San Mateo

Peninsula Dining Update: Ike's and The Plant Cafe Move South, Filipino Chain Dining

Kenta Ramen is the latest entry into the intense pool of San Mateo area ramen shops. The new spot specializes in a spicy taro ramen with pork and tofu, but also offers 16 versions of ramen, udon, and soba. The mammoth menu covers many corners of Japanese cuisine. You can start with crispy chicken ka ... More >>

Peninsula Dining Update: New Coastal Restaurants, a Hofbrau, and Pizza in Palo Alto

Just in time for the summer beach season, a few new destinations have opened up along the coast. In Pacifica, the 140-seat Puerto 27 is now open inside the Pacifica Beach Hotel. The Peruvian-style cuisine comes courtesy of Jose Calvo-Perez, most recently of Pasion in San Francisco's Sunset District. ... More >>

California's Economic Recovery Has Been a Tale of Two States

When President Obama was elected in November 2008, the national unemployment rate was at 6.5 percent, and quickly rising. The Great Recession was picking up speed. By the inauguration, the unemployment rate had reached 8.5 percent. It eventually peaked a year later, in January 2010, at 10.6 percent. ... More >>

Markegard Family Grass-Fed Offers Workshops for the Aspiring Urban Farmer

If you have an itch to drive out of the city learn more about the country life, then Markegard family of Half Moon Bay have a workshop series that might be for you. The Markegards run a large grass-fed farm and ranch in Half Moon bay and raise beef, lamb, eggs and pastured pork, all available via CS ... More >>

Bradley Mrozek, S.F. Man, Busted by Police for Allegedly Kidnapping 9-Year-old Girl

A San Francisco man spent the weekend in jail after he allegedly assaulted and abducted a elementary school girl in San Mateo on Friday afternoon. According to police, 25-year-old Bradley Mrozek contacted the 9-year-old girl at Parkside Elementary School, assaulted her and then transported her a sho ... More >>

Jerky v. Jerky: Eliminating the Bland in the Big Meat-Off

When we wrote up Krave's artisan jerky, a reader suggested that Oaktown Jerk made a jerky worth looking into. Then we discovered the new artisan jerky Jerk'N Pickle at the SF Chocolate Salon, and realized that it was time for a jerky-off. Oaktown Jerk: Cool label to be sure, but the meat was less i ... More >>

BarBot 2012: (Drunken) Man Vs. Machine

What: BarBot 2012 Where: pariSoma Innovation Lofts When: Fri., March 2 and Sat. March 3, 8-10 p.m. Cost: $15 at the door, $10 presale online The rundown: Nerds have come up with the ultimate way to meet girls with the fifth annual "festival of cocktail robotics." Cosmopolitans, White Russians, ... More >>

Bay Area Trading Firm Falls Victim to Online Hijacking Scam, Costing Customers Millions

​A Lativan man is being accused of a massive online hijacking scheme where he manipulated stock prices, making more than $850,000 in illegal profits from trading firms, including one in San Mateo. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit in San Francisco this week, claiming Igors Nag ... More >>

Ramen Parlor Adds to San Mateo's Ramen Empire

Luis ChongPork broth ramen with lobster oil.​While the city's ramen culture is just beginning to flourish, San Mateo's ramen scene is leaping ahead with a modern variant of ramen. One-month old Ramen Parlor is the latest ramen venture from chef-owner Kazunori Kobayashi, whose San Mateo ramen ... More >>

San Francisco One of the Few California Towns with Room for Prisoners

Draeger's Makes American Kobe Beef Pastrami Sweet

​Viognier restaurant, atop the impressively upscale San Mateo grocery store Draeger's, is moving into meat production, and was kind enough to drop us off a taste of its first product, American Kobe Beef Pastrami. The idea is fascinating. Pastrami, usually made from beef brisket -- one of the ... More >>

HiYaaa! Truck's Banh Mi Hit San Mateo Tonight

Albert LawThe HiYaaa! banh mi truck on its inaugural run.​Last Thursday, HiYaaa! (Twitter: @hiyaaaroll) kicked off its run, serving hot sandwiches to staff and friends at Ah Sam Florist in San Mateo. Influenced by their Korean, Chinese, and Vietnamese heritage, owners Van Truong, Phillip Pagan, an ... More >>

Naked Chorizo, Filipino Food Truck, Offers its Pork Sausage Uncased

www.nakedchorizo.com​Chef-owner Zenia Llamas was looking for a provocative name for her new Filipino food truck which debuted in April. Naked Chorizo is a literal translation of Chorizong Hubad, a seasoned uncased pork sausage. Llamas' version is marinated and then cured for 5 days, to be us ... More >>

San Francycle: Did David Chiu Drive on Bike to Work Day?

