Burman’s Japanese Style Asian Barbecue Sauce

A while back, a relative on my wife’s side of the family casually talked about making fried rice in a social media post. My wife reached out to the relative, asking what his recipe was. The most important part, he said, was Bachan’s Original Japanese Barbecue Sauce, which he said was far superior to traditional soy sauce. I tracked down Bachan’s Original at my local large grocery store to make chicken fried rice … and it definitely lived up to the hype. The family devoured it.

Fast forward to the following summer, and I spotted a Japanese-style barbecue sauce at Aldi under one of the grocer’s private labels. Intrigued, I picked it up. I had to know: was it as good as Bachan’s?

Burman’s Japanese Style Asian BBQ Sauce is an Aldi Regular Buy. You can find it on store shelves all the time. It is one of two Asian barbecue sauces sold as a mixed case, the other being Korean Style.

The sauce comes in a 15-ounce bottle. In 2025, the sauce costs $3.49, or 23 cents an ounce. By contrast, Bachan’s currently costs closer to 55 cents an ounce at my local grocer, so on that front the Aldi sauce is much, much cheaper. We purchased both the Aldi sauce and the Bachan’s with our own money.

The bottle can be stored at room temperature until you open it. After opening, it should be refrigerated.

Nutritionally, each 1-tablespoon serving has 30 calories, 280 milligrams of sodium (12% of the recommended daily value), 6 grams of carbohydrates, and 5 grams of added sugars.

Primary ingredients include water, cane sugar, soy sauce, rice vinegar, corn starch, tomato paste, mirin wine, garlic powder, salt, onion powder, ginger powder, caramel color, toasted sesame oil, xanthan gum, black pepper, and dried green onion.

Three allergens are listed: soy, wheat, and sesame.

The nutrition and ingredients are pretty close to Bachan’s Original. One notable difference is sodium: Bachan’s has about twice the sodium content of the Aldi barbecue sauce.

The bottle doesn’t offer any preparation instructions. While there are people online who have their ratios, for most shoppers it will be about adding enough to taste. With Bachan’s, that’s what I’ve done. I also am known to add some soy in with Bachan’s, as it adds some savory notes to balance out the Bachan’s sweetness.

For this particular review, I put Bachan’s and Burman’s head-to-head, adding each to equal amounts of cooked rice and chicken.

We were struck, during preparation, by the different thicknesses of the sauces. The Aldi Burman’s sauce, to our surprise, came out as a thicker sauce, while Bachan’s was more watery. In addition, we found that the name-brand Bachan’s was a much saltier-tasting sauce, not a surprise given the difference in sodium between the two. The Burman’s sauce was a little sweeter.

Our family generally liked both sauces, but at least some of our testers actually preferred the Aldi sauce, as they liked the less salty flavor. Both, though, reminded us of fried rice that we’ve had from takeout restaurants.

The Verdict:

Burman’s Japanese Style Asian Barbecue Sauce is a surprisingly good sauce that’s fit for making fried rice. It compared favorably to the name-brand Bachan’s Original Japanese Barbecue Sauce, and for about half the price. It’s not as salty as Bachan’s, but if that’s a problem for you, you can always sprinkle in some soy sauce. And yes, Aldi sells that, too.