Himawari
The karaage comes on a plate bigger than the ramen bowl. Vinyl record covers hang on the walls, and The Six Fifty's ramen guide said in 2018 that the room looks more like a jazz bar.
Why go
The bowls are the familiar four: soy, shio, miso and deluxe, with agedashi tofu, gyoza and edamame beside them.1 The broth runs light. Christine Lee and Ashley Wang, who wrote the Peninsula's ramen guide, send obsessives and beginners here alike.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the chicken karaage, and share it.1
- Order: the shio. Lee and Wang's one judgment on this kitchen is that the broth runs light.1
What locals & experts say
- Lee and Wang, on what to order:
Don't forget to order the massive, crispy-on-the-outside, tender-in-the-inside chicken karaage, which comes on a plate that's bigger than the ramen bowl.
1 - Zero Cho, a San Mateo resident, to SFGate's Nico Madrigal-Yankowski while queueing for a new ramen shop in 2023:
Himawari [in San Mateo] is usually my favorite ramen, but [Kajiken] looks interesting.
3
Good to know
- This page is 202 2nd Ave, and the number Palo Alto Online prints is (650) 375-1005.2
- The description is old even where the page is new. Palo Alto Online reprinted those 2018 paragraphs in 2023 without a fresh visit, and I have not found anyone who has eaten here and written it up since.2
Verdict
could-visit — One write-up has carried this room since 2018 and nobody has been back to check it. Walk in on a weekday and treat the karaage as the reason.