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I read a review of Qian on another site and decided to check it out. So glad we did!! We took my father, who luckily was up for trying a new place. When we arrived we were immediately greeted and seated. Ordering was super easy and done via tablet-tho just one per table so we had to take turns looking at the menu. The menu design makes it really easy to customize your order to add or delete ingredients. Service was exceptional and friendly. Once seated we were immediately brought complimentary fried red chili with peanuts (not spicy) and pickled radish. There is also a jar of red chili on the table (spicy). Qian has a limited menu of 13 noodle dishes-both wet (in broth) and dry (with sauce but no broth). Apparently these are the most popular dishes at their Seattle location. Its a great selection but I hope they add more dishes, especially vegetarian options as there aren’t any now. Portions are good size. Everything we ordered was very tasty and was served steaming hot. Dad ordered the Braised lamb brisket with thin rice noodles which came in a broth. Both the lamb and broth were really flavorful. Hubs had the Qian Noodle. He said it was good, but reminded him a bit of a spicy Italian meat sauce. Tho I didn’t taste it so can’t comment on his analysis ? . I had the Marrow Bone Noodle with wheat noodles. I also added thick rice noodles for an extra cost- which sank to the bottom of my bowl and were slippery, so were hard to pick up with my chopsticks. The noodle broth was good not too salty& light flavor (I always prefer less salt because it can always be added but can’t be taken away). The marrow bones came separately in a bowl with a little bit of the marrow broth, which was a bit more flavorful. The marrow bones were good as well, but there was very little meat on them and no additional meat in the broth. So if you want meat, that’s an add on for an additional cost. The interior is striking, very clean and the food rating is Good. So yeah, go check it out.

Joojak Restaurant – Menu with Prices – 3337 Kingsway, Vancouver

It’s been a year or two since my first visit to Joojak Restaurant. Been back twice recently. They’re a Northern Chinese hole in the wall spot right next door to Sushi Aji. The inside is small with only 5 tables but service is sweet and run by two ladies who run the front. Nice that they bring you out water and hot tea. The menu is split into Xian specialties, noodle soups, boiled/fried dumplings, wonton soup, soup, vegetables, main dishes, congee and special combos. Trip #1 We dropped in on a Tuesday evening (around 7:00pm) and it was busy. – Xian pork burger (#1) ($5.50) – pork was moist and tender. Dip in vinegar sauce for some extra flavour. – Xian lamb burger (#2) ($5.95) – lamb had a decent cumin rub on it. – Xian cold noodle (#3) ($8.50) – with gluten, bean sprouts and sliced cucumbers. This is legit! Love the springy bite from the noodles. Everyone had a bowl of li piang on their table. – Beef & noodle soup (#10) ($9.95) – broth is plain and simple. Beef slices were thin and tasty. – Dumplings in spicy sour soup (#23) ($11.99) – you choose from four different dumplings; we opted for the pork and chive. You get a dozen dumplings with a solid meat to skin ratio. The wrapper was excellent, broth was well balanced and seaweed was a welcome addition. – Steamed chicken with chili sauce (#36) ($10.99) – this is their best (aka. signature) dish. The chicken is incredibly tender, moist and flavourful. Love the sauce underneath. There’s even bits of pickled vegetable. Wish they gave you a bowl of rice to soak up all the sauce. Trip #2 We dropped in on a Saturday (around noon) and were the only ones there. – Xian pork burger (#1)( $5.50) – our friends ordered one to share. – Green onion pancake (#9) ($4.50) – it’s cut into 8 pieces. A little small but tasty. – Xian cold noodle (#4) ($8.95) – this one is with gluten, sliced cucumbers, bean sprouts and sesame paste. Solid. – Hand pulled noodle with hot chili oil (#13) ($8.95) – first time trying their Biang Biang noodles; good bite but there weren’t a ton of noodles. – Boiled dumpling with pork & bok choy (#19) ($9.95 for 12) – we opted for ours to be boiled. Dumplings are homemade and the pork filling is excellent. – Steamed chicken with chili sauce (#36) ($10.99) – always a must order. Their chicken still reigns supreme. Another solid Northern Chinese spot. Will be back to try their larger main dishes next time.

