A Mission Staple

As usual, RDN was just Eugi and me this week. Once again, we were trying to go to Emmy's, but since it was Manu's pick, we are tabling it for hopefully next week. After like 5 more picks from the hat to find a non-Manu entry, we ended up with Pizzeria Delfina.

I was very excited to FINALLY be going to Delfina. I feel like it's one of those places in the Mission that you pretty much have to have been to in order to be considered local. Delfina is split in to two sections, a fancy sit-down Italian side, and then the pizzeria. I've never been to the fancy side either, but it's pretty pricey and seems similar to Farina where I have been.

asparagus & rice soup

The pizzeria side always gets long lines and has no reservations, so it's best to get there on an off time. Even when we showed up at 8:00 on a Monday, it was packed with a long waiting list. It does have some outside seating, but it was wayyyy too freezing this week to go for it. Plus there is always a giant crowd of like 20 people waiting for their table looming around you. Eugi and I had nowhere to be, so we put our name down and waited for like... 40 mins-ish before we were finally seated.

4 cheese pizza

I've seen some awesome pictures on Yelp about specialty pizzas they have with things like eggs and corn. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to have any of those that night. We were both kind of boring and he got a margherita, and I got a 4 cheese pizza. While you wait, they give you bottomless long, thin & crispy breadsticks to eat. They were ok, but I wish they had either had some flavoring, or there would have been some type of dipping sauce to spice them up.

Eugi also got an asparagus and rice soup as an appetizer. I only tried a bite, but I actually didn't like it too much. It had too much asparagus and pepper flavoring for me.... but, I think that was on purpose due to the type of soup :P.

The pizzas arrived really quickly. Due to the constant traffic flow, the place seems very ready to turn customers in and out. There is a full kitchen in view in the tiny restaurant, and you can see 4-5 chefs busy at work preparing the pizzas.

1 cheese pizza haha

Both of them were tasty! The crust was thing and soft with yummy sauce. I really liked the cheeses on mine, you could clearly taste the different types. Eugi seemed to enjoy his a lot too. I haven't tried enough of the staple SF pizza places to determine where this ranks, but it's definitely a great thin crust contender. wish we had gotten some other varieties of toppings, but I guess there is always next time. It seemed like you could get take out pretty easily, so I might try that since my house isn't too far.

My favorite part of the shop was a giant mural of SF painted on the wall. It was really neat because it used bright colors and a very stylized art type to depict the city. On one side was bright oranges and reds to represent daytime, and on the other were darker night colors. My only beef was that the sections were split by the TransAmerica tower and not the Sutro >: | that totally would have made more sense. 

half of the amazing SF mural

It didn't quite meet the expectations from all the hype I'd heard... but a good local spot to check out! Then go down 3 shops and wait in line forever at Bi-Rite ;p

Late Night Ramen

flowers! <3

I'm going to take a break in the middle of my Germany posts to keep things more interesting and prevent excess backups :)

Returning from Berlin was like the happiest moment ever. Not that the trip was THAT bad..... but I was just so freaking happy to finally be back in my beloved SF bay area. Things started out great as Carlos picked me up at the airport with flowers :) and then took me back to my place to help unpack. After being up for like 24 hours and having nothing but kind of crappy but overly filling airplane pastas, I was really ready to have a nice, warm and light dinner. Only problem was that by the time we were ready to head out, it was pushing 10 on a Sunday night :(

Luckily for us, SF has plenty of places open late, and we were able to quickly pick Tanpopo, a decently rated ramen shop in the Japantown area. It was located just outside the mall on one of the mini walking streets. I was surprised by how crowded it was on a Sunday night, but it's a fairly spacious shop so there was no issue.

I was very impressed that we were immediately given water! And not only was it prompt, but the attendant refilled it without being asked multiple times!! One problem I have with many traditional Japanese restaurants is that it's hard to get beverages. This was some major points for Tanpopo.

The menu was definitely ramen focused but also had other Japanese dishes. I liked that the 12ish varieties were all listed with pictures. Picture menus make me happy. There was a pretty good selection of diff types with various meats and spicing. Free egg included!

spicy miso w/ extra pork

As a savvy consumer, I was ready with two options: garlic and spicy miso. Carlos also had two options, one being the spicy, so we determined that he should get that and I'd get garlic so I could try his. Then I totally Sharon failed when the server arrived!! I was informed that they had run out of garlic for the night, and instead of being creative I quickly switched my order to spicy miso meaning we both got the same thing. :P lame. His had extra pork in it, but otherwise, no even ingredient variations.

