| rev:text
| - I used to Yelp here, lots of pretty Yelpers have. A lot of us did order "appetizers" on the side for $3 or $4 as well off this slightly HIGHER COST meeting place. I continue to. You can see my updated review here:
[10-13-11 Update: 2 days after I visited, Noodlecat changed its menu yet again. The review below was current through Oct. 8, 2011.]
A lot has changed since I first reviewed Noodlecat within the first couple weeks of its opening. Even during the prime weekday lunch hour, the dining room is noticeably less crowded and that "palpable buzz" I felt before is gone. The menu has been reworked--not the most promising sign a scant three months after opening. For lunch, a lot of the higher cost noodle soups have been taken off the menu in favor of ones at the $9 or $10 price point. The whole list of soup add-ons (fried egg, kim chee, etc.) has also been removed, though I suspect many of them are still available on request. I also couldn't help but notice that the Octopus & Bone Marrow Takoyaki was renamed the "Octopus & Bone Marrow Pancake."
Fortunately, I think the good (but admittedly not great) qualify of the remaining noodle soups remains the same. The Pork Miso Ramen and the Kyoto Udon are pretty solid choices and my usual go-to selections, though, again, I can't say that either is substantially better than some of the soups at Saigon around the corner. I'm not a fan of some of the soups that contain breaded items (like breaded chicken or a vegetable tempura cake) in them--like the Dragon Soup special I had recently. It had a nice and spicy broth, but the chicken just ended up being soggy and not particularly appetizing to look at. I need to try the much-criticized College Ramen some time.
As for some of the "extras" on the menu, I continue to like the Octopus & Bone Marrow...Pancake, and the Broiled Rice Balls are still a simple, yet enjoyable, appetizer. The same can't be said for the Twice Cooked Crispy Chicken Wings which were covered in a decent sauce that had a little bit of spicy Asian kick to it. The wing itself, however, wasn't much more than skin and bone with a minimum amount of meat.
Particularly disappointing were the happy hour steamed buns, which were actually thick pancakes folded with meat or other filling inside of them rather than an actual bun. When I went quite a while ago with some folks from the office, none of the buns were particularly tasty except for the BBQ Pork Bun, which was passable. If my memory serves me right, that seems to be the only bun that survived in the latest iteration of the menu.
I still like Noodlecat, and I still visit it for lunch, but tellingly I've found myself going to Saigon more and more. Noodlecat still has three stars in my book, but its getting close dropping down to two.
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