Old Taro Taiwanese Noodle – Menu with Prices – 4370 Thornton Ave, Fremont

One of my (and my mom’s) favorite beef noodle soup places ever! It’s definitely a hole in the wall, so usually on weekdays there is no wait. Occasionally, on weekends during lunch there will be a wait – a lot of families love the lamb hot pots (?), and it’s very family friendly. The place is not big, there are probably only 10 tables total, with 4 seats at each table. The spicy beef noodle soup is so good – it reminds me a lot of beef noodle soups found in Taiwan, and they give 3-4 pieces of meat in each bowl. They also offer the sour mustard greens é?¸è? and hot sauce on the side. Personally, I don’t add anymore hot sauce – it’s spicy enough for me. And recently, they just added “thick” noodles that look like handmade noodles. I love thicker noodles, the texture is much chewier than the original thin noodle. Occasionally, I get the plate of pork ears, since I like to dip them in hot sauce. Price of a bowl of beef noodle soup is $10.25 right now, which is similar to other beef noodle places around Fremont. I come here probably once a week or so, sometimes more. I just got it yesterday for take-out, and I know for a fact I’ll be getting lunch here again in 2 days. The service isn’t amazing, but it’s very efficient. I don’t expect great service at small, family run places like these though. There is no decor, but prices are decent, food is pretty great, and service is efficient. I highly recommend giving the beef noodle soup a try.

Mr Rice Restaurant – Menu with Prices – 1223 University Ave #120, Riverside

Gosh, I really hate to do this……especially when this is a small start-up business. But there are many elements wrong with this place. The decor is nice until you walk towards the rear by the restrooms. You’ll find a puddle of dirty, standing water. Not only is it unsanitary, its an imminent hazard waiting to happen. Please put a caution sign around that! The service wasn’t memorable. I didn’t get checked upon once, the only times I saw my server was to place my order and have it delivered to my table. The two servers didn’t look too enthused to be there. Furthermore, there weren’t any music or television on which made for an awkward experience. I felt like I was eating inside a library rather than a restaurant with how eerily quiet it was. Now for my order. I ordered the Double Wagyu Beef Noodle. There was nothing double about it nor was it wagyu. The beef was more like cheap sukiyaki beef with a lot of fat. Three thin slices of beef was in my bowl…. The worst part of the bowl was the broth. Now, I can eat basically every type of meat except for lamb. Lamb has a gamey flavor not suitable for my palette (taste like vomit to me), but this broth tasted like they used lamb or mutton to slow cook it with. I’m really sensitive to the taste of lamb and this broth almost made me want to yak. The rest of the ingredients including the wood ear mushroom were good, but again that broth ruined it for me. There aren’t actually any rice dishes at “Mr. Rice”. I only found soup noodles and dry noodle dishes on the menu.

Yu Noodle House – Menu with Prices – 2445 Burrard St, Vancouver

We were in the ‘hood looking for a quick bite to eat before trivia night. I found a Northern Chinese/Henan spot called Yu Noodle House. They opened fairly recently, back in June. We dropped in on a Monday (around 6:45pm) and were the only ones eating in. A couple other Asians came in to grab takeout. The inside is newly renovated and has 12 tables (fits about 36 people). The menu is small with noodles, street eat Chinese style, rice, soup and drinks. – Tea – complimentary and our pot was refilled. Quite nice. – Noodle with lamb in soup (#1) ($10.95) – the broth is basic so don’t order this expecting a punch of flavour. That being said, the wide, flat noodles were excellent and lamb slices were tender. Wish there was more. It also came with bok choy, knot yam noodles and wood ear mushrooms. The last two were unexpected surprises. – Spicy oil noodles with vegetables (#4) ($8.95) – they asked us how spicy we wanted our bowl; we went with medium. This was delicious! Noodles were chewy and toothsome. An extremely satisfying bite to them. Only issue was that they do get a tad clumpy. Flavourwise, I liked how it wasn’t too oily. The spice level was perfect. The scoop of minced garlic, bean sprouts and bokchoy were an excellent addition. I’ll be back to try more dishes. Looking forward to it!

Five Spices House – Menu with Prices – 546 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge

