My marketing advice to the Chinese Noodle Restaurant is that when you’ve got a relatively Unique Selling Point (USP, kill me now, I know) you should flaunt it. Why hide under such a generic name like Chinese Noodle Restaurant when you are serving up interesting dishes from Xinjiang, and Northern Chinese snacks and dumplings. If I had enough stomachs, I would have tried all those dishes…
But instead, trying to find somewhere for a quick meal after the very strange show time of 6:30pm to 9:30pm (but the show, Muriel’s Wedding, seen on a Tuesday night, was great: a wonderful new Australian musical), we really only had the appetite for a quick meal, and even then ordered too much. Husband thought he’d go for a classic sweet and sour pork, so we weren’t expecting this shredded pork dish served with Chinese pancakes as a wrap. I actually love Chinese pancakes, but there was way too much of a mainly salty, a little sweet sauce. Not terrible but I didn’t love it. You can see this is a humble place, but there’s a buzz about it, even at 10pm or so, with people who I think are coming for a simple, humble place like this, inexpensive and authentic.
On the other hand, the cumin lamb dish was delicious. There’s something about that Xinjiang dish, the spices and the way it’s fried up so it’s fairly dry, that I find delectable. Two dishes plus rice and some sadly cold tea (though I should have asked for the pot to be replaced but couldn’t be bothered): $40 with a small tip, and I’m coming back for dumplings (and maybe hand-pulled noodles…).