The ramen was pretty tasty! The spicy broth was very good and I liked the items in the soup. They even had one of those weird naruto swirly fish cakes in them which makes it seem super authentic. The noodles themselves were a bit chewy, and I think they might have been overcooked. It was good, but not outstanding. I feel like I would need to go back and try shoyu or something more basic before I made a final ranking.

size comparison with my glasses. HUGE!

Overall, it was a fun experience and it was perfect for its purpose. Also, the bowls were freaking huge which is inherently exciting :D

Bäckerei en Masse

One of the most surprising (and totally awesome) parts of Berlin to me was the plethora of "back" shops. At first we were confused that there was such a huge demand for Tempurpedic mattress stores, but then we discovered that it was short for bäckerei, the German word for bakery.

Even more prevalent than McD's or Starbucks in America, it seemed like there was literally at least one bakery per block, usually multiple if you counted the millions of sidewalk cafes which all hosted a selection of yummy looking breads and sweets.

I guess Germany is well known for their breads and when you looked in the shops it was quite apparent. Along with wide varieties of normal rolls they also hosted adorable shaped items like Easter bunny loaves. Unfortunately, I never got to try any because of the whole touring with 6 people plus baby thing :p

I tried a bunch of different items from many shops. They ranged from sweet breads to donuts to cheesecakes. I have to say my very favorite was the Berliner. This may sound kind of cliché since it's the stereotypical pastry, but it was REALLY good. It's essentially just a jelly donut, but the filling won me over. The strawberry jam was so tasty... Like the kind you get in mini jars from cheese baskets at christmas time :D

Other donuts I tried included quark puffs which were like giant, air filled donut holes. I also tried a variety of fruity pastries with himbeer (raspberry) and cherry. Both seemed to be the fruits of baked good choice. I also tried a "Milka" choco donut. All were good, but none particularly stand out.

I thought the cheesecakes were very interesting in Berlin because the majority were made with quark (Oakdale cheese farm ftw!!!!!!). The one I had just seemed lighter than a normal cheesecake, and I didn't find the flavor that great

As for savory baked goods, I of course partook in some awesome "brezel" action. Pretzels were, as expected, widely available. I had my first from a chain, Ditsch, which was fresh and delicious out of the oven. In general, it seemed like the pretzels were slightly lighter than the American counterparts. Me gusta

Other items included a lot of pastries filled with meats and ham. Ok but not my thing

I was a bit disappointed in general. With the wide amount of bakeries I thought the stuff would be outstanding, but I find I much prefer American and Asian pastries

Germany- the Land of Weird Meats

Meat... Hahaha if you have read this blog or talked to me at all, you know that my least favorite food is meat, particularly weird foreign meat. I'm not a vegetarian by any means, but I just don't really get excited about meat stuffs. So I was VERY excited for all the eating adventures that'd go down in last week's trip to Berlin, Germany :p. I've broken the trip up in to 4 posts, and this first one is about: weird meat! enjoy :D

Currywurst!

As a true (or attempting to be true) foodie I was ready to take on the challenge of trying some new items. The first that was recommended to me was "currywurst", a very typically Berlin dish that's kind of German-Turkish fusion food. It is typically found in street carts and random walk-up stands. It consists of a fried sausage that is doused in a yummy almost BBQ sweet sauce and bunches of spicy curry powder. It's then chopped up and eaten over French fries withe cute mini fork things :).

I had to drag my dad and bro out at like 11 pm to run to a stand before it closed to ensure I got to try it. So freaking worth it!! Mmmm I love hot dogs and Indian, and this was the total combo of both :D. Highly recommend and will be looking for it in SF. Stay tuned!

Weisswurst....

