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| - We were after a bit of lighter dinner after nearly two weeks of eating out on vacation, and were already at the Bellagio while waiting for the doors to open for O. A quick scan of the restaurant offerings seemed to suggest that Noodles would hit the spot.
We ordered a pair of specialty cocktails, the steamed dumplings, the Szechuan Dan-Dan noodle soup and the Spicy Thai Shrimp Noodle Soup. I had high hopes, given the decor of the restaurant and the emphasis on "Authentic regional dishes from all over Asia".
Food snob warning: I have fond memories of Dan-Dan Noodle Soup from visiting Szechuan province, and there's a restaurant near my home that does a pretty accurate version. I also make it pretty well myself. It's not hard.
What I was served at Noodles compares only in name - the flavor of the broth was extremely muted and there was no measurable amount of heat to the dish. It needed chili oil, and I tried to get some Szechuan chili oil from our server so I could fix it, but no can do - she said the kitchen doesn't have it. Which seems odd, being that Szechuan chili oil is a key ingredient in this dish.
I'd liken it to serving pho without having Sriracha and hoisin sauce to dip the meat in. It's edible, but would be missing an expected set of flavors.
After a little prodding, our server did bring out a dish of the house chili oil, which was chopped green/red jalapenos and garlic in vegetable oil. It helped a little, but it doesn't exactly replace the complex flavors or the numbing sensation of Szechuan peppercorns.
The wife's Spicy Thai shrimp noodle soup was similarly bland and would have benefited from some additional fish sauce and Thai chili pepper. She wasn't very happy either, but she doesn't feel a need to go off on a tirade about it. That's my turf.
Authentic? Not one bit.
Palatable to the average American? Sure.
I did get to pay more than 50 times what a bowl of Dan-Dan noodle soup costs on the streets of Chengdu, and almost twice what it costs at home. So it had that going for it at least. ;)
I should have pulled the car from valet and driven to Chubby Cattle instead. Oh well.
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