​Wasn't Bike to Work day fabulous this year? We certainly saw a lot more cyclists out than usual, and we hope to see them out again on the remaining 364 days until next year. Let's do a quick roundup of the best of the bikes. According to the Chron, the mayor and "almost every member of the Bo ... More >>

Rageit Almurisi, Passenger on SFO-Bound Flight, Bangs on Cockpit Door, Wrestled to the Ground

Another crazy passenger​This is any passenger's worst nightmare a week after the killing of Osama bin Laden. Passengers on a San Francisco-bound flight last night had a scare when a 28-year-old man with a Yemeni passport for no reason started yelling and banging on the cockpit door. Media outlets ... More >>

Haggis on a Stick, South Asian Fusion, Making the Easter Bunny Cry

​Today's notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other bycatch dredged up from the food media.1. The good kind of scary. Thrillist came out with a list of five fried dishes that I think are supposed to be unnerving but just look delicious. On the bucket list: Bar Agricole's fr ... More >>

Get Your Ass to San Mateo for: Romolo's Cannoli

Luis ChongSpumoni and cannoli from Romolo's in San Mateo.​Traditional cannoli seem to have been all but forgotten in this era of cupcakes and macarons. SFoodie took advantage of a rare sunny weekend earlier this month to rekindle memories of Romolo's in San Mateo, the oldest (and only, for tha ... More >>

Get Your Ass to San Mateo for: Chuka Ryori Cuisine at Yu-Raku

Luis ChongYu-Raku is the Bay Area's second eatery specializing in Chuka Ryori, Japanese-style Chinese food.​A new series that urges SFoodie readers to get their butts out of the Mission. For a couple hours anyway. It may sound strange, but Japanese-style Chinese food (known as "Chuka Ryori") ... More >>

Recent Openers

Recent Openers

High-tech Thieves Jury Rigged Gas Pumps to Steal Customers' Identities

​A pair of MacGyver-esque identity thieves has pleaded guilty to implanting devices in gas pumps that stole customers' checking-account information, a scheme that state officials say brought in $90,000.The California Attorney General's office announced today that the men -- David Karapetyan and Zh ... More >>

Recent Openers

Giants' World Series Trophy in City Hall Tomorrow

You think he was there for the trophy or the supes meeting? ​The confluence of the current Board of Supervisors' final meeting and a two-day stopover by the Giants' World Series trophy portends for large crowds in City Hall over the next several days. Expect lots of wild clothing and boisterous sp ... More >>

Oidon's Champon, the Un-Tonkotsu

Luis ChongDespite appearances, champon, a noodle soup with roots in Nagasaki, bears little relation to tonkotsu ramen.​Thursday, December 23, 2010 Luis Chong​Cold, wet days call for hearty comfort dishes. One of our favorites is a popular noodle soup from Nagasaki, Japan, called champo ... More >>

'Tis the Season -- For Sewage Maladies: 1 Million Gallons Spill in Marin

Yes, again​Sewage-Related Terrorism?Yesterday we wrote about rain-induced sewage overflows befouling beaches South of San Francisco in San Mateo county. Now sewage is spewing into waters north of us, in Marin's Corte Madera Creek. Lots of sewage. And rain may have nothing to do with it. Perhaps 1 ... More >>

Sewage Deposits Lead to Beach Closures

​Long walks along the beach need not be romantic. As is all too often the case, heavy rainstorms result in overflowing sewers leading to foul detritus littering the bay. To put it bluntly, beaches in our vicinity are currently despoiled with what 17th-century London diarist Samuel Pepys would have ... More >>

Nudists Planning Airport TSA Protest. Cops Planning Arrests.

