Ivy Noodles

I had a coupon from GrubHub and thought I’d give Ivy Noodles a try. I ordered the scallion pancakes and tofu pad thai. Scallion pancakes were good. The pad thai was interesting — a very generous portion of rice noodles and tofu but not a lot else. I prefer my pad thai mixed with a lot of healthy-​looking things and a bit more peanut topping. However, they get four stars for the very generous portion that was enough for two full meals.

It’s nice there’s more authentic Asian varieties at College Park now compare to when I was a college student. I was a bit hesitant to try at first since there were mixed reviews. This place isn’t bad. It’s good for where it is located but definitely not great compared to other Chinese and Taiwanese places just a few more exits around the beltway.
This place is small with one large table that seats about 8 people, five tables that seat 4 people, and four tables that seat 2 people. The décor is like any other Chinese restaurant. And it’s packed with Chinese patrons, so you know it’s good for where it is at.
We ordered the spicy wontons in hot oil to share for the appetizer and I was a bit disappointed. The wontons itself was good but it’s not the Taiwanese dish that I’m used to getting at other authentic places. The sauce was not a hot oil sauce and the wontons were drizzled in hoison and sirricha, which took away its authenticity with all the same condiments I can cover my foods with at a typical phở place.
I liked the roast duck ramen that I ordered. The duck itself was delicious with the tasty fat of the skin and the broth was authentic. Bok choy is always nice in any dish but what I like most was the option to choose between five different noodles for your soup — Cantonese style, vermicelli, ramen (hand pulled), lo mein, and chow fun. I’m always craving the Cantonese egg noodles so that was a bonus. The menu is pretty extensive with a variety of noodle, chef special, and dry hot pot options.

Not sure why there are the amount of negative reviews that there are for this place. I’ve been there twice and I absolutely love their dumplings and wontons — fried, steamed, chicken, beef, they’re amazing. Ive tried a lot of them (I went with friends and we swapped appetizers) and I would honestly go just for their dumplings. As far as entrees, the first time I got wonton noodle soup and that was great. The second time I got chicken curry soup with udon and that was a little disappointing, not as much flavor as I would hope. Anyway, try all the dumplings. (: enjoy!

Every time I come here for the porridge. So good.

The service was really slow and they were not attentive. Their water tastes like tap water. They also did not give me any napkins. At all. I got fried rice and it was okay. The food is not worth the price since there are other places around campus to get mediocre Chinese food.

I came here for lunch and it was okay. I got the roast duck with Cantonese noodles which looked amazing. However the dish was a bit salty and the duck was hard to eat with the bones. Maybe that’s how roast duck is usually prepared but it isn’t easy to eat which in a soup. Also the service was a bit slow. I went with a group of 4 people and one of the guests dishes didn’t come up for another 5 min or so and it was only a tofu dish with rice. It shouldn’t take that long.

The food was extremely bland, we were super hungry and we spend our money on this! We had to eat it without wanting to. They don’t even follow instructions like «sauce on the side, chopsticks» NOTHING. Save your time and money, and just go to Phở Thom.

Food aside, service definitely needs to be improved. Pretty awful attitude when ordering thru the phone.

Ordered here another time. Service was fantastic. Driver even apologized to us for the previous mix up. Tried one of their soups. I was skeptical about paying ten bucks for a bowl of soup but it was definitely worth it. Will be ordering from here in the future!

I admit the service does kind of suck and the food comes out slowly, but it’s about the only decent place to find real Chinese food in the area so I’ll take it.
Besides the pretty awful service, the food is really good. They have a large variety or dishes and not only stereotypical Americanized Chinese food, but real Chinese food.

Food here is still okay, and the service still leaves much to be desired… but the time it took for food to come out was a large improvement from my last visit, sooo I’ll give it another star (though that’s not saying much since our group was basically 90% of the patrons there at the time). Ivy is decent — wouldn’t really suggest it myself, but I’d probably be down to go if someone else made the suggestion. :P
I got the duck with Cantonese noodles (as opposed to the sad, bloated ramen noodles from the prior visit), and it was good! Pretty big portion size, nicely umami & fatty duck, and the broth is salted (but nothing special). Most of my friends got various noodle soups as well, and everyone seemed satisfied with their food. Some had ordered appetizers earlier (scallion pancake, dumplings, wontons, etc.), which came out pretty quickly. Tasty enough, but also pretty average — you could find similar quality in any Asian supermarket.
If you’re in a big group, bring some cash! They can only split the check 3 ways (I think, don’t remember the exact number) if you want to pay via credit.

Ivy Noodles is a much needed shot of solid Asian food in the College Park area. Is it fancy? No. Do they serve alcohol? No. Is service spectacular? No. But the service is competent and polite, the interior is clean and well maintained, and there are plenty of other places to go if you’re just looking for a drink on Baltimore Ave.
That being said– their Mala Tang Noodles were TO-​DIE-​FOR. Mouth numbingly spicy and slightly oily, the flavors were completely on point and I would have loved to take a bath in the delicious broth. The tea was a good compliment to the spiciness of the dish and thankfully – they kept the water coming throughout.
Next time I find myself up in CP again, you can bet I will be making a stop.

