eOn my first visit I tried the Japanese pan noodles with shrimp and made it a triple combo with a small bowl of the thai curry soup.
The thai curry soup was actually quite delicious with pieces of spinach, mushrooms and carrots but the noodles were a little undercooked making them hard and almost unpalatable. The pan noodle in the small portion is quite small and the sauce was good (super salty!!) but but the noodles were on the dry side. The shrimp were a little gross, they weren't fresh and had the weird taste that cheap frozen shrimp have. There were about 6 small shrimp in the dish.
On my second visit I ordered the pad thai and was completely disappointed. There were barely any pieces of egg and what was in the dish were dried precooked pieces of egg that were thrown in when the dish was assembled.
This place is unique in that it offers many different types of pasta and noodle dishes but it is far from authentic when it comes to the Asian choices from what I've tried so far. The novelty of this place has caught Oakand's attention as this place is constantly busy and always has a line during peak times. It is convenient and relatively fast and the prices are on par with the panera across the street. But I highly recommend that Pitt students and others take their money to the numerous small businesses in Oakland. Noodles & Company is a chain that tries to grasp authenticity but never quite makes it there. I suggest Lulu's noodles on Craig street for pad thai, their scrambled eggs for the pad thai are made to order and not scant in quantity like in N&C's meager and almost pitiful dish.
I looked on their website and they do offer a free meal to people who sign up for their email list on their birthday, I signed up as my birthday is in a few days. I find that I will probably frequent this place more than I honestly wish to. I gave this chain three stars for the convenience, speed and overall package of this place; at least its not another mcdonalds.