Momoya Chili Oil Review

This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission if you buy through them — at no extra cost to you. My scores are never influenced by this.

What Is Momoya Rayu?

This Momoya chili oil review has been a long time coming. Momoya has been making condiments in Japan since 1920 — over a century of production — and yet, in a chili oil market that falls over itself for every new DTC brand with a Sichuan angle, this jar barely gets mentioned. The Rayu Chili Oil with Fried Garlic — also called Taberu Rayu — sits on the shelf at every H Mart and most Asian grocers, quietly doing its job while flashier options get the attention.

I bought mine on Amazon for $7.62. It’s a small jar. And it’s been around longer than most of the brands you’ve seen on Instagram.

Quick Facts

Serving size is one teaspoon — 22 servings per jar. For a 3.88-ounce jar at $7.62, that’s actually reasonable. Worth noting: the teaspoon serving size makes calories-per-use look small, but it also means you’re getting decent mileage out of a jar this size.

Ingredient Quality

The ingredient list leads with rapeseed (canola) oil and fried garlic. Sesame oil is third. That’s an honest ordering — the canola is doing the base work, but the sesame is doing the flavor work. You taste the sesame. You don’t taste the canola. Which is exactly what you want.

Chili pepper sits in the middle of the list, followed by fried onion, sugar, salt, and chili soybean paste — that’s a miso element, which is worth noting. There’s also ground sesame, soy sauce, and MSG (listed as “seasoning” on some labels, E621 on others).

Nothing here is hiding. The garlic is real fried garlic, not garlic powder dressed up as something it isn’t. The sesame oil is contributing actual flavor, not just appearing on the label for credibility. And the MSG at this volume — in a product this small — is doing what it should: amplifying what’s already there without becoming the story.

Aroma

Open the jar and it’s all sesame. Sesame oil is the third ingredient and it’s pungent — it dominates the nose completely. I didn’t get garlic in the aroma at all. Even after stirring, still mostly sesame. No sharp chili burn, no soy, just warm toasted sesame oil. For a product called “Chili Oil with Crunchy Garlic,” the fact that you can’t smell the garlic is worth noting. The flavor will tell a different story, but the nose is sesame’s show. For a Japanese rayu, that tracks.

Appearance and Settlement

The jar is small and transparent — you can see everything before you open it. Chunks take up about 70% of the jar. That’s decent settlement, but this is a pretty liquid product. There’s a clear oil layer on top, and after opening you can see floating little slices of garlic on the surface — actually appealing. The oil is a deep red, nice and clear.

After stirring, you get the full picture: lots of garlic chunks plus finer ground ingredients. Big garlic pieces mixed with lots of little bitty pieces. It takes up a lot of volume, but it’s more liquid than dense — more oil-forward than the settlement number alone suggests.

Texture and Crunch

The fried garlic pieces have a firm crunch — toasted well, not burned, not bitter. Super crunchy, really flavorful. The garlic is the main textural event, with finer ground bits filling in underneath. The composition is big garlic chunks mixed with lots of smaller pieces.

Here’s my one knock: I wish the bits weren’t so fine. And I wish it was a little more crunchy and a little less oil. The garlic crunch is excellent, but the finer pieces create a thinner texture overall. For a product called “Chili Oil with Crunchy Garlic,” I want more of the crunch and less of the oil doing the work. That said — the crunch that’s there is genuinely good. The garlic is fried perfectly. No bitterness, no bad aftertaste.

Flavor Complexity

Here’s where it gets interesting.

First hit is oily MSG with a little bit of sweetness up front. Then — immediately — the garlic crunch. Toasted, not raw. Fried perfectly, not bitter, not burned. The heat layer comes in afterward, settling into the back and top of the mouth. Not super spicy. Just enough tingle. Very pleasant.

What surprised me is how many layers you get from this ingredient list. Fried garlic coming through, fried onions coming through. MSG hits the tongue right away with sweetness from the sugar. Kind of salty. Umami from soybeans and sesame powders, soybean chili paste. Multiple layers of salt in addition to MSG — creates this really nice balanced profile. For the amount of ingredients, you get a good amount of layers to the flavor. Not overpowered by one thing or drowned out by volume of ingredients.

Here’s the thing about Momoya that nobody talks about: this company has been producing this product at global distribution scale, and the flavor balance hasn’t drifted. That’s actually hard to do. Producing something that requires this kind of nuance — where off-flavors would ruin it quickly — at this volume is a technical achievement. The internet walks past this jar to reach for the $15 small-batch option. That’s a mistake worth correcting.

Heat

This is a 1 on the FIL heat scale. Mild. The chili is there — you can feel a faint warmth on the tongue — but it’s not trying to make a statement. This is heat as a background note, not a feature. It sits gently and fades within seconds.

If you want flavor complexity without any burn, this is your jar. If you want heat, you’ll need to bring your own — and this product’s stable enough to handle a hotter addition without falling apart.

Use Cases

Dumplings. The label shows a dumpling for a reason — this is exactly right. A spoonful alongside a plate of gyoza or potstickers and you don’t need the soy-vinegar dip. The sesame-garlic crunch adds what dumplings are usually missing: texture and umami depth in the same bite.

The mild heat means it won’t overpower delicate wrappers or fillings. This might end up being a staple in my refrigerator. I already keep S&B’s crunchy garlic as a permanent resident — Momoya might join it or replace it at times. They’re direct competitors in the Japanese crunchy garlic space, and a head-to-head is coming.

Versatility and Packaging

The jar is 3.88 ounces. That’s small. At $1.96 per ounce, it’s not the cheapest on the shelf. But with a teaspoon serving size and 22 servings per jar, you get more mileage than the jar size suggests. The label says “keep upright” — no mention of refrigeration, which is a nice convenience detail.

The glass jar is easy to spoon from, the lid seals well, and the size means it fits anywhere in the fridge without reorganizing. No complaints on access. Minimal label info — no QR code, no website link, just a best-before date. Momoya lets the product speak for itself.

Final Verdict

Tier: GOOD

This is delicious. This is really well done. I think Momoya is going for a really refined, smooth chili oil with crunchy garlic — and they kind of nail it. From a Japanese style, this just works.

Being nitpicky — if I was going to push this to Excellent, I’d need to be blown away a little more. It’s on the border. Really on the border. The bits being so fine and the oil-to-crunch ratio keep it just shy. But for the amount of ingredients, you get a good amount of flavor layers. Not overpowered by one thing or drowned out by volume.

At $7.62 for 3.88 ounces, it’s a dependable condiment from a brand that’s been doing this longer than most of its competitors have existed. The chili crisp world is obsessed with the new. Momoya is a reminder that sometimes the jar that’s been there the whole time is the one worth grabbing.

Buy Momoya Rayu on Amazon →