Super solid authentic Chinese food in the heart of Central Square! Service was ok but could be improved and is the main reason I took off one star. The first time I went here I got take out of Sichuan braised beef noodle soup. It tasted delicious! Meat was tender, noodles had good texture, and there was plenty of bok choy as well. The food was ready within 15 minutes of when I ordered. I came here again for dinner with my boyfriend. There was no wait, although the restaurant stayed busy during our time there. Most of our food came out pretty fast, but the waiters were sometimes a little confused about who ordered what. One dish took a little longer, and just as we were about to ask about it, a waiter told us it’s not done but will be out soon. Overall I didn’t mind the inconsistent service too much as we didn’t have to wait too long and it was easy to say that we did or didn’t order a dish, but service could definitely be improved for customers to have more peace of mind. The delicious food really makes up for the service! Water spinach with garlic was very flavorful; the garlic somehow added a subtle sweetness that really made the vegetable enjoyable. I’m not usually a huge fan of water spinach but I devoured the water spinach here. Minced pork with black bean sauce over noodles passed my noodle test. Noodles have good texture and sauce is just right — not too sweet, not too salty, and good ratio of sauce to noodle. Sauce came with plenty of pork and bean curd. I also really enjoyed the Sichuan diced chicken with chili peppers. It’s actually not very spicy so if you like spicy you probably need to ask them to make it more spicy. One thing to note: rice doesn’t come with any dishes and costs $2 a bowl. Most Chinese restaurants my boyfriend and I have been to have complimentary rice so this was unexpected for us. I personally don’t mind since I’m not a huge fan of rice but my boyfriend likes rice and thought the price is a bit steep. Other than that, prices and portion sizes for the dishes were pretty reasonable. I plan to come back to try some other dishes next time I’m craving authentic Chinese food!

Cafe Mai-Mai – Menu with Prices – 8636 Granville St, Vancouver

A hole-in-the-wall establishment located near the corner of Granville and 70th. Not expecting good decor or service, and my expectations were definitely met. However, the dining space and utensils did not look or feel dirty, at least to the human eye and touch. Main selling point is msg-free pho, which may appeal to some people. Menu includes the classic Vietnamese appetizers, pho, vermicelli and rice dishes. They also have specials like bun bo hue, satay pho and sweet and sour pho. For a weeknight, I didn’t want to be too adventurous so stuck with the classic pho options and ordered the rare beef house special pho: a bowl of vietnamese soup with rice noodles, rare beef, beef balls, tripe and tendons. It is garnished with green onions and cilantro, and served with bean sprouts, basil leaves and lime on the side. Condiments include chili oil, chili sauce and hoisin sauce. The broth could be hotter temperature-wise. It also has a darker brown color which leads me to think soy sauce and/or fish sauce may have been added. Flavor is okay (enough seasoning) but lacking depth. Adding chili sauce and oil to the broth really enhanced the flavor. The various meat toppings were well-prepared and paired nicely with the broth and noodles. Portion size was good for soup and noodle, but amount of meat was slightly lacking. Also ordered the fried spring rolls but they served me the salad rolls instead. Funny enough, the waiter tried to serve the salad rolls to another table that also ordered fried spring rolls. When it finally arrived, I had already finished my pho so timing was not ideal. The spring roll itself is wrapped with Chinese spring roll wraps. My preference is the double wrapped rice paper spring roll variant that I have grown to love while visiting Ho Chi Minh. The filling was a bit bland, so the complementary fish sauce was a welcome sight and added much needed flavor to each bite. Maybe I should have kept the salad roll instead…. My overall experience was underwhelming, which is unfortunate as pho here is decent. Service can be improved and menu/decor should be updated. You can find much better pho and vietnamese food in other parts of town, but do visit if you are in the area and craving a bowl of pho – just remember to skip everything else, including the washrooms.

Kitakata Ramen Ban Nai – Menu with Prices – 420 Grand St, Jersey City

I managed to make a quick, focused trip to this 99 Ranch stall during a layover at Newark airport (altogether about a 50 minute trip each way by NJ Transit & PATH), and I’m immensely glad I did. I’ve already been to a branch in the NW suburbs of Chicago, where I immensely enjoyed the Kitakata ramen and was blown away by the depth of umami contained in each spoonful of the clear, chintan broth. For this trip, I opted for the spicy miso ramen with added ajitama egg and spicy green onions. It was beautifully presented, with a mountain of veggie goodies on top and a crispy chili paste to top it off. The first sip of broth (sadly, with a sad and small Western plastic spoon rather than an Asian soup spoon) I took was heavenly, with a perfect balance of umami miso flavor and a full body of chili oil and pork fat. Amazing, amazing broth that I have zero complaints about. As I got to the noodles, I was immediately surprised by the discrepancy between this location and that of the Chicago suburb branch. These were fatter cut noodles than the reliable Sun noodles I’m used to back home (and at many ramen establishments). They may well be a Sun noodle variant themselves, but if they aren’t that strikes me as a little odd considering the company’s headquarters are based in New Jersey. At any rate, I appreciated the chewy, mochi-mochi texture of these fatter noodles; however, I didn’t find them to be quite the broth flavor vector I was hoping for. Though not lacking in the texture department, tastewise the noodles were just a tad blander than the Sun noodles many restaurants default to. I do wonder if this branch decided to make their own noodles, which is a challenge I applaud them for, but in the case of my bowl could’ve easily been 5 stars if they stuck to true and tested methods. Portion size was perfect; I finished my meal (+ bubble tea from CoCo a few stalls over) not too full or hungry. Chashu was on point, gratuitous in fatty content and taste, which has been done justice by other reviews. My extra order of spicy green onions was redundant; there were already a plethora of tasty veggies piled into the bowl, although the extra bit of chili oil they added may have rounded out the broth taste ever so slightly more. I will continue to frequent this chain whenever I am nearby! Not the easiest for me to get to from my usual locations, but worth a special trip. I need to try the Karaage chicken on my visit when I take some friends.

