Main Noodle House’s Roast Pork Wonton Soup is Awesome
Ever since Chris H. wrote about Main Noodle House in July I’ve been meaning to check it out. So when the hankering for mapo tofu hit the other day I figured I’d head over, but before I did I decided to check Chris’ post to see if any commenters had other suggestions- and I’m glad I did.
My original plan was to just get the Mapo Tofu lunch special ($7.50), but after seeing Lunch’rs meyekull, chris82, and steveroller had commended the Roast Pork Wonton Soup I made a game time decision to add that to my lunch order as well. When I placed the order over the phone the woman asked if I wanted noodles (when don’t I want noodles?!), so I decided to opt for the most popular combination, the egg noodles.
The Mapo Tofu was about the blandest version I’ve ever had. There was plenty of tofu, lots of peas, but where was the heat. I suppose the menu says that the spiciness can be altered to taste but it seems to me that the baseline for Mapo Tofu should be spicy. Maybe next time I should emphasize that I wanted it spicy. Has anyone else had better luck with this dish here?
The soup on the other hand was a revelation. There was plenty of tender, sweet roast pork, several pieces of bok choy, bean sprouts, five wontons and egg noodles. The first promising sign was that they packed the broth and the goodies separately so the wontons, noodles and pork didn’t get overcooked. The broth was rich and chicken-y without being too salty. And the thin skinned, scallion flecked wontons were superlative. Some bites even had a bit of crunch from water chestnuts. The egg noodles cost an extra 50 cents, bringing the soup to $8.00. If you’re a big noodle fan they are a nice addition, but honestly the wontons and roast pork are the stars of the dish.
While the Mapo Tofu was a lunch fail, Main Noodle House totally redeemed themselves with the Roast Pork Wonton Soup. I will definitely be paying them another visit. Any other must try dishes? I am intrigued by the under $10 lunchtime lamb specials…
Main Noodle House, 1011 6th Ave (between 37th and 38th St); (212) 869-0888
Posted by Brownie at 11:45 am, November 16th, 2011 under Chinese, Main Noodle House.
15 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
15 Comments
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…and by “Port”, I meant “Pork”. But maybe I just did the same thing?
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Who doesn’t like port with their Chinese food?
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2nding, 3rding, 4thing what he says about Main Noodle House. Their roast duck noodle soup is amazing, too. Plus if you want one type of noodle over another – curly egg noodles, Mandarin/Shanghai noodles, lo mein, chow fun, rice stick, mei fun.
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I eat this about once, every 2 weeks. AMAZING soup for the money
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Is this under their Roast Meat Wonton Soup section of their menu?
By adding noodles, does it make the soup big enough portion as a meal because whenever I hear wonton soup, I think appetizer.
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This is WAY more food than a standard container of Wonton Soup. I literally cannot finish it (same goes for the same sized container from Hing Won or Mee Noodle.)
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Just the won tons alone in the soup are enough for a meal. I’m a 6’2″ dude and I’m full with just that, or just the roast meat noodle soup. Won tons + noodles gave me such an itis, it took about three cups of coffee to ward off a wonderful food coma.
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Is the soup much better than Hing Won? Seems pricey.
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Avoid getting szechuan food at a cantonese place, it’s never any good.
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I’ll echo Tom’s comment. Mapo tofu isn’t a good barometer of every chinese place, just the szechuan spots. I would expect it to be terrible from here, and it was.
I just had the roast pork wonton soup from Main Noodle House yesterday. You really can’t beat it for the price. I would say it’s better eating in, because they give you a huge bowl and it’s more manageable, but the line to sit down there gets really long…
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I have a busy few weeks where I’m not checking ML and I come back to find people talking about me. Glad you liked it.
Thanks for taking the the Mapo bullet. I always wondered if it was any good, and you confirmed my suspicions that it’s a bad American knock off.
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Roast Pork and Wontons noodle soup sounds good.
I’m usually down for braised beef and wontons noodle soup. -
just ate this. soup + noodles + roast pork is dope. i am going to sleep on my desk now.
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just ate this too. really really good. ton of pork. super filling with the egg noodles. great deal. Thanks Brownie!
Wait, did you mean “Roast Wonton” or “Roast Port Wonton”? If it was a typo, you may have invented something new and wonderful: the roasted wonton.