Those who follow trends in Chinese Cuisine will have noted that Lanzhou Beef Noodle is having a moment right now. There have been quite a few chains of the delicious dish having opened around Australia. The most recent addition is 1919 Lanzhou Beef Noodle which opened in Garden City, which has since been known for their extensive lines during mealtimes. I made a point to check it out with family last week to see whether the hype was indeed worthwhile.
Having received recommendations to arrive before 12pm, that is what we did and there were already short lines forming and we had quite a bit of difficulty getting a table. We got a menu and waited to put down our order. It was full counter service. There was of course a good selection of beef noodle soup and there were seven types of noodles to match with the selection of soup. Other than this there were also dim sim as well as cold side dishes.
We ordered three bowls of noodles to share along with a few sides. These came out fairly quickly.
First one I tried was the Braised Beef Noodle with Thinner Noodles. The soup was warm and wholesome with strong beefy flavours. Upon first inspection there really wasn't too much beef to go with the bowl of noodles but it turns out that these were hidden underneath the noodles. I picked the thinner noodles which were highly popular, they were a little soft and slightly overdone but had soaked in quite a bit of the soup and was still quite delicious. Although the noodles were underwhelming the beef was surprisingly good being extremely tender whilst still being very lean.
Mum's favourite was the Pickled Cabbage Beef Noodle Soup with Thin Noodles. These noodles maintained bite, probably because they were thicker than the thinner noodles and she really enjoyed the light sourness of the pickles added to the soup. The beef used in this was also quite lean although it wasn't as soft as the previous bowl. Portion wise, all three were fairly generous even without an extra noodle option.
Never missing an opportunity to try the signature dish, this was the Lanzhou Beef Noodle Soup served with wide noodle. Given our experience with both the thinner noodle and the thin noodle, I was expecting this noodle to be the firmer of the three but it turned out to be quite soft. Despite being fairly wide, it was also very thin which meant that it turned soft very quickly. Soup wise this was the mildest of the three and we were able to appreciate the light beef flavours and taste of scallion a lot more.
We didn't want any dim sims after such a large meal but still couldn't pass up on getting two cold sides, the tripe and brisket as well as the tofu salad. The tripe and brisket had slight hints of numbing spice but this was quite light. I do enjoy the chewy texture of tripe and this was no different. The tofu was also light and had more bite than their noodles. Overall it was a solid meal but I don't consider it worthy of hype, but I wouldn't be opposed to a return visit.
Price Range: $10 - $20pp
Taste: 7.5/10
Value: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Environment: 7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment