King 5 Noodle House

This is the swan song for King 5 Noodle House, which has sadly closed its doors.
Linny F, who has as much knowledge of Flushing’s Taiwanese food scene as a true Dai-​wan auntie, brought me here one night. The name wasn’t written anywhere outside, but they’re recognizable by bright yellow interior walls.
The spicy beef noodle soup was great — smooth, pervasive spiciness, and you could choose between a clear or opaque broth! (When I ordered this to go another time, the broth was too soy sauce-​y.)
The pan-​fried dumplings were another surprise. I never order dumplings at restaurants — everyone knows the best ones are made in dingy shacks. But these open-​ended «Taiwanese style» dumplings (many newer dumpling shops in Taiwan make them this way) were fried to order with thick, crisp skins and a hearty pork filling. As far as I know, open-​ended dumplings are now unavailable in NYC other than at the shameful A-Pou’s carts (
). Obviously, these were especially good compared to the crap that A-Pou’s serves up.
On later visits, I tried the 滷肉飯 (lu rou fan/​bah suh: a super humble and traditional dish of minced pork over rice), which was great for a bite of nostalgia. Like a true Taiwanese kitchen, anything with beef shank was also delicious — the lean and notoriously annoying-​to-​cook cut was always tender and streaked with soft tendon.
Mostly I’ll miss their totally respectable stinky tofu — served sitting in just the right amount of sauce, with perfect texture though less stinkiness than optimal. This was one of the better renditions in Flushing. And even though I only got a couple of visits in before they shuttered, King 5 served up some of the better Taiwanese food in Flushing overall. We’ll see what establishment comes next…

This place had apparently shut down for the time being by the landlord
What does that mean?

There was a time when King 5 could do no wrong (and I’m talking about the spicy beef noodle here), but i’ll admit, it’s been a lil chancy this past year — HOWEVER, there is no other beef noodle in flushing that has better soup base than them, so if you think the dish is bad here, then I guarantee you’ll most likely find soysauce soup elsewhere in the ‘hood.
A fair warning: the to-​stay and to-​go noodles are different. To-​stay version is softer and flatter, and I kinda forgot how to describe the to-​go ones, but it isn’t cuz they’re overcooked, this is just their style.
Soup base is slow boiled for the entire day and you can clearly see that bone marrow cloudiness in it. On good days, the soup is hot, flavorful, and hearty. On a bad day, the spicy beef noodles are just straight up spicy, but not much flavor in the soup itself. I’ll still take my chances because for my past 10 years eating here, they’ve done more right than wrong by far :)
Recommendations:
Beef & scallion pancake
Open-​sided potstickers
Stinky tofu
Plum juice (yes, homemade Taiwan style)
Beef noodles
Taiwanese sausage fried rice
Shredded beef and hot peppers over rice
3 cup chicken

This rating is for their breakfast. I really recommend having the soup dumplings here. Also the soy pudding and sweet/​salty soy milks and oil cruller really hit the spot. The scallion pancake rolled with beef was good but would prefer a thinner pancake. I enjoyed the oyster omelet but my mom (grew up in Taiwan) thought it was okay.

MY GO to Taiwanese Chinese BFAST Place:
MUST TRY:
1. Salty Rice roll
2. Pan Fried Dumplings
3. Beef Soup noodle
4. Ma-​La Spicy Smelly Tofu Cassorole — Spicy and So damn good
5. Beef wrapped in Scallion Pancake — Like Peking Duck wraps with Beef instead of duck

Right down the street from Nan Xiang dumpling house — this is a good back up if you’re not in the mood to wait 30mins to an hour for a table at nan xiang. They have the same basics — you tiao (fried dough) /​dou jiang (soybean milk) [both sweet and salty] can’t really mess those up.
The place is taiwanese so it’s missing a lot of the shanghai small dish options that nan xiang has but again for no wait times it’s not bad.
The spicy beef and egg scallion rolled pancakes were very good and filling.
It is a noodle house so I’m assuming the soup noodles are what they’re known for — have to be back and try this.
Overall the breakfast menu is definitely more limited than nan xiang but if you’re looking for just the basics and something quick and simple — this is a good option.
The service could definitely be better — don’t know how it could get worse than manhattan chinatown but lo and behold you’ll find it here. Had to wave and intensely stare down a server after half an hour of being seated just to be acknowledged. Food came out pretty quick — I’ll give them that.
But if you want to ask for more water or to check on an order? Forget it — they’ll walk away and pretend they didn’t hear anything. Giving us the bill before we were done eating was the only thing they managed to be quick on but then after waiting around again to get the attention of any server to pay for the bill — I ended up just walking over and handing the money to the cashier myself. Don’t expect to be acknowledged even remotely at this place.

