Stopped at Xinji Noodle around 9 on a very cold Saturday night. Parked at the medical office across the street. The place was busy despite the bad weather. It was a young, trendy crowd typical for Ohio City.
The decor is very clean and minimal. The exposed brick, spiral ducts and baked enamel metal chairs gives the space a chic industrial feel. The large bar and open cooking area provide some visual stimulation. One problem is the front door which upon opening allowed a huge blast of cold air to engulf the dining room.
For starters we had the taro steamed bun and the Korean fried chicken. The taro bun wasn't very inspiring. The fried chicken was crunchy on the outside and juicy on the inside, doused in a mildly spicy sauce.
For entrees we had a vege stir fry noodle bowl and a pork tonkatsu ramen soup. The vege noodle bowl used ramen noodles and was OK but rather small. Usually pork tonkatsu is a breaded and fried cutlet but here it was a slice of lean and tender pork belly. The broth was tasty and the assortment of bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, corn and nori was well balanced. The only drawback of the ramen soup bowl was the small almost child sized portion.
In addition to an extensive selection of sake, no hot though, and Asian beers, they offer a variety of Asian flavored mixed drinks.