Noodle-ism

Reported Closed as of July 2007.

BEN: I've been a big fan of Noodle-ism for a while, but this was Ms. Particular's second visit, and the first one where she actually ate anything. I think I ate at the downtown location three times during South by Southwest earlier this year, and I've been to their satellite down at William Cannon several times too.

MS. P: I think I ate some of someone else's food last time we were there. But hey, at least I was there, which is more than I can say for everyone else in Austin. I hope they do a lot of lunch business, because weekends are quite dead.

BEN: They used to have bubble tea, but it looks like that's been discontinued. Too bad, as they did a good job. They do have a sweetened green tea that's quite yummy, so I ordered that instead.

MS. P: Dang no-bubble-tea-having people! I drank water instead. It was fine.

BEN: The menu consists of lots of different noodle dishes, some mild and some spicy. They mark the vegan dishes with little triangles; ask about ones that look like they should be veggie but aren't, as they may use fish sauce or shrimp broth.

MS. P: I had the Taiwanese Street Rice Noodles, which was nicely marked as vegan. It's described as "thin thread rice noodles sautéed with mushrooms, nappa, carrots, bean sprouts & shallot soy." I think I could live without so much Napa cabbage, but otherwise it was really fabulous. with the crispy tofu (see below).

BEN: I'm always a big fan of their Li Hong soup, a vegetarian mushroom broth with mustard greens and fat Chinese noodles and bamboo shoots. I love the spicy liquid and the noodles are fun to eat with chopsticks, if a little messy. On this last visit, they were out of that, so I got the vegetarian noodle soup instead, which also was very tasty.

MS. P: There was a bit of negotiation on your meal, as I recall, since the wait staff person had to come back and tell you they were out of it after she'd taken the order to the kitchen. But she was knowledgeable about the menu and volunteered their willingness to change one of the other dishes a little if you were after a particular vegetable, so that was fine.

BEN: One of the things I like best is their appetizer of crispy tofu, which also comes with many of their dishes. These are long rectangular strips of tofu, crisp on the outside, soft in the middle. It comes with some hoisin dipping sauce, but I often just use the Vietnamese Sriracha sauce instead (the red hot sauce from the big bottles).

MS. P: All hail the crispy tofu! Seriously, it beats the tofu triangle appetizers you find at Thai Kitchen and Bangkok Cuisine. I stole the ones Ben didn't want.

BEN: The soup also comes with some pickled bean sprouts, but they don't do much for me. Outside of the soups, I've had the Dan Dan Noodles, a well-spiced Chinese dish with a complex peanut sauce. Thumbs up. I wasn't as excited about the stir fried udon; the veggies were good, but I thought it was too sweet and the noodles were a little squishy.

MS. P: I'd also like to mention that they serve Macaroni and Cheese, which apparently you can order with Crispy Tofu. I don't know why they do this, but it says so right on the menu.

BEN: We didn't get dessert, but they do offer a number of scrumptious items, including several flavors of Japanese Mochi ice cream. This is certainly one of my favorite downtown eateries, and its close location to the Alamo Drafthouse means that it's a great place to go to catch a bite before a film when you're tired of Alamo food.