Another typical (although more Bavarian which I didn't get to visit MAJOR TEAR) German dish is "weisswurst." I remember hearing about it in German class and being nauseated... As the name sounds like, it consists of a random white meat sausage and is traditionally eaten with a sweet mustard. I was only willing to try a bite of Nick's, and I thought it was kind of nasty. The sausage itself had a weird consitency and was too squishy inside its floppy casing. And due to peer pressure I even dipped it in the sweet mustard which was so freaking gross. Don't listen to what others say, it still totally tastes like mustard :p. I was very happy that I had chosen some generic more polish dog-esque sausage for my lunch. It, on the other hand, had a bit too thick of a constancy, but was still tasty.

meat medley

One of the weirdest German meat dishes I tried was at a traditional beerhaus in Potsdam. I was already in a great mood after seeing the amazingly Rococo palace of Sans Soussi, so I went in with an open mind. The menu was huge and included pages of dishes with lots of meats and fishes. Both Margaret and my dad got like sausage variety plates with shiztons of meat stuff. Nick and I decided to be more adventurous and try "wild boar" steak. A totally un-Sharon order, but it seemed more exotic than the sea bass I was about to order.

Sans Soussi

Wild Boar Steak

I really liked the steak actually!!! It was a bit tougher/gamier than a normal beef patty, and it had a very subtle sausagey flavoring. Definitely something I would order again at a random German restaurant :). It also came with some yummy little potato medallions that were fried on the outside and almost tasted like they had cheese mixed in the middle.

Germans also typically eat cold cuts for breakfast. One morning Margaret provided a "Berlin Breakfast" for us which had breads, cheese, and meat. It was an interesting combo and seemed like more of a sandwich to me. I actually enjoyed a little flower shaped bologne thing, but I was less keen (such a ken word) on a bacon looking meat that you had to rip the fat off of.

German Breakfast

Sausage Bin  @ Market

There were also lots of meat markets all around where people shop for sausages, cold cuts, steaks, fish and even items like geese and duck. It was fun seeing all the giant meat counters and Germans busily shopping for their kitchens. Makes me wish I cooked more :(

Surprisingly that was all the weird meat stuff I tried... on a family vacation with 6 people + baby, it's hard to be team lead on much.

More Birthday Baking

I enjoy making people desserts for their bdays :D. A couple weeks ago was Camilo's and due to the fact that he is totally amazing and that I feel endlessly guilty about my mass imposition on his living space, I definitely wanted to bake him delicious. He was very not picky and just requested some type of "cupcake," so I tried to choose something beyond awesome: cinnamon coffee cake. 

I am a huge proponent of anything snickerdoodle, so I was very confident in the choice. Things were going well, the recipe itself is pretty easy to follow. I am always careful to pick stuff on all recipes that is from scratch because it seems lame to me to doctor a cake mix :p. The batter was very yummy, and as I put the cakes in the oven, I was already congratulating myself on being awesome. 

Even though the recipe didn't call for it, I thought it would be a great idea to add on cream cheese frosting... because let's be honest, cream cheese frosting is pretty much never a bad thing. I found a simple recipe for the spread and whipped some up. Then I got inspired, why don't I make it cinnamon cream cheese?! How could this go wrong?? >: |. 

DO NOT PURCHASE

My mom always sends me giant boxes of random crap that I have nothing to do with. One such item was a Walmart's own "Great Value Imitation Cinnamon" extract. It came in a small bottle similar to vanilla. I was like, hey, why not? Faiiiiiiil. After a couple drops of this stuff, the whole room smelled like nasty fake cinnamon crap. I freaked out and tasted the large bowl of frosting... but the flavor had already penetrated the entire batch. I started adding in mass amounts of powdered sugar and regular cinnamon to counteract the flavor, but like nothing was working!! It was a tough battle, and I didn't decide to give up until the cupcakes were totally cooked and cooled. 

At first I thought that maybe it would be ok so I frosted the first cake. The smell alone made me know it was not worth it, and I decided to leave the rest dry. I had some cute little sugar decorations for them, so I risked using a drop of the frosting on each to glue them on. Even that was too much!!

All the frosting issue aside, the cupcakes were REALLY tasty :). They were very soft and home-made feeling. It was a terrific light cake with a subtle but very noticeable cinnamon-sugary flavor. I would definitely make these again any day, and this time be less ambitious with the frosting :P

ByeBye Ken!

Due to mass stress for the past week, I got way behind on my blogging. Gotta hurry and catch up before my 6:00 flight to Berlin :)

Sadly, Ken left EA a little over a week ago. Although I didn't really work with him or see him much, losing our amazing plant lunches is totally a heartbreaker. Because I <3 him so much,  I was even willing to go to an expensive restaurant that I've been multiple times to support his goodbye lunch :). Old Port Lobster Shack in Redwood City.

