Shang Cha Hong Yunnan Rice Noodle Hut

So this place is seriously busy! And when you look around the food court at least 50% of the people are eating out of a cast iron pot from this noodle hut so it can’t be that bad right? This was our second time visiting this food court and we decided since everyone here was always eating out of these cast iron bowls that came from yunnan rice noodle hut, they must know something we didn’t and we needed to find out what the big deal was!
So I’m going to go in the opposite direction of the two reviewers before me and say this was pretty darn delicious! My husband and I shared a lamb/​beef pot and although we had to wait about 15 minutes for our food we were impressed. The broth was a little salty but deliciously spicy with a hint of ginger and it was full of perfectly cooked noodles, woodear mushrooms, spinach, bean sprouts, thin meat shavings and two quail eggs!
Our noodle bowl was filling and delicious! No wonder most of the other patrons here seem to have a similar steaming bowl in front of them!

The noodles here are quite ordinary but we did enjoy the novelty of having a mini pot of noodles per person. In general, most of the soups we ordered tasted quite similar and were served to us burning hot. (my friend almost burnt himself)
Anyways, I really enjoyed how there was a variety of ingredients in my pot including: beef, quail egg, bean curd, random vegetables and mushrooms. The price really isn’t bad for what you get but I don’t have too much to compare to since I don’t eat in Asian food courts too often.

* Missing a little something *
Another addition to the Crystal Mall Food Court, this spot specializes in rice noodle soups. They have a nice variety of them on the menu, and they are served piping hot on top of cardboard to keep the plastic tray from melting.
I ordered the spicy lamb version. The broth was not particularly complex, rather flat, and not all that spicy. It did have a very distinct MSG flavour to it though — a bit more than necessary to enhance the flavours. The noodles were slightly overcooked for my taste so that some of them were breaking apart. The lamb slices were thin, and cooked just right, but not very plentiful.
There were lots of little bonus extras mixed in like a single quail egg buried deep in the pot, 2 little pieces of enoki, some spinach, and a few pieces of thinly (very thinly) sliced yuba. All of it sounds good in theory, but the flavours just didn’t come together — I’m guessing because of the weak broth. This could have really been enhanced with a bit of cumin to complement the lamb, and a bit more chili to heat things up. Alas, that wasn’t the case. Photo: