SF Peninsula: Taishoken

When we found out that our law school friend JC was in the Bay for a job interview, CK and I went up to San Mateo to meet him and his family for lunch.  As we were leaving CK's house in San Jose, I added ourselves to Taishoken's waitlist online.  The wait time said 50 minutes, which I figured would work out perfectly since the drive was around 45.

But then we arrived to find all the Asians of San Mateo gathered outside Taishoken:

It was another hour before we finally made it inside:

It was my first time meeting JC's wife, so I was a bit shy about taking pictures.  While CK distracted JC and his wife with conversation, I snapped a shot of my tokusei tsukemen ($17):

The basic tsukemen came with pork chashu, bamboo, seaweed, and green onion.  In addition to all that, the tokusei tsukemen also included a soft boiled egg and a sous-vide Berkshire pork chashu that was seriously melt-in-your-mouth decadent. 

Everything about Taishoken's tsukemen was spot on.  The noodles had the perfect amount of chew to them.  The dipping broth was a rich concoction of pork, chicken, dried anchovy, and dried bonito. 

And can we just take a moment to appreciate the perfection of this egg?:

There are plenty of ramen options in the Bay.  What we need is more tsukemen.  If it wasn't so far from me...if the wait wasn't so crazy, I would be at Taishoken once a month. 

Is there a petition we can sign to get Taishoken to open a branch down in the South Bay?



Taishoken
47 E 4th Ave
San Mateo, CA 94401
(650) 445-7579
https://www.taishokenusa.com/menu