Today I was at Noople for my semi-regular meet up and catch up with Monkey Joyce. Typically these meals are causal and centred around noodles. She, as the self and others proclaimed “Noodle God”, and me a big fan of and carbs and the slurp-ability of strands of dough.
I haven’t heard of the place prior to our planned visit and thought the name humours. Like a mistyping or poor spelling of the word “noodle” with a “p” instead of the “d”. The trade didn’t make sense considering that their tag line is that they specialize in both noodles and dumplings and there are “d’s” in both. Unless they were trying to combine the word, but then it would have been “Dumpoodle” or “Noodlings”. But I digress.
In any rate, the giant noodle pull statue by the front was promising, that and the smell of grease from wok frying that filled the air.
You can either order from the counter with a person or go contactless with their kiosk. This and the self serve sauces and water jugs, plus the expectation to organize and put your dishes away; made the dine in experience feel very isolating and like that of a food court meal. Ideal for those who don’t want small talk with their food.
The menu is fairly concise with little option to struggle between. Even the variations overlap in ingredients used, so you are basically choosing what toppings you want.
Our visit coincided with new noodle dishes, which basically added more meat in a variety of textures to their classic dishes. Like the Dan Dan-style House Special Trio Noodles but with shredded beef, ground beef, and chunks of chopped up tendon. It had a faint whisper of peanut butter and chilli that reminded me of the popular noodle dish. But it could have used more sauce for a saucier and gummier bowl. As is it was dry with the tellatale black pepper on numbing as an after note. I don’t think the upgrade for almost $5 more was necessarily worth while.
Thankfully we skipped on it for our second noodle dish the Twin Beef Noodle with both slices of beef and beef tendon. This noodles bowl felt simple and quaint. It was little on the oily side, and reflective of its pricing. You basically get what little you pay for. I did like how the tendon almost added a crunch with a cartilage-like chew that I do enjoy. As for the broth, I was expecting a richer soup with a dark colour, this felt a little too light considering the density and thickness of the noodles.
As an interesting add on, you can make any noodle dish into a combo for $5.99. This gets you a deep fried egg and fruit flavoured green tea. At $4.99 normally for the tea, this means you are paying $1 for the egg, which felt like a lot. So we passed on this promo.
Instead we turned our attention and put our money towards their dumplings. I enjoyed the Pork Wontons in Chilli Sauce. The dumplings are one bite morsels, but you get 13 pieces of them in one order. Each tasty with seasoned balls of pork and enough surface area folds in the wrapper to pick excess chilli oil and garlic from the pool of neon reddish orange the dumplings sat in.
We also tried their Pork Xiao Long Bao with very low expectations. Considering the simple flavours, justified pricing, and no bells and whistles attitude of the above, I went into my first bite with lower expectations, so was pleasantly surprised. I predicted that there would be very little broth in these soup dumplings given their size and their deflated look. So biting in and getting a squirt of juices in my mouth was a pleasant and enjoyable surprise. As for flavour it felt standard. There was vinegar I could help myself to, but without the common place freshly grated ginger or julienne strips of ginger, the flavour profile felt incomplete. Not the best or ones I would come back for, but a nice side to have with your noodles, should you need more umph in the order.
In short, not the best noodle and/or dumpling shop that I would travel specifically for, but for the price, you do get your money’s worth.
Noople Noodle & Dumpling House
3003 Kingsway #7, Vancouver, BC V5R 5J6
(604) 433-7807
zomi.menu/shop/nooplenoodledumplinghouse