Really good spicy Braised beef noodle soup.

If you just want some good ol’ fashioned (Chinese old fashion, by the way) noodle joint that is filling and unpretentious, this place is the place to go. I actually didn’t know it had an English name until I matched up the address location. Primarily a Taiwanese owned place, it has decent family dinner selections (3 dishes and one soup), and good noodle soup.

I decided to check this place out after looking at photos and reading a handful of Unilocal reviews about it. I had dinner there last night and there weren’t a lot of people there (maybe 4 groups including my bf and I).
Complimentary hot tea was served as soon as we were seated. About 3 minutes later, our waitress took our order. Luckily, we already knew what we wanted so we didn’t spend much time thinking (I had a feeling that the waitress would be a bit bitchy/​impatient if we took longer deciding).
The Scallion Pancake Beef Roll was great– it was briny and sweet and had a pleasant savory aroma. The Spicy Pancake was good as well (they mean spicy!) I like spicy food so it wasn’t a big deal. My bf and I shared the Steamed Buns (8 for $ 5.95); we both really enjoyed it. They were moist and had a great balance of sweet and salty (that’s what she said!?).
Overall, the food was fantastic but service could be better (we had to ask for water and they were never refilled). But definitely coming back.

Spacy, relatively clean, nonintrusive and quick service, yummy food.
Try the scallion pancake wrapped around beef with scallions, shredded pork with bamboo shoots (one of my all-​time fave chinese foods), and the meat steamed soup dumplings (8 dumplings/​$ 6). Noodles with pork and veggies is also great — noodles are very chewy in texture. All of this was so good. Food came out in a heartbeat.
If you get the family meal: 3 big dishes, and tray of steamed soup dumplings comes free. I would come back again for more.

The best Taiwanese spot. The Stinky Tofu is delicious; I understand why some individuals might find the odor of the dish to be too ethnic for them, but for the brave ones their reward will be an absolute pleasure in their mouth! The Scallion Pancakes are beautiful because they are full of flavor and not very oily. The spicy beef noodle soup is incredibly spicy and sour, which truly make my taste buds dance. I find the noodles to be beyond savory and so tender that it almost seems like they want to do everything they can to melt in my mouth. Bravo! Bravo!
Pro tip: Make use of the pickles and cabbage!

On a blistery valentine’s day while everyone was out celebrating at fancy restaurants I settled in with my wife at King 5 Noodle House for their lauded noodle soup. We ordered a hella romantic feast consisting of:
Beef Noodle Soup (Hong Shao Style): The broth was flavorless, thick & oily and the noodles were limp and severely overcooked. And although the beef was plentiful and tender it was still unable to save the noodle or the soup. 2.5÷5
Shredded Beef with Hot Pepper Noodle Soup: Again the noodles were overcooked but the shredded beef did make the broth more tasty. 3.5÷5
Scallion Pancake Rolled with Beef: The scallion pancake was thick and on the dry side. I’ve been looking for a good beef roll in NY but I still haven’t found any comparable to the LA version. The search continues.2.5/5
Stinky Tofu: A decent version but the tofu wasn’t stinky enough and the pickled cabbage lacked a spicy kick. On the plus side, it was a very generous portion that could easily serve 4. ³⁄₅
All in all, a disappointing meal and nothing worth returning for. There are other taiwanese restos that do these classics a tad better than King 5.

