Golden Daruma — Restaurant in Burlingame

I found a cute Japanese oden pop-up in the Bay Area, but it's only open until October. Suddenly remembered the childhood joy of eating hot pot skewers from street vendors and couldn't resist the temptation! Excitedly drove there with my buddies. The shop's sign is a black and white circle , which took me a moment to spot. Inside, there's a large bar area with a great atmosphere, but not many seats. I went on a Sunday and waited for about 15 minutes.

🌟 They offer set menus and à la carte options. You can also mix and match. I went for all à la carte since the set included rice and I wanted udon noodles.

🌟 Vegetables: ▫️ Radish (a must-have for hot pot) ▫️ Mochi (outer layer is tofu skin, inside is mochi, quite fun) ▫️ Buttered potatoes (butter-fried potatoes with mayo, a pub-style dish)

🌟 Meat: ▫️ Pork sausages (a must-order, the highlight!) ▫️ Beef tongue (decent) ▫️ Beef tendon (tender and melts in the mouth) ▫️ Chicken wings (not recommended, has a chicken odor) ▫️ Soft-boiled egg (quite good!)

🌟 Seafood: ▫️ Cod puffs (delicious, reminiscent of tamago-yaki)

🌟 Sides: ▫️ Udon noodles (I skipped the set menu for this bowl of noodles! They're chewy, and I finished the soup too) ▫️ Chicken karaage (with mayo, but it's average, not recommended)

Two people spent a little over $80. Set menus are slightly cheaper.

Personally, I found it a lot of fun. It's been a while since I had oden and this was a good experience! It feels like a mix of fine dining without...

Complete rip off. $17 for the chicken combo which was one chicken meatball two boiled chicken wings and some veggies. Everything in the combo is in this tiny pot. They didn’t even offer a plate to put my wing bones. The egg was cold. They put me at a table that was wobbly too. So disappointed that I went to Subways next door...

This pop-up offers tasty oden from May to mid-October. It has about 8 seats, so to avoid the wait, arrive early when it opens. They offer combo meals or you can customize your order. I enjoyed yuzu sauce and yellow mustard. The broth leans more towards a savory soy sauce flavor then bonito, but it’s still delicious...