Ya’ll seem upset. I work near here so I guess I come by at low-​traffic times of day, but their soup is spot-​on now that it’s nasty outside. Wonton soup with 6 bok chois, 8 wontons and a half gallon on five-​spice broth for 6.50? Yeah, thanks. And their beef ramen is GOOD. The meat is the perfect texture– like brisket, but waaay more thinly sliced than my senile grandfather can manage at Passover. Melts in your mouth, the essence of meat, lot of poetic other things I can say about it. The broth is excellent, not particularly fatty, and is very flavorful without resorting to spice. I would like an egg in there, though. I’ll try spicy curry tofu next time.
HOWEVA, yeah the service is lacking. Very polite waiter who was extremely apologetic when he forgot to give us water for 20 minutes. Also they served hot tea in a plastic drinking glass, not so classy.
I’ll be the one in scrubs at 3pm on a Saturday.

The fried pot is the best choice. The porridge is also very good cooked. Compared with the Big Wang’s Cusine in Rocksville, the fried pot is ⁴⁄₅. Remember to park in College Park downtown.

Servers don’t pay attention to their customers. The food was okay. We ordered fish bowl noodle soup, roast duck noodle soup, seaweed salad and bubble tea. The noodle soups were a bit on the oily side. Seaweed salad and bubble tea were the only good things.

TERRIBLE QUALITY!!!
First post ever, this was just so bad I had to get it off my chest.
I’m chinese and I wanted some authentic chinese food
roast duck over rice and preserved egg congee.
Got 9 pieces of duck; 2 pieces from the drum, and 7 pieces from the back/​shoulder/​neck, basically no meat on the back/​shoulder/​neck. It was all skin and bone. Meat on the drum was dry. Duck kinda had a sour smell to it. Think i was given the scraps of last duck before moving onto the next one. Ate like 2 pieces, and couldn’t eat the rest. FUCKING QUALITY CONTROL DUDE. LIKE WTF. Hate restaurants like these, trying to squeeze every possible penny out even when it means giving shit food to customers.
congee is average but lost my appetite to eat it… overall I feel like I got ripped off (going to mcdonalds)
Edit: duck was definitely bad, had the shits the next morning

I’ve tried to give this place chance after chance, but I’m officially done!
First Experience: Food was fine but the customer service provided by the delivery man was awful. He does not understand English well and was very irate about the amount of time it takes to leave your apartment and get to the main entrance of a large apartment community. This man called me three times within three minutes yelling that my food was here. Telling him I was on my way didn’t translate at all. When I called to report it, the manager apologized stating the driver doesn’t speak English well and that she’d speak with him about this.
Second Experience: This experience was decent. I took my boyfriend to eat inside the restaurant and again the food was fine but customer service was a little slow. I chose to ignore that since we were enjoying each other’s company.
Third and LAST Experience: I had the same experience with the same driver which showed me they don’t care to improve. The shrimp in my fried rice was a bit mushy and the pan fried dumplings were sub par. I then took a sip of my Thai Milk Tea and saw a roach floating in it. I was officially done with Ivy Noodle at that moment.
I never post on Unilocal but for once in my dining experiences, I’m truly dissatisfied. Yes, I was offered a credit after the manager tried to convince me this roach I saw was a bubble from their bubble tea but three times is a charm.
Hope others have a better experience than I did…

Sooooooooo slooooooooooo
So few customers yet sooooooooooo sloooooooo
We hear a lot of action, cling clang cling clang in the kitchen but somehow that did not translate into food coming out.
Once the food comes out, well, let’s just say I won’t be back soon.

I’m so mad that I hadn’t tried this place sooner! I recently graduated from UMD, but still work in College Park but this was the first time I have come. I always saw it on my walk home (thinking it was NY Noodles lol) but just never gave it a chance.
I came the other day for lunch with my boyfriend and we were shocked at how nice it looked inside. The décor was beautiful and you wouldn’t have guessed you were still in College Park. Definitely a nice place for a date. There was only one other person eating lunch so we were seated and ordered quickly.
The menu selection was HUGE. Everything sounded so good and I’m super indecisive so I just played it safe and ordered the General Tso’s chicken. It was pretty good. My boyfriend tried the curry beef noodle soup, which I tried and it was delicious. Next time I will probably try one of the soups. And most of the meals were $ 10 or less which is always great in a college town.
My only complaint was that it was silent in the restaurant and I wished they played some music, which I whispered to my boyfriend. The waitress must have overheard me and played some music, however it sounded like just radio music, which seemed out of place. I wish they would have played some Chinese music instead.

The food is not very expensive, which is good for a college student on a low budget. But quality-​wise, I would recommend going somewhere else with better Asian food.
I ordered their curry tofu noodle and… it was not very good. While I really appreciate their service (very kind and helpful staff), the curry was just atrocious. It was pink-​peach colored and the curry tasted overwhelming like coconut milk. The ratio of noodles to soup was very low, which made it even more frustrating knowing that I had paid for basically a bowl of pink coconut-​tasting soup. My friends have better opinion of their congee so I may try that next time. Good place to go with large groups looking for cheap food but don’t expect much for quality.