This place has always been a favorite of my dads since my family used to live in Maine before I was born. It's a cute, small shop with a ton of thematic decorations and nautical charts all over the walls that remind me of things my parents used to hang up when I was much younger. They specialize in lobster rolls and dishes. I unfortunately do not like lobster, so I have to get creative

Other times I've been I tried the pulled pork which was quite tasty. This time was a Lent Friday though, so I had to go veggie. I ended up ordering a side of mac &  cheese and a side of sweet potato fries. WIN!! Not only was it a meal of my two favorite foods, but it also ended up being waaaaay cheaper than everyone elses meal. Mine was $9 for a ton of food, whereas the lobster mac was like $20 :D

Food there is pretty tasty if you are willing to pay. Be warned that it gets super crowded at lunch... we had to wait in line for like 15 mins and struggle to get a table large enough to accommodate the whole group

A Taste of SJSU

I always kind of dread going to HP Pavilion events because I am beyond a San Jose food noob, and I never know where to eat after. The majority of the time I end up hitting like the Foster City Denny's @ midnight on my way back to SF. While that is always fun, I like to try new places and experience the local scene.  This time, I decided to take advantage of the Foodies @ EAHQ list, and get some advice. Surprisingly, I only got two responses and both recommended the same place: La Victoria Taqueria. Sold.

After checking the Yelp reviews, I was a bit worried because everyone claimed the special "orange" sauce was to die for, and that without it the food was not particularly memorable. I tend to not like orange stuff (baked goods, chocolate, etc)... but I mentally committed to it anyways. James and I rolled up around 11 after the Sharks game. We were both pretty starving because the match had gotten intense in the last period and ended in a shootout! I was immediately excited by "la vic" because of the awesome building it was in. It looked like a little freestanding (Victorian?) SF row house :)

burrito explosion!

The inside is small, and we were definitely way older seeming than the rest of the SJSU crowd. It wasn't too busy though so we easily got a table to wait for our food. And then we waited... and waited. At first we thought that all of the orders being fulfilled were "to-go," but then after about 10 mins we noticed people who came in after us eating their burritos? It was really hard to understand the woman calling out the order numbers, but we figured out they were on 23 when we held a 10 :P. Finally a worker noticed our disgruntlement and wandered up to ask us what we had ordered. I was a bit annoyed, but then they brought us some chips and salsa to tide us over, so I gave them a semi-pass. The chips were pretty non-descript corn, and the salsa was nothing amazing... so my waiting annoyance re surged.

orange sauce

Finally our food came! We both got burritos with pretty typical taqueria fillings. They let you take one bottle of their acclaimed orange sauce to your table, and you are able to purchase more for $6 to take home. I doused my first bite with it, and it was pretty tasty :). I actually couldn't use that much for the rest of the burrito because I'm so anti orange... but I can appreciate that it is objectively delicious. James seemed to really enjoy his. The burrito was pretty filling and I ended up kind of ripping mine apart at the end and making a huge-giant mess of myself. I'm always the most fun person to take to public restaurants

security detail??

The one thing I thought was hilarious was that there were two security guards posted at the door?? I'm not sure if it's to keep the constant flow of drunk students at bay or whether the Yelp reviews claiming it's to protect the orange sauce are true.... but it was pretty bizarre to see at a little taqueria. Oh! and one super lame thing: they freaking charge for refills on fountain drinks!!! WTF >: |

Glad I went :) prolly wouldn't go back, but if you are in to orange and local flavor, this place seems like a San Jo must

Forever Love- Shamrock Shake

I never know why people obsess so much over the McRib sandwich when clearly McDonald's most amazing and beloved seasonal item is the highly festive St. Patrick's Day Shamrock Shake. To be honest, I don't even objectively like the taste of Shamrock Shakes that much... but something about them is so magical that I can't not get one every year.

1980s cup w/ Uncle O'Grimacey

I have been lucky to always have someone in my life to support me in my obsession. When I was younger, I'd have to hope for a late Ash Wednesday so my mom and I could enjoy them before her intensive fasting began. After I got to Penn, I had my awesome el Seandola to go on crazy, worst-franchise-location McDs tours with in search of this delicacy. I will never forget our Retailing class where I tried to cram our 3 ghetttttto McDs futile quest for the SS in to a 10 min semester-end project about strategic accessibility. One of my finest moments at Wharton. And now, I found out that kwdomke also shares my passion for this elusive shake!

