rev:text
| - Disclaimer: This is my first time eating Chongqing noodles and I'm a medium spice eater at best, so this review is geared towards all you other uncouth noodle newbies out there who stumbled into a place like Hey Noodles in search of ramen lol
First of all, some education for all: Chongqing noodles or "xiao mian" are a street food style of noodle dish originating in Chongqing, China. It is made very simply using wheat noodles, Sichuan chili peppers and other aromatic seasonings (e.g. peppercorn), chili oil, and are garnished with peanuts, scallions, meats or veggies. Ver simplistic, very cheap, VERY SPICY. You have been warned.
I ordered the one and only vegetarian noodle bowl ($6.50) today for lunch, which featured a huge serving of ramen-like noodles (I got all excited, yayyy ramen) doused in plenty of chili oil and was garnished with 1 piece of romaine lettuce- omg where is my bok choy- lots of peanuts and salty Chinese preserved pickles. I was disappointed by the austerity of toppings, but perhaps more disappointed by how flavorless the bowl was. I'm not sure if the noodles were made in-house, but seemed like the grocery store variety. I asked for a mild to medium spice level and while it was okay, the numbing sensation of spices originating in this area of China masked all the other flavors of the dish. I think I was expecting something more like Japanese ramen, where the flavor is imbued in the noodles, but here the main flavor is tongue-numbing spice yet the noodles themselves are bland. 1/5 for the noodle bowl.
The appetizer dish was interesting though, For $5.99 you can choose 3 side dishes. I strongly recommend the "fish tofu", which is blocks of medium tofu flavored like fish. The lotus root and seaweed were sadly under seasoned and overly dependent on the huge amount of spicy chili oil they sat in.
The service was pretty good. Shoutout to the male waiter with glasses and cool hair - thank you for asking me if I wanted a new bowl of less spicy noodles when I was wincing in pain from the spice level!
P.S. They do not accept credit cards - only debit or cash.
Next time I think I'll be going for ramen.
|