Noodle Oodle

106 Queensway, Bayswater, London, W2 3RR

Noodle Oodle is a Shanghainese restaurant which serves freshly made pulled noodles (on the menu termed "lamein", in cantonese pronounced "lai-mein"). In Queensway they make the meat using Halal meat making it suitable for Muslims.

The first thing that caught our eye about this restaurant was the chef pulling noodles in front of the main window. To us, it was like 'wow' fresh pulled noodles! - something we normally find in Hong Kong but may be not really here in London. Fresh pulled noodles are one of my favourite - if done well. So we decided to come here for lunch after bowling at Queens Ice and Bowl.

The restaurant itself was fairly dim and the decor so so. Who cares, we've come here for the food!

First we ordered some spicey chicken Shanghainese dumplings. They were nice, but wasn't a particular 'wow' factor. To me it wasn't particularly spicy (although on the side was a chilli and garlic sauce which was delicious!). I also thought it would have been nicer if they were more generous on the meat filling. None the less, not bad.

Chicken and Vegetable dumplings in vinegar and chilli oil

We spent ages choosing the lamein - to choose a spicy one or a plain broth one? Ohh the choices! In the end, we decided to choose two spicy lameins.

The sour spicey lamein - was what it said on the tin - sour and spicey. I was quite disappointed. It would have been nice if you could taste a well made meat broth in the background - and they were sooo stingy on the chicken, I could easily mistaken this as a vegetarian lamein! The noodle itself wasn't bad, ok - but you're only half way there if the soup is rubbish.

Sour spicy lamein with shredded chicken and shrimp

Sze chuan dan dan lamein, was a broth of cloudy sesame soup with chilli oil. This wasn't spicy at all. The broth itself was pretty bland. Didn't like this dish. The broth, key to all soup dishes, was lacking flavour like in the sour/spicy lamein.

Sze chuan dan dan lamein

Overall, the service was ok - the food arrived relatively quickly and the staff somewhat attentive. The food was ok - the most disappointing thing was the broth of both soup dishes. The price was ok ~£6 per soup noodle, a bit dearer for the dumplings ~£5.

Food = 5/10
Service = 5/10
Atmosphere = 4/10
Recommend? no

Bitter melon braised with pork (苦瓜焖猪肉)

Bitter melon or bitter gourd (苦瓜) is an acquired taste and, as the name suggests, is bitter. However, once the harsh bitterness is removed, you are left with a delicious vegetable which can be cooked in a variety of ways. Whenever we prepare bitter melon, we never aim to get rid of its distinctive flavour, but to remove the acrid taste so that the pleasant bitterness remains (this pleasant bitterness is similar to that found in many other foods such as dark chocolate and tea). As children, we were never too keen on it, but have grown to love it. This dish is one of our favourite ways to cook it. The bitter melon is braised with pork on a low heat for a long time, so both become wonderfully tender and delicious with a steaming bowl of rice.

Bitter melon braised with pork (苦瓜焖猪肉)

The recipe
1. Marinate 500g chopped pork ribs with 2 cloves of crushed garlic, a heaped teaspoon of cornflour and a tablepoon and a half of light soya sauce.
2. Split the bitter melon in half lengthways and remove the seeds (a teaspoon can be used to quickly and easily remove them). Slice into 1.5cm pieces.
3. Place the bitter melon slices into a bowl and pour over a generous amount of salt. Mix well and leave aside. After 30 minutes, you should notice the juice from the bitter melon has been drawn out. Rinse it well in cold water so all the salt is removed and repeat the process 1-2 more times.
4. Once the salt as been removed, place the slices into boiling water and allow to boil for 15 minutes or until the bitter melon has softened slightly. Drain and set aside.
5. In a clean pan, fry the pork in some oil, mixing in a teaspoon of black bean sauce.
6. Once brown, pour enough water or stock to cover the meat and place a lid over the top, before lowering the heat and allowing the pork to simmer for around 25 minutes.
7. Add the prepared bitter melon in with the pork and simmer until both are tender.