We were first given the tray of toppings for my bowl of cross bridge noodles and also two bowls of rice noodles that were already cooked.
When my bowl of hot soup arrived, I poured in all of the ingredients on my tray starting with the meats into the bowl followed by the bowl of pre-cooked rice noodles. "Crossing the Bridge Noodles" have this specialty where all of the ingredients are then cooked together with the rice noodles in the hot soup. I've had it before many times.
Mine was the Signature Rice Noodle Soup with Braised Bone-in Pork. I liked my soup base since it was so light in flavour but still very fragrant and tasty. The braised bone-in pork was meaty. What I liked most were their rice noodles. It was firm enough for my taste and had a slight bounce in it. Now I understand why they are a popular franchise in China.
The Sour & Spicy Flavoured Crossing the Bridge Rice Noodle Soup with Beef Slices came already stocked with the ingredients in it so only the bowl of pre-cooked rice noodles had to be added in. This soup base was indeed a bit sour and spicy; true to its name. It wasn't very, very spicy though so don't worry if you don't have a big tolerance for spice.
This restaurant was very packed at the mid-point of our meal. There were so many people coming in for lunch on a weekday that a line started to form and there were a good number of people standing outside. Wow! That was really impressive. I haven't seen many restaurants in Toronto have a line-up for lunch.