I have literally been going to this place for years. This is as authentic as Taiwanese food can get in NYC, Queens. This place just serves food that warms your soul… especially on a cold, snowy night while Winter Storm Nemo strikes NYC!
I can eat anything off the menu, but these are the dishes that I love to order whenever I am there.
Breakfast Favorites:
–Salty Soybean Milk (You can always get the sweetened soybean milk and dip the fried cruller inside, but this salty rendition adds rice vinegar into the soybean milk, making it a clunkier soup. They top it with some fried cruller, dry pork, baby shrimp and scallions)
–Sticky Rice Roll (It’s literally got Fried Cruller, dry pork wrapped inside sticky rice. Favorite to eat for breakfast)
–Scallion Pancakes (What I love about this is that it is NOT GREASY! It is flat, thin, flavorful and a perfect balance to any meal you get)
Lunch/​Dinner Favorites:
–Stinky Tofu (My favorite Taiwanese night market dish is available here! DO NOT LET THE NAME DETER YOU FROM ORDERING IT! I personally don’t think it’s stinky. I think it smells A-​MAZING!)
–Spicy beef noodle soup (I love how chewy the homemade noodles are and the broth is rich in flavor. Don’t forget to add the pickled cabbage to sweet/​sour up the broth!)
–Oyster Pancakes (I can’t explain it… you’ll just have to try it! I love the texture of the pancake dough because it is not the typical American fluff. It’s got this chewy consistency throughout every bite and the pink sauce tops off the flavor of the earthy oyster and spinach.)

I am genuinely surprised at how much enjoyed this place. First 5 star rating in months! The bf and I were starving, so I over ordered:
— soup dumplings (8 pieces)
— pan fried dumplings (8 pieces)
— shredded beef with peppers noodle soup
— drunken duck (from family style menu)
To be honest, I usually think that all soup dumplings pretty much taste the same, and not a single Shanghai place I’ve been to ever wow’ed me. But they wow’ed me here. I think they are better than Nan Xiang’s. Normally if there was an insane line at Nan Xiang, I would just trek over to Taste of Shanghai and I would be merry. Now, I’m going to just skip them both and go to King 5. The pan fried dumplings were also very good, and I love the sweet/​garlic sauce that is served with it. My noodles were DELICIOUS. Right amount of spicy from the chilies, so that it’s not overbearing and I can taste my food. I think the noodles were hand drawn… not 100% sure though — they were different sizes. The bf ordered the duck, not knowing that it was herbal drunken duck. The herbs are overpowering, and both of us are not fans, but that was our mistake for ordering, so no stars deducted.
$ 36 for a dinner for 2, including tip. Excellent. I’m already planning on going back.

We were seriously craving hot soup and stopped in to try their beef noodle soup. The beef was absolutely soft and tender, not the usual dry, stringy texture at other places. It hit the spot for us.
Even more of a surprise was the sesame oil kidney soup. It was a lot lighter than what I’m used to in Taiwan but it was still delicious.
We would definitely go back to try some of the other items.

Delicious Taiwanese food. There spicy beef noodle soup is delicious!
Fried dumplings and scallion pancakes are a must have. The oyster pancakes with egg and fried mee fun are very good, there are many places that cook the mee fun too dry, this place always gets it right!

SoCal transplants: THEY HAVE TAIWANESE BREAKFAST HERE!!! And it’s good.
Breakfast served: M-​F: 8am-​4pm, Sat-​Sun: 8am-​3pm
So good, in fact, that even if this place was in SoCal, I’d still go. Yes, and you guys know that’s saying a lot.
My usual Taiwanese breakfast is sweetened soy milk and salty fan tuan, both found here. I started with the hot sweetened soy milk (rarer than my usual cold) and a salty fan tuan. The soy milk is delicious — full of soy flavor, not watered down. The fan tuan was on the small side, but good enough (the rice was the right consistency) and stuffed with the usual you tiao, rou song, and pickled vegetable.
I had a lot more soy milk left after I finished my fan tuan, got a you tiao. After I finished, brought back an order of cold soy milk (because I liked it so much). Total: $ 6.90. Score.
They have a bunch of other stuff people have already mentioned. I wanted to try the dou hua, but was pretty full. It looked pretty darn good, and if the soy milk is any indication, it damn well is.
There’s a picture of the top and bottom half of their breakfast menu that someone uploaded. Enjoy!