Flower Brook Mifen House – Menu with Prices – 44-35 Kissena Blvd, Flushing

Came here after a doctor’s visit on a rainy day. No umbrella, but it’s walkable from Charles b Wang community center. Place looks Asian but also hipster. Cashier speaks English very well. I wasn’t sure what type of noodle they had so I went with my gut and ordered my favorite lamb topping on noodle soup. The guy charged me $9. That’s a little expensive for a bowl of noodles. Also I got the Wang lo Kat drink which was $2. I said to stay and I got my food from the counter and there were sone unknown pink stuff in it. I thought it was ginger because it looked like ginger from japanese sushi restaurants but it was sour and had texture like a cabbage. I stopped eating that and focused on the noodle and the noodles were like hand-pulled noodles except a bit more uniformed but same amount of positive mouth feels, chewy and smooth at the same time like what the other reviews say. The soup was amazing which I didn’t expect because I asked for less spicy and usually I prefer spicy noodle soup but it didn’t need the spicy to make it taste good. The sour vegetables complimented the rich beef broth really well. They give lots of cilantro to contrast the flavors. I usually don’t like half a boiled egg in my noodle soup but this was a tea leaf egg, which made it okay. I will visit here again when I go see the doctor again! Or maybe even just to show my friends. It was pretty dead when I went so I was skeptical of their food being good. But to be fair I went at 3ish pm

Misako Asian Cuisine – Menu with Prices – 4701 Shore Dr #113, Virginia Beach

First visit since Misako moved to Shore Dr. I had extremely high expectations based on the reviews, history from previous location & was really looking forward to this visit. I don’t think I chose my dishes wisely. We started with appetizers: * Gyoza – Thin wrapper possibly pre-made. Meat was proportioned. Flavor was acceptable for the quantity, cost, and it being an appetizer. * Calamari – HUGE pieces of squid tail and tentacles were falling out of thick tempura batter. Dish was mostly batter with huge hidden chunks of squid. Least favorite dish. Main entrees: * Szechuan Spicy Beef Ramen – broth was delicious, flavorful, and had the perfect spiciness. My favorite dish so far. Beef was tender. Noodles were rice noodles, not egg noodles. I prefer egg noodles. There were way too many noodles. If I could’ve ordered only the broth, I would have. * Chicken Teriyaki – no sauce. Bland piece of chicken breast, a scoop of rice, and bok choy. Glad I tried. Maybe I’ll try again another day.

Magic Noodle – Menu with Prices – 1337 University Ave W, St Paul

Wow. This is a pretty legit noodle house. We visited for dinner one night and found the fairly large restaurant to be full with a few parties waiting. We were greeted, given a buzzer and seated fairly promptly. Our waitress was so cute – very prompt and also very busy. She answered all of our questions and tapped our order into her ipad. We ordered big (we can’t help ourselves). Even though the menu seems like it’s kinda small, there are so many good things to eat that it’s really not a problem. So we got the dumpling chili oil appetizer, which was pretty bomb. The wrappers are homemade, light and delicate, with a good filling and a lovely chili sauce that was just the Minnesota spicy right amount of spicy. We got the beef burrito, which was like a Chinese version of a beef burrito with a super crunchy outer layer that reminded me of a thin crispy scallion pancake. Really good, especially when dipped with the leftover chili oil from the dumplings. I got the Moo Shu Fried Noodles, which were a generous portion of lovely hand pulled egg noodles cooked perfectly with some finely sliced veggies and the amazing black fungus. The sauce was flavorful and a touch sweet. My only wish was that the sauce was a little bit thicker. A good tablespoon of corn starch would have helped. But that’s maybe just me. It was absolutely delicious. My husband got the Lanzhou Noodle Soup, which had a different wider type of noodle in a beautiful broth. My husband is trying to eat healthy and asked for extra veggies, which was an add on option at the bottom of the menu (along with a lot of other on-demand extras). Also – I know this is weird. Our entire meal started with an incredibly cold, chilly perfect glass of water. Sometimes it’s the small things you know? Overall very very good. We will definitely be back.