In your dreams, TSA​The TSA might just get the chance to make good on its claim that the agency has no problem with people going through the airport security line naked. San Francisco nudist Rusty Mills -- whom you may recall from our recent cover story -- told us he was heartened by the news ... More >>

Chef of Gator's Neo Soul Cafe Bringing BBQ Back to San Mateo

Luis ChongGlenn "Gator" Thompson will begin by introducing a stand-alone BBQ menu to The Grill.​Glenn "Gator" Thompson was chef-owner of Gator's Neo Soul Cafe in downtown San Mateo from 2007-2009 before getting his current gig at Bayonne Casual Southern Dining in San Jose. This week, Thompson ... More >>

Ginji Izakaya Coming to San Mateo's J-Food Zone

Luis ChongThe site's a former flooring store in the heart of the Peninsula's Japanese-cuisine ghetto.​There's no end in sight for San Mateo's glut of J-food ― not that we're complaining. The Peninsula city is about to get yet another izakaya restaurant, this one named Ginji, presumably after ... More >>

Hawaii Six Five-0: Takahashi's Polynesia on the Peninsula

Tamara PalmerGuava chiffon cake from Redwood City's Cake Happy.​Tokutaro Takahashi started his eponymous San Mateo market in 1906, and there it still stands, operated by three generations of the Takahashi family. What it might lack in polish, it more than compensates for with the Bay Area's be ... More >>

New Restaurants

Kauffman's Five: This Week in Food Bloggery

​This week's favorite bits from SFoodie and beyond. 1. A celebrity panel assembled by Brian Yaeger to do a blind tasting of pale ales found that, oh yeah, our Sierra Nevada still shows well against the competition. If you've been avoiding Sierra Nevada because it's ol' familiar, reread Roxanne Web ... More >>

Bay Area's First 'Stamina Ramen' to Debut at Soon-to-Launch Dojo

L. ChongThe Santa Ramen spin-off will focus on the spicy and the stamina-inducing. ​Popular Santa Ramen in San Mateo is adding a second location expected to open April 8. Just as S.F.'s Green Chile Kitchen recently opened the spin-off Chile Pies (& Ice Cream) at its pre-expansion site, owners ... More >>

Friday at Draeger's, S.F. Culinary Classics Revealed

T. PalmerShrimp Louis, the San Francisco treat.​We heart the demonstration classes at Draeger's Cooking School (locations in San Mateo, Blackhawk, Menlo Park, and Los Altos). It's a great evening -- you plop behind a very studious desk, but instead of doing any real work, sip a glass of wine as be ... More >>

S.F. is special, even when it comes to raw sewage

What Bay Area Bridge Will Feature an Upended Big Rig Truck Today?

What truck mayhem will hit a Bay Area bridge today?​The tried and true journalistic maxim is that it takes three instances to have a bona fide "trend." So, no, the Bay Area isn't experiencing a "trend" of big rig trucks flipping over on local bridges. But, you have to admit, the knee-jerk phrase o ... More >>

Five Must-Eat Treats at the Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival

​The 14th Annual Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival, September 12-13 at Ghirardelli Square (900 North Point at Polk), finds more chocolate-themed food vendors than ever before. Careful: If you don't pace yourself, the sugar rush will overtake you before you get to taste the cream of th ... More >>

That's Just the Sound of the Employment Rate Whizzing Past Your Ears

The California Employment Development Department released their latest statistics pertaining to unemployment and industry today, and guess what? They are not awesome. California hit a record high of 11.2 percent unemployment in March, which is nearly five points higher than March of last year. San F ... More >>

Budget Rock by the alphabet

Ten Better Lies for Online Cheating Than 'I Was Attacked!'

Greening the Left

Tycoons will pay to generate leftist ideas in voters' minds, but now they want to see results

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Fowl Play

Celebrating cock-a-doodle-doo

Zipped Up

S.F. Archbishop William Levada doesn't want the public to know about decades of alleged sexual misconduct by his clerics. But why are district attorneys in San Mateo, Marin, and San Francisco helping him keep secrets?

Twilight Zone

The Rock goes dark

Let It Roll

A skate date

Do the Eskimo Roll

Pilot a skiff at PaddleFest

Letters to the Editor

Week of June 12, 2002

Worst of the Lot

Bay Area nursing home regulation lags behind state