Tensor models are generalizations of matrix models and as such, it is a natural question to ask whether they satisfy some form of the topological recursion. The world of unitary-invariant observables is however much richer in tensor models than in matrix models. It is therefore a priori unclear which set of observables could satisfy the topological recursion. Such a set of observables was identified a few years ago in the context of the quartic melonic model by the first author and Dartois. It was shown to satisfy an extension of the topological recursion introduced by Borot and called the blobbed topological recursion. Here we show that this set of observables is present in arbitrary tensor models which have non-vanishing couplings for the quartic melonic interactions. It satisfies the blobbed topological recursion in a universal way, i.e. independently of the choices of the other interactions. In combinatorial terms, the correlation functions describe stuffed maps with colored boundary components. The specifics of the model only appear in the generating functions of the stuffings and the blobbed topological recursion only requires them to have well-defined $1/N$ expansions. The spectral curve is a disjoint union of Gaussian spectral curves, with the cylinder function receiving an additional holomorphic part. This result is achieved via a perturbative rewriting of tensor models as multi-matrix models due to the first author, Lionni and Rivasseau. It is then possible to formally integrate all degrees of freedom except those which enter the topological recursion, meaning interpreting the Feynman graphs as stuffed maps. We further provide new expressions to relate the expectations of $U(N)^d$-invariant observables on the tensor and matrix sides.
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