Trader Joe’s Gyoza Dipping Sauce

The pros:  Trader Joe’s Gyoza Dipping Sauce is a delicious, umami dipping sauce that I have become very fond of. This is far more complex than a regular soy sauce.

The cons:  Some purists might still prefer just plain soy sauce. This has cilantro in it, which might not appease all palates.

The verdict:  Every time I go to my favorite Japanese restaurant, gyoza is almost always my appetizer of choice. I like gyoza, but I like the dipping sauce that comes with it just a bit better. At the place I go to, it’s distinctly different from the regular soy sauce found at the table. It is probably a splash of rice wine vinegar that they add, but all I know is that there is a lot of umami goodness going on.

Now, this little bottle of Trader Joe’s Gyoza Dipping Sauce is very different from what I usually get at a restaurant. There are more add ins here, but they none the less make this taste pretty darn good. This is a soy base, so it will play nicely with most Asian flavors. The extra flavors here are rice vinegar, cilantro, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, chives, and crushed red pepper. It’s a bit sweet but also so very savory.

So you are getting an awesome combo here: it’s sweet, salty, savory, with only a mild touch of heat. While the crushed red pepper is there, it does not lend much heat at all. If you pan fry some gyoza then you’ll get that wonderful crunch to make it an ideal dish. Just be warned, there is cilantro in it and some people (like my husband) taste cilantro as almost a soap like flavor. I, on the other hand, could sit an eat an entire cilantro salad because I love the flavor so much.

You could use this as a dipping sauce but I also think that you could use this as a marinade as well. I’ve used it for gyoza, shumai, and egg rolls. I even keep a bottle at work for when I have dumplings. For $2.49, this is an inexpensive and well done dipping sauce that is good to keep on hand in case you want to try something beyond plain soy sauce.

Here is the visual run down of what you get if you buy this product:

The jar Trader Joe’s Gyoza Dipping Sauce:

The nutritional information and ingredients:

How Trader Joe’s describes this product:

With some shumai:

Would I buy this again? Yes. I’ve purchased Trader Joe’s Gyoza Dipping Sauce three or four times. It’s a great dipping sauce not just for gyoza, but for so many other items.

Want to see more items I’ve reviewed from Trader Joe’s? Click on Thoughts & Reviews of Trader Joe’s for a searchable list.

Did you try it? Let me know what you think in the comments section!