Last night, we decided to finish up Mardi Gras revelry by hitting up the Fillmore McDonald's for a Shamrock Shake. It continues to blow my mind that the restaurant portion of that location closes at freaking 8pm. Despite the extensive foot traffic, they won't serve you via drive-thru unless you have a car, so we had to walk to our vehicles and drive commute back. so silllllly.

check out the packaging! and a very hyper post Mardi Gras Sharon

Major update!! For the first time since the 1980s when McDonald's phased out Uncle McGrimacey, there is some intensive new packaging on the Shamrock Shake! Rather than the typical, opaque soda cup of the past, now they are McCafe-ing it up in a fancy clear cup. They even put whipped cream AND a cherry on top!? This is completely unprecedented and slightly unwarranted in my opinion. I think something as inherently amazing as a Shamrock Shake can stand on its own compositional merit without having to rely on fancy packaging. Just me though :p.

Either way, I am overjoyed I got one before I started my Lent-an ice cream fast today. St. Patrick's Day is a week from tomorrow, don't miss out!

Tots, Funnel Cake, and a Burger on a Krispy Kreme Bun :D

wwf @ the coffee shop

Sometimes I scare myself because I tend to build restaurants and their ridiculous food items up so much in advance that when I actually get there,they aren't that great... especially yesterday. I could barely work because I  was so busy planning for the most potentially epic Roommate Dinner Night ever! So epic that I even did the unspeakable and opened it up to non-SF roomy friends! I was finally going to Straw, the brand new carnival themed restaurant in Hayes Valley that's been getting insane Yelp buzz.

salt + macchiato

Straw is a totally weird-trendy-hipster hole-in-the-wall place on Octavia right off of 101. I had read some reviews that crowds could get bad, so I planned ahead and arrived about 15 mins early for a Monday 8:00pm dining session. It was totally packed!! I spoke to Ari (the crazy nice owner) and he was extremely helpful about my situation. He was very honest in telling me it would be like 1.5 hours before we could seat my party of 7 no matter what permutations we split in to. I was kind of depressed and waited outside for the rest of the group. As people started to arrive (and sadly some dropped out <3 eugi & manu), we determined it was worth it. Cutting our group to 5 helped lower the wait to 45ish mins, and after a quick pit stop at my trunk for emergency granola bar rations, we settled at an adjacent coffee shop.

tilt-a-whirl booth!!

Beyond being so helpful/accomodating with taking names down, Ari was also super cool by personally coming and fetching each party when their table was ready. Ken, James, Carlos, Yee Cheng and I ended up having a lot of fun in the shop despite being starving :). Highlights include Ken mistaking sugar for salt and dousing his macchiato with it, and then completely slamming me down for being too bitchy sometimes :P. James also started pregraming with cinnamon french toast.

Then we were collected and seated :D!! Straw is super tiny but really cozy. Everything about the furniture and decor screams carnival. All of the wall hangings are pictures and signs from rides, the lamps are made of glass jars, there are hay bails in the background, and even one of the booths is made from a tilt-a-whirl cart. The menus were adorable and made individually using old hard book covers. We had pre-browsed the menu and were totally ready to go.

cute hand-made menus

For appetizers, we got: mac & cheese w/ apples & bacon, sweet potato tater tots with blackberry bbq sauce, cheesey corn fritters con fraiche, and mini-corn dogs! All were totally amazing. We shared and devoured them within minutes. The apples added a really great touch to the mac & cheese, I really want to try it at home. I also was really impressed by all of the sauces that came with the items. The corn fritters had a very spicy & awesome aoili that I ended up dipping pretty much everything in. Plus... freaking sweet potato tater tots?! That is inherently unprecedented win :D. I wish wish wish I wasn't still a bit sick so I could have tasted them in their full glory, but I really liked the juxtaposition between those and their blackberry sauce.

mac&cheese w/ apples, sweet potato tots

corn dogs

We all decided to get different "carny" sandwiches because they were too bizarre to pass up. Additionally, it looks like Straw has a monthly changing menu of more legit entrees. I had to go with the "ringmaster" sandwich- a hamburger with a freaking Krispy Kreme donut for a bun!! The rest of the table got: Waffle w/fried chicken, swiss & raspberry jam, "hot tamale" (buffalo chicken), "bearded lady" (pulled pork w/ blackberry coulis & gorgonzola cream), and "boxcar children" (pb&j w/ ham). I think I would have enjoyed the sandwiches regardless of the taste just because of the funny names and crazy ingredients.

corn fritters

I LOVED my burger on a donut <:D. It was actually a lot tastier than I was expecting and something every person should try once. I think it's the same concept as fries & ice cream, mmm. I ended up splitting half & half w/ Ken's waffle sandwich. I didn't like that quite as much because I'm anti chicken, but the waffle portion was delicious. I had small bites of the others and nothing disappointed.