Kwei Fei at Charleston Pour House – Menu with Prices – 1977 Maybank Hwy, Charleston

Unlike the Americanized-greasy fusion type places – just a heads up – Kwei Fei’s dishes are family-style and meant for sharing. Do not fret if your chopsticks happen to touch your eating companions’. It will be okay. You will survive; I promise. For those unfamiliar with Sichuan/Szechuan cuisine, you are missing out! Sichuan cuisine is typically a very spicy type of Chinese food and is also known for being very flavorful. MANY Sichuan dishes incorporate a lot of garlic and chilli peppers, so make sure those two ingredients are palatable before you hit up Kwei Fei. My husband and I shared three dishes: 1) Dan Dan Mian (noodles) Sesame paste and/or peanut butter is sometimes added, and occasionally replaces the spicy sauce, usually in the Taiwanese and American Chinese style of the dish. In this case, there was peanut/peanut butter in the dan dan noodles, making their dan dan mian (noodle) sweeter, less spicy, and less soupy than its Szechuan/Sichuan counterpart. 2) Dry Fried Green Beans This is a staple in many Chinese restaurants, so we were interested to see Kwei Fei’s take on this particular dish. Although on the smaller side, our order arrived looking delightfully aromatic. Accompanied with rice, the green beans are just the right amount of salt and heat. Without rice, It would be a tad too salty if eaten alone. Great flavor, nonetheless! 3) Sichuan Beef The beef was very tender. By the look of the broth, I had anticipated the beef and broth to be three times more spicy and numbing, but it was actually the most mild of the three dishes we ordered. This is not a spicy dish, so the the name of the dish may be misleading. It may not be the prettiest entree to capture on pictures, but the taste and flavour is right on! Overall, it was a pleasant dining experience. Two things prevented this from being a five-star review. First would be the fact that for a reportedly “spicy” and “Sichuan” place, we left not feeling to numb in the spice department. We have been to other Sichuan places that left us wanting to curl up into our former selves and cry more than usual. Second, the service was a bit slow. We were seated almost immediately, but it took over 30 minutes before our first dish came to the table. It must have been a busy night for take-out? Note to selves for next time – add hot oil provided at the table to the dishes to kick up the spice level!

698 cafe ??? – Menu with Prices – 39-07 Prince St #1H, Flushing

This location has been the kiss of death for so many restaurants before it and I’m sorry to say that if things don’t improve from the kitchen, 698 Cafe will be another victim of the KOD on Prince Street. No fewer than 3 restaurants have been evicted in the past 3-4 years here. Every time, a new hopeful group pops in and sets up shop, hoping to beat the odds. The decor here is really clean and nice. The staff here is polite and very attentive. The food however is pretty subpar and the kitchen has major issues. We ordered 2 noodles, spicy beef appetizer and some “marinated” cucumbers. The food here is well, just not very good and the kitchen needs to sort things out because it was awful in getting not just our food out but that for every single diner. The cucumbers were weird – cut like a small curl like they shave it with a knife but they’re definitely not marinated. They poured the sauce (soy, vinegar, sugar and chili) over the cucumbers so there was no absorption of the flavor (which was actually pretty good). One noodle dish came out immediately. We then waited another 15 minutes for our other cold dish (spicy beef) and an additional 5 minutes (20 minutes later) for the last noodle dish (beef noodle soup). The spicy beef was actually really good – pungent and spicy but waiting 15 minutes during the busy lunch hour in a full restaurant for something that’s already prepared wasn’t good. Also, the beef noodle soup was pretty awful. It’s not Taiwanese or Lanzhou beef noodles – they use the old HK noodle shop way of basically using wonton noodles, wonton noodle soup and then bits of stewed beef added later (the beef was paltry and dry). The soup was bland. The noodles looked like they used the ones in from the Chinese supermarket – definitely not made in house. What killed this meal was the waiting. They leave the orders on a slip of paper taped onto the table so the servers can check and make sure things come. While they checked often and apologized profusely, the kitchen never could get anything to come out on time. This wasn’t unique to us, the entire restaurant was repeatedly asking where their dishes were. Noodle soups came out in droves of similar orders which made me think the kitchen made multiple orders at once and not when they were ordered. Some people waited even longer for the same dish that we had ordered on account that they brought them all out at the same time (and they clearly sat before us). This place kind of sucks considering how fierce the competition is in Flushing for similar restaurants. Not recommended when there are so many quality options literally feet away.