Tsukemen (つけめん) is a genre of ramen that has been a void in the Bay Area for a while. It is a style of ramen that is focused on dipping your noodles, where the soup is separate from the ramen. You do not drink straight from the broth, as it is concentrated soup that is gravy-like. While a couple of shops in San Francisco have offered their version, they are not good examples of tsukemen. Their broths were too diluted and the noodles are generic. For years, I would have my tsukemen fix in Japan or in Los Angeles (LA Tsujita has some great tsukemen). With Taishoken opening in San Mateo, I can finally get a legit bowl of tsukemen whenever we have a craving. Additionally, I was very surprised by their delicious bowl of vegan yuzu shio ramen on the menu.
The San Mateo shop is a 56 seat space with wooden booths, table seating, and counter seats. This branch of Taishoken is opened by Yoshihiro Sakaguchi. He is the grandson Masayasu Sakaguchi who co-founded Taishoken in 1951. While this carried a strong lineage in ramen making, Masayusu is also the cousin to the legendary Kazuo Yamagishi. Yamagishi is famed for inventing the entire ramen genre of tsukemen. Yamagishi ran the Taishoken shop in the Higashi-Ikebukuro district of Tokyo that is famous with foodies. Sadly, Kazuo Yamagishi passed away in 2015, but you’ll hear of his ramen in many popular videos including David Chang’s visit. This shop has spawned a horde of imitators throughout Japan and the world with similar menus, and many of them call themselves Taishoken. The vast majority have no franchise connection with the Higashi-Ikebukuro Taishoken. Yoshihiro Sakaguchi who is related to Yamagishi brought over his own evolved and amazing version of tsukemen to the San Mateo branch.
I ordered the Tokusei ajitama tsukemen. The broth is made with pork bones, chicken bones, dried anchovy, and bonito. It is reduced to an almost gravy-like consistency and is packed with umami. It looks a lot thicker than Yamagishi’s version and it is topped with green onions, memna, and fish powder. The noodles come in a separate bowl and come with two pieces of chasu (a belly piece and a sous-vide Bershire pork roast), ajitama (marinated egg), and a piece of nori (roasted seaweed). It reminds me of a bowl of Tomita’s ramen, famed as the best tsukemen in several Japanese publications. The broth is thick, rich, salty, and perfect as tsukemen broth.
The noodles are the other star of the bowl. They are thick noodles that do not curl and have a wonderful chewy texture. They have flecks of buckwheat that enhance the taste and pair perfectly with the tsukemen broth. This is legit tsukemen in every way. Once you finish all the noodles, you can ask for soup wari to top off the residual tsukemen broth. The soup wari here is made from dashi and mushroom, but more importantly, it is hot so it cuts the greasy residual broth and makes you want to crush the bowl.
While the tsukemen is amazing here, I will be honest and say that tsukemen is not an every week kind of ramen for me. It is more the kind you have twice a year at the most kind of ramen as it is so heavy and filling. This brings me to their vegan yuzu shio ramen that we ordered as an afterthought but it became the highlight of our meal. The soup is made with a simple kelp and mushroom broth and it is topped with a perfect portion of yuzu. I find that if you put too much yuzu, it becomes lemonade, but they created an amazing version here that I look forward to coming back for more. The rest of the toppings include yuba (tofu skin), mitsuba leaf, green onion, and kikurage (wood-ear fungus). The noodles are thin and straight noodles that pair great with the clear broth. This bowl is vegan, so my perfect bowl would be to add extra toppings of their Berkshire pork chashu or two and an ajitama.
My younger son does not like tsukemen nor yuzu shio, so we ordered ajitama tokusei ramen. The broth is made with pork and chicken bones. The toppings are similar to what is in the tsukemen. While it is a decent bowl, I would not come out of my way to order this bowl like I would the tsukemen or yuzu shio.
I came a week after Taishoken opened, and with a party of six, we had a two-hour wait despite coming before the store opened. At the time, they served dinner only, but I heard they have a couple of improvements. The first is that they serve during lunch hours and the second is that they started using the yelp waitlist system. In fact, you can use their mobile version on Tuesday and Thursday. Overall, I give Taishoken a big thumbs up for their tsukemen and vegan yuzu shio version.
Restuarant information:
Address: 47 E 4th Ave, San Mateo, CA 94401
Website: https://www.taishokenusa.com/
Phone: (650)445-7579
Hours:
Mon–Fri (11:30am–2pm & 5–9:30pm)
Sat & Sun (11am–2pm & 5–9:30pm)