A Trip to the New Location of Nan Zhou Hand Drawn Noodle House
Its downright crazy that I have only eaten at Nan Zhou Hand Drawn Noodle once and that the one time was 2 years ago AND before the move to the bigger location. Silly me. Last time I dug into the braised oxtail hand pulled noodle soup. I applaud my past self for choosing something a little funkier. For this visit, I had to pick a different version of the soup, plus I had to explore the menu a lot more.
Last time I skipped the appetizers, which is a shame since they have a solid list of fun apps. Not this time. The crispy turnips ($3.50) came out in marinated, salty strips and worked even better as a palate cleanser between bites of everything else.
Another appetizer, cold shredded potato (not pictured because I deleted it accidentally), a traditional Szechuan dish my mom is obsessed with, is actually shredded semi-raw potato in a spicy, vinegar dressing that is oddly satisfying.
Beyond the traditional pork-chive and seafood dumplings, I was really curious about the chicken curry dumpling; that isn’t something you see everyday at a Chinese restaurant. I definitely recommend these , they could be up there on the Chinatown top dumpling list. We got 8 pan fried beauties ($5.95) with a great texture outside and an enjoyable mild coconut curry flavored filling.
For the hand pulled noodle soup we chose the brisket, a popular choice here. The bowl was huge and the broth satisfying, just as I remembered. A little chili oil from the table kicks up the flavor in the salty broth. The brisket was probably a better choice over the oxtail from my past journey, there was more meat accessible. The noodle were the same; on the thin side and fun to eat.
For a non soupy noodle, the clam stir fried noodle ($8.95) could almost stand up to our soup bowl. Nan Zhou gives you a ton of noodles, an array of veggies, and an impressive amount of clams in shells. The flavors weren’t too pronounced, but its a solid dish.
Nan Zhou seems to never lose its touch at being cheap ,filling, super fast, and delicious. Which makes me a silly Sally for so rarely eating there.
THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)
- Big bowls hand drawn noodle soup with your choice of filling
- Cheap food, speedy service
- Funky appetizers, including notable curry dumplings
THE – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)
- It gets busy at lunch, you might have to share a table
Nan Zhou Hand Drawn Noodle House , 1022 Race St (@ 11th St), 215-923-1550
Posted by Jamie at 1:11 pm, November 29th, 2012 under Chinatown, Chinese, dumplings, noodles, soup.
5 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
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5 Comments
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I tried Nan Zhou, Lan Zhou and Empress Garden (across the street from Lan Zhou) within the space of a few days, and I would rate Nan Zhou first, Empress Garden a close second (if a bit salty), and then Lan Zhou. Another important point for those of us who don’t like a huge pile of cilantro – at Nan Zhou they understand the phrase “no cilantro” PERFECTLY.
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“Eating their…” what? The suspense is killing me. ;-)
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@jay I am sure you will like Nan, get over there soon
@Mary I love me some Empress Garden but never had their noodle soup, am I missing out?
@steve- eek, that was embarrassing!
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@Jamie definitely try it out, it won’t disappoint! As I said I did find it a little salty compared to the other two but worth a return trip.
I’ve gotta get here soon. I hit Lan Zhou for the first time last week, had the beef tripe hand drawn noodle stir fry. It was just okay, I’ll be back to try their soups next time. I’d like to try a bunch of stuff at Nan Zhou soon, too.
I still have dreams of the spicy seafood dish at the hand-pulled noodle cart back in Portland. That was, like, three of my last four meals out there before I moved back east earlier this year!