Stop #1 for a Flushing food tour, to start off the day with Taiwanese breakfast. Like many other Taiwanese places in Flushing, breakfast staples are offered in the mornings. Here, this menu is offered through the afternoon also. Adjacent to and sharing the same address as Spicy & Tasty, this is a typical small and casual eatery in Flushing.
Our group settled into a table in the back, picked up some menus ourselves to peruse. The breakfast section, listed on one panel of the menu, has the basic options but the English names leave much to be desired if you’re unfamiliar with the choices. Very economical, most dishes under $ 5.
Most of the items were good. A favorite was salty soy milk; although the name suggests a beverage, its actually more a soup, fresh soy milk with vinegar added to curdle it, with condiments added. Perhaps not the most appetizing to look at, but served hot, with salty and tangy flavors, made texturally more interesting with fried cruller chunks dipped in, its quite satisfying.
Dan bing, a thin egg omelet rolled up in a scallion crêpe-​like pastry, served room temperature, was tasty. Likewise, the similarly good niu rou juan bing had thin beef slices rolled up in the same crêpe-​like pancake. Salty soy bean curds were essentially silky smooth tofu floating in a salty sauce. I really enjoyed the chive and egg pancake that is actually more a crisply fried bun filled with a flavorful mixture of chopped chives, eggs, and vermicelli.
Disappointing was a salty rice roll. Rice rolled around a filling of shredded dried pork and radish, it reminds me of a tamale but then distinctly like a sushi roll as we attempted to slice it into rounds for sharing. Terrible rice, hard and tasteless.
Sesame flatbread wrapped around those fried crullers is apparently a breakfast favorite that struck me as carb overkill, but different flavors and textures probably makes it; I’ll have to try it next time as there wasn’t quite enough to go around.
King 5 Noodle seems a reasonably good place for Taiwanese breakfast foods and I’d return for more.

I came here based on the recommendation from the Unilocal review for their beef noddle soup, and BOY! was I disappointed!
The beef noddle soup tasted artificial, kind of like the flavor you would get from the instant ramen you buy from the supermarket. The beef in there was pretty tender, but the flavor was just not there. And the noddles were cooked too soft and didn’t have the chew to it
Whoever been to Taiwasn and tasted the REAL beef noddle soup would not have think this place was good
The oyster pancake was terrible as well. The oysters were really fresh, but the pink sauce on it was terrible and the pancake was not cooked to crispy like it should be
Their seafood noddle soup was flavoreless as well
The only good thing here was the beef with scallions wrapped in pancake
This place was cheap tho but
Don’t think I would return again

Headed out to Flushing for good Taiwanese eats.
I was craving Nan Bei He after reading some threads on chow forums.
Turns out the physical location was closed. Boo.
So I headed over to this place 1G on Prince Street in Flushing. All I remember was that it was recommended by Unilocaler JulieJuli A. I was trying to help her figure out the name… and I had completely forgotten about it until I was writing this review that the name was also Nan Bei He. Here is her review —
After some digging around, I found out that it was the same owners that had owned King 5 Noodle House and Nan Bei He. After Nan Bei He location closed, they directed customers over to King 5 Noodle House.
There is a picture posted by another Unilocaler of the storefront:
If I remember correctly, the King 5 has been removed. All I remember seeing was «Noodle House» on the storefront when I went on 4÷11÷2010.
Ok. so onto the food, there were 5 of us, and we ordered the following:
1) Salty Soybean Milk — bf always gets this at every Taiwanese place
2) Sweet Soybean Milk — the rest of us ordered sweet soybean
3) Oyster Pancake — must get at any Taiwanese place; this was pretty good
4) Scallion Pancake rolled with Beef — I didn’t get to try any (we ordered TOO MUCH food, but the rest of the group enjoyed this).
5) Chicken with Mushroom in Soup — I really enjoyed the flavor of the broth; however, the chicken was REALLY DRY. I ended up picking out the chicken and just drank the rest of the broth.
6) Beef Noodle Soup — my bf judges a place by their Beef Noodle Soup. and woohoo — it passed his test!
7) Steamed Vegetable Dumplings — meh. The dumpling skin was really thick. I personally like the thin dumpling skins.
8) Pan Fried Dumplings — okay, not outstanding.
We also ordered the 3 dish special for $ 21 (I think).
9) Three Cup Chicken — good as expected!
10) Shredded Beef with Hot Green Pepper — good. The hot green pepper was NOT REALLY THAT HOT. The hot green pepper was about medium spicy.
11) Shredded Beef with Chinese Celery (I think) — good. Sauce had a really strong celery flavor.
I have NO IDEA how we managed to finish eating EVERYTHING between the 5 of us. Let’s just say that we didn’t eat for the rest of the day (except a tiny snack for dinner). This was a very yummy and filling meal.