yum Yum Sauce will keep for up to a week in the fridge.
Yum Yum Sauce Ingredients
This popular sauce is fairly sweet with a slight bit of tang. The main ingredients for yum yum sauce are standard but every Japanese chef uses different own ratios and some include their own special touches, so feel free to experiment. We recently had the BEST hibachi sauce ever at our local Japanese steakhouse. I asked the chef and he revealed his secret addition: Mirin. It adds flavor and complexity and we’re including it in our recipe.
Mirin is Japanese sweet rice wine used for cooking. It’s similar to sake but is sweeter and has a lower alcohol content. If you don’t have access to mirin you can substitute a dry sherry or white wine mixed with 1 teaspoon of sugar.
Our yum yum sauce ingredients include mayonnaise, sugar, butter, paprika, ketchup, rice vinegar, garlic powder, onion powder and mirin. For a smokier version you can add a touch of smoked paprika. And if you like a little heat add some hot sauce or cayenne pepper. Go easy on the ketchup and the paprika as this sauce should be a very pale pink color (hint, it’s sometimes also called white sauce). That said, if your preference is darker feel free to add more.
As with most condiments you can buy this sauce in the store but let me tell you, NOTHING beats the flavor of homemade!
Yum Yum Sauce Recipe
Let’s get started!
Place all of the ingredients in a small bowl, stir to thoroughly combine, cover and chill for at least 2 hours before using. For best flavor results let it chill overnight to give the flavors more time to meld. Store in an airtight jar in the fridge and it will keep for up to a week.
It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3 and the result rivals your favorite hibachi restaurant yum yum sauce!
Enjoy!
For more delicious homemade Asian sauces be sure to try our:
- Teriyaki Sauce
- Sweet and Sour Sauce
- Black Bean Sauce
- Plum Sauce
- Kecap Manis
- Sweet Chili Sauce
- Ponzu Sauce
- Char Siu Sauce
- Ginger Sauce

BEST Yum Yum Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup quality mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- 2 teaspoons rice vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 3/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons water , or until desired consistency is reached
- optional: a few splashes of hot sauce or cayenne pepper for a touch of heat
- optional: a small pinch of smoked paprika for a hint of smokiness
Instructions
- Thoroughly combine all the ingredients in a small bowl, cover and chill for at least 2 hours before serving. Preferably overnight for best flavor results.Store in an airtight jar in the fridge where it will keep for up to a week.Makes 1 1/4 cups
Video
Nutrition
Originally published on The Daring Gourmet June 19, 2020
Honore says
I’d eat this off a flip flop! 😋 SO good on EVERYTHING! I followed recipe exactly and added a few shakes of Worcestershire for a little extra savory.
Kimberly @ The Daring Gourmet says
Lol! I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Honore, thank you! :)
Cierra Marsala says
A go to hibachi classic. We usually grab the pre-made yum yum sauce I but I’ve always used this recipe to change it and add a bit more flavor since the pre made one lacks that familiar Benihana taste. This recipe I will say, it’s phenomenal it’s a go to in our household every single time!
Kimberly Killebrew says
I’m so glad to hear that, Cierra, thank you very much! :)
Renee says
This sauce was amazing!! I made it exactly according to the directions and I am so glad that I did! I used it on top of a vegan sushi bowl and it was the perfect addition. Of course I subbed out the mayo for vegan mayo but it was so very yummy!!!
Kimberly Killebrew says
Fantastic, Renee, thank you so much!
AlyLynn says
Why would it only keep for a week when the most perishable ingredient will keep for more than a month? I don’t want to make myself sick keeping something longer than I should, but tossing the leftover sauce after only a week seems wasteful.
Kimberly Killebrew says
Hi AlyLynn, recommendations in recipes for how long to store foods are always conservative and that’s just to be extra cautious. Use your own judgment to gauge appearance and smell.
Kendra says
Can I make it without the mirin?
Kimberly Killebrew says
Hi Kendra, yes you can, simply omit it.
Deborah says
I have made this recipe several times. It is fabulous as written and is perfect as a sauce/dip for our hibachi chicken, shrimp, scallops, fried rice and veggies on our outdoor griddle. I like to add a Tbsp of sweet chili sauce on occasion to kick it up a tad. Tks!
Kimberly Killebrew says
Fantastic, Deborah, thank you so much!
Grandpa Glenn says
For Yum Yum YUM sauce, eliminate the mayonnaise and sugar. Substitute instead a cup of Miracle Whip Salad Dressing. It has twice the horsepower of, yawn, mayonnaise.
Cameron Rando says
Wooooah this is only for the 5% of people who like miracle whip, highly recommend sticking to mayo unless you’re from the Midwest and like miracle whip 🤮
Anonymous says
Best Ever
Liz says
I made this, it was amazing, I used all smoked paprika and had to use Shaun Xing wine cause I was out of mirin also added corn syrup instead of sugar… it was perfect!! Thank you
Kimberly Killebrew says
Awesome, Liz, thanks so much for the feedback!
MBAZ says
Shao xing wine is even better. It is an authentic rice wine.
Mirin is more like a “cooking wine.”
Kimberly Killebrew says
I wouldn’t say it’s “better”, I would say it’s “different”. Mirin is Japanese, which is what Yum Yum Sauce is also. Mirin is light and sweet and so it complements this particular sauce. Shaoxing is Chinese and is much more robust in flavor; quite different than mirin. A better substitute for mirin from a flavor standpoint would be rice wine mixed with a little brown sugar.
Sarah says
This is my go to recipe for yum yum sauce! Wonderful recipe. Thanks.
Kimberly Killebrew says
Thank you so much, Sarah!
ROBIN a FELIX says
Darn girl!! You did that! now I can too! Yummo!!