BURGER ON A DONUT! + chicken waffle sandwich

Despite being totally stuffed, we HAD to get dessert. Carlos & I split some funnel cake!!! It came with 3 dipping sauces (choco, vanilla, strawberry) and was pretty awesome. Ken got this ridiculous "flying saucer" which was like.... chunks of chocolate covered in this peanut butter cream mass with things of bacon stuck on top. As I don't like any of those components I didn't really try it, but he seemed to enjoy. James got a big thing of orang-blossom cotton candy. I hate cotton candy, but this was AWESOME! Very melt-in-your-mouth flavorful fantastic. Finally, YC got a gelato medley... rosemary and pineapple-lavender I think? He had attempted to get an inverse root beer float (root beer gelato w/ cream soda), but sadly they were out.

We ended up splitting it all evenly, and with tip it was only $25 a person. This wasn't bad at all considering how much we ate, and how much fun we had at the place. Ken was super happy because they donate 10% to charities on Mondays (this month's is Spark). The bill was a lot of fun because our waitress was super cute, and so we liked getting to talk to her more. I think my favorite part was how down to earth the staff was, they seem to really really care that you are having a good time and treat you like you are friends.

funnel cake & "flying saucer" pb, choco, bacon

This was one of the most fun dining experiences I've had in the Bay Area. The food is great, but more than that, it's just a really enjoyable time to relax with friends and enjoy a very unique meal. I'd get there ASAP before their liquor license goes through and they get even more crowded!! Highly highly highlyyyyy recommend :)

The Road to Ramen Expertise

I have a bad habit of wanting to try new places so much that I almost never repeat restaurants. Although this keeps my eating interesting, it still is kind of silly to not go to back to the ones that are awesome. However! There are a few exceptions. Some foods are so amazing that I want to become an  ultimate expert so I can always end up at the best venues. So far I've mastered froyo & cupcakes, and now I officially am taking on the ramen challenge! I don't think there are THAT many places that serve it, so it seems like a manageable task. Plus, Carlos is also a big fan, so it's a good project for us to take on contigo (yes, i know i'm using that word incorrectly).

Yesterday, we decided to start crossing off some of the places on the Yelp Silicon Valley "ramen list" and hit up Dohatsuten in very south Palo Alto. This place is down in almost Mt. View on San Antonio between 101 and el Camino. It is a very small little shop and looks pretty legit from the outside. We got there about 45 minutes before they were closing for the afternoon, and I was amazed that every table but one was completely filled. There were only two other white people in the place, so I was at first quite excited about the authenticity.

ramen focused menu

The menu was totally ramen focused with an entire sheet dedicated to picking the broth, type, and add-ons to your soup. The back had a few appetizers, but you can tell people come for the ramen. So far so good. We both ordered their "Dohatsuten" special. I added an egg to mine (<3 egg), and Carlos got the "Hyper" version. Points for using the adjective hyper in food context :).

dohatsuten special

Normally I am ok with crowds and noise levels, but I was kind of surprised about how loud the place was for a Sunday afternoon. There were a lot of families and screaming babies. It didn't necessarily bother me, but it definitely didn't add to the positive ambiance.

hyper dohatsuten special

I was starving and super excited when the food finally came; it looked very authentic and delicious. Unfortunately, the taste wasn't as good as the appearance :(. It wasn't bad by any means, but it was not outstanding. Granted we are both sick at the moment (completely coincidentally :P) and not on our tasting A-game, but we just weren't impressed by flavors. The noodles themselves really reminded me of Top Ramen for some reason. They were kind of bland. The broth was tasty, but not as spicy as I would have liked or strong enough to really flavor the ingredients. The "hyper" version didn't seem that much fancier, it just added some more meat, the egg, corn (so jealous), and some green onion things. 

Maybe it would have been better if we had paid extra money for different types of broth (lame! I think broth options should be free), but their "specialty" dish was not really worth the adventure. I'd vote any of the San Mateo shops over this.