I love noodles. Soup noodles to be more precise. I can eat it for breakfast, lunch and/or dinner, in hot or cold weather. I always tell Scott that he doesn't need to treat me out to expensive fancy restaurants - I'd be happy going to a small cheapie noodle joint! For my birthday this year, when my parents asked me where I wanted to celebrate I gave them 2 choices: Beef Brisket Noodles at Mandarin Deli or Over-the-Bridge Noodles at Yun Chuan Garden. They laughed and thought I was funny, but I was serious!
So far in Seattle, I've now been to 5 noodle places. 3 pho restaurants, and with my parents in two, 2 chinese restaurants. Here's my reviews, in order of which I tried first.
What the Pho: I tried this last year when Scott was still in corporate housing in Bellevue. With a name like that, I rolled my eyes when we walked over and thought "how authentic can this place be?"? Turns out, never judge a book by its name! I was impressed they included tripe on their menu, and ordered the Pho that includes it (this is my usual pho order anyway). Very clean inside, and the staff was nice and efficient. Standard pho. Nothing to write home about, but plenty satisfying!
Than Brothers: When I first started looking up pho restaurants in Seattle, everyone and their sister pointed me to Than Brothers. It's a local chain known for the home-made cream puffs served with your pho. The closest one to us is only a few blocks away on Aurora/99 so we hit it up very soon after we moved in. The Aurora branch is their original (I think) and is small and a little dirty in that hole-in-the-wall kind of way. Anyway, the creampuff is tasty, but I was actually surprised that I did NOT like their pho. The soup was too sweet and they didn't give me any chilies (jalapenos) to put in my noodles.
Mike's Noodle House: My cousin, Brandon, is going into his second year at UW. When his dad, my uncle Tim, visits, they always head to Mike's Noode House in Chinatown. This was a good enough endorsement for me so after I picked up my parents from the airport, we headed over for some lunch. The restaurant is very small (15 tables maybe) but very clean and bright. I ordered their Wonton and Beef Brisket Noodle Soup (with wonton noodles) and we got a side of Chinese Broccoli. The noodles were terrific; they had the right amount of bite to them and didn't get smooshy as I took my time eating. The wontons were also good - big chunks of shrimp, just a little hint of white pepper and very very soft skins. My beef brisket though was lacking in flavor and a little tough. And the chinese broccoli was plain awful - way too old. I'm apalled they served it to us!
Toy's Cafe: My aunt in Portland likes this restaurant in Bellevue and promised me their Beef Noodles Soup was their specialty. Since I'm a sucker for that dish, I dragged my parents there with me last week. Funny thing is we couldn't remember the name of the restaurant in English, but in Chinese, it is spelled as "Sam Woo" like the chain noodle house down in LA. That made it easy to find. And, true to my aunt's word, the Beef Noodle Soup is go-od. It came with big chewy noodles that held up well with the very spicy, beefy broth and tender chunks of beef and tendon. Thumbs up on this one!
Pho Tic Tac: Since I was tired of eating leftovers for lunch today, I headed over to this pho restaurant on Greenwood and 85th. I brought a book with me becuase I was expecting slow service after reading the reviews on Yelp but my noodles came out within 5 minutes. The pho was tasty - broth was just right and the rare beef was actually VERY tender. I thought the tendon pieces were too soft and small though, but since that is my least favorite beef part, I can overlook that flaw pretty easily. Iced coffee came out fairly late though and was way strong. Overall, I'd say this one wins over Than Brothers even though it doesn't include the free cream puff.
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