Noodle Kingdom

Noodle Kingdom

264 Swanston St, Melbourne

(Ph) 9650 1818

Catching up with A! =) We didn't really have anywhere in mind - we met up at Melbourne Central and decided to walk down Swanston Street and see what fancied us =) I knew Noodle Kingdom had opened for a few months now - replacing Chinatown Dumpling Restaurant which was another cheap dumpling place like Shanghai Dumpling House. Thought we'd give it a try.

The decor is really nice and fancy - 5 stories high with an elevator! I know the first Noodle Kingdom had opened in Preston for a very long time and is famous for their hand made noodles, but Preston is so far away! There's one on Russell Street as well - I went there a few years ago. My memory of it wasn't very pleasant - I remember it was cramped and wasn't very tasty. So hopefully this new done-up one will be a bit better!

There was quite a few people in line, but lucky we were only a group of 2 so they squeezed us in first =)

Of course we'd have to try their hand made noodles - A and I decided to share 2 dishes. He wanted the Authentic Lanzhou Beef Noodle Soup $9.50. He had recently come back from a trip to China and actually went to Lanzhou and had some delicious noodles there so wanted to see how this would compare =P

We were tossing up between a rice dish or a dry noodle dish - in the end we went for a dry noodle dish - Noodle with Pork Sauce $9.50. I don't normally like dry noodles but this is one of the few dishes I do like =) We didn't realise until we had ordered that we had ordered 2 of the same type of noodles - should have tried either their rice noodle or glutinous noodle or strip noodles etc etc... next time!

Authentic Lanzhou Beef Noodle Soup

The noodles were definitely hand made - you can taste and feel the difference =P The noodles were sooo long and so difficult to break with our chopsticks and too slippery to break with a spoon! In the end had to ask for a fork which made the process slightly easier =P Slightly chewy which is what it's meant to be like =) Would have been better if the noodles had a more regular thickness - some bits were much thicker than others =P Though a bit disappointing with the toppings - only a few tiny pieces of beef and the soup wasn't as flavourful as I would have hoped.

Noodle with Pork Sauce

The Noodle with Pork Sauce doesn't look as tasty but my - it was delicious! Mix the pork sauce in with the cucumber slices - yum! I'm not sure what exactly is in the pork sauce - it's slightly sweet yet salty =) Like I said, I'm not normally a fan of noodles but this dish definitely has my thumbs up!

Food~
6/10 - the dry noodles was definitely better than the soup one, but I'd be interested to try some of the other noodle types as well as the dumplings next time =)

Atmosphere~
3/5 - they make it super fancy with an elevator and all, but we were put in the corner at a small table - wonder what upstairs looks like...

Service~
3/5 - food came quite quickly which was good =D

Worth another try! I'll bring P next time =)

C.
xo