Kuai Le Hand Pull Noodles Restaurant

Great place for hand pulled noodles! And like most places in Chinatown its super cheap! That’s a plus for someone trying to spare their wallet too much pain in an expensive city like New York. However, don’t come here expecting amazing décor or spectacular service because you will be disappointed (true to the Chinatown appeal).
I happened upon this place while exploring Chinatown and was pleasantly surprised. Since it is a bit far from subway stops, it doesn’t seem like a place that is frequented (yay for no crowds!) This is a great place to stop by if you happen to be at Kung Fu Tea on Chrystie St or if you are checking out Prosperity Dumplings on Allen.

Another great find in Chinatown. The hand pulled noodles are made fresh. If you are lucky, you can see him making it. They are al dente and have that perfect spring.
The broth is hearty but it isn’t as heavy on the beef flavor compared to the other noodle places in the area. The soup dumplings here are not the usual suspects. They are like mini poppable meat buns. The bread is like mantou buns. They are meaty. The potstickers here are fried and not a vegetable in sight for the filling. The chili oil goes with everything and you will want to dip everything in it. It brings the heat. A great place for an affordable home cooked meal.

For the longest time Ric and I referred to this place as the ‘Hole In The Wall Noodle Shop”, and hey. one of the cool things about NY (I was born and raised here) is that you can turn a corner and suddenly walk into a terrific little place like this, with excellent food and low prices. The hustle and chaos of the establishment don’t bother us one bit. That’s the whole point, and believe it or not I have heard some people rave about how busy it is. so it must be GOOD. And it is. I get the handpulled with bok choy and chicken. Yummissimo!

The business in it’s place is now it’s called lao di feng.

Noodles are good, and for the price (as of early 2012) hard to beat. Most of the noodle dishes are soups. The two seafood versions we ordered were good but the broth is very light. We also ordered one of the only noodle dishes not in soup, it was called stir fried noodles with beef or something like that, which was really good. The dumplings were good. The balls with meat were interesting, but I liked the dessert version better (comes floating in hot water). Next time I want to try the soup with duck, beef or pork!

Of the handful of places that serve hand-​pulled noodles, this is one of my favorite.
Nice little noodle joint on the side of the Manhattan Bridge. They recently redecorated the interior, which is now covered top to bottom in faux exposed bricks wallpaper[1]. The puzzling effect is that of a prison cell. Last time I was there, we were also treated to an interesting soundtrack that mixed Chinese pop and rap music with Peter Cetera[2].
Among the side dishes, the potato balls (6 for $ 3.50) are light, tasty, and very «bouncy»; a fun dish to try. The pork dumplings (12 for $ 3.00) are cheap and reliable, albeit fairly ordinary.
Among the hand-​pulled noodle dishes, all nicely priced $ 3 – 6.00, I definitely recommend the house special with fried egg, duck, tripe, and pork ($ 6), together with the beef ($ 4.50). The pork chop ($ 4.50) was a bit bland in flavor, and the meat too tough. The roast duck ($ 5; the duck is actually prepared here, so extra points for that) is very flavorful, with a nice, crispy skin (and a lot of bones…). Other hand-​pulled noodle dishes I would like to try include pork intestine, ox tail, lamb, and taro.
The broth is the same for all dishes: fairly mild, not particularly rich, but solid[3]. The kind of broth that leaves the stage to the main ingredients in the dish. They put more bok choi leaves in it than at your average noodle joint, and I like that[4]. I also suggest to ask to add some pickled mustard greens, which are nicely sour, with a hint of bitterness and a very firm, texture. If you like your broth spicy, add a spoonful of the chili oil to it[5].
The hand-​pulled noodles, however, are the star of the show: of the perfect chewy consistency yet firm, and nicely separated, these noodles keep their proper texture throughout the meal. Simple and wonderful; some of the best hand-​pulled noodles I’ve ever had. I also love the fact that they are freshly prepared in front of you, as you order them. It doesn’t get any fresher than this.
Together with hand-​pulled noodles, you can also have rice noodles, vermicelli, and thread noodle, if you prefer.
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[1] The kind of wallpaper that some times you see in bathrooms at Chinese restaurants.
[2]
[3] After trying noodle soup at a lot of different Chinese joints, I am starting to think that, if you want complexity in your broth, you should look at something totally different like phở or ramen.
[4] I confess: I have a bok choi food fetish!
[5]I wouldn’t add more than that, simply to avoid having pools of oils floating on the surface of your broth.

This is definitely a better alternative to Tasty Hand Pulled but its still not amazing.
Their noodles are home made but I think a sliver of a hair less as good as THP. The broth is pretty bland…
That being said, the establishment is much cleaner, more friendly, and nicer all around. They have done a modern renovation and have a waiter who speaks english.
Sadly they do not offer knife pulled or have the 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8, noodle thickness gauges. What they also excel in is having MEAT in their soup! Woo hoo, while not the best meat in the world you will still be full, as they give you tons and tons of noodles to go with aforementioned meat.
I really like the fact that they have a window built into the wall so you can see the guy working the noodles. Wobbling it up an down like a happy face /​sad face and smacking it on the table.
Kuai Le means happy, so I could not help but make this happy face parallel.
Because of the show its a nice place to take non NY’ers, since hand pulling is a pretty cool art!
Sit by the window and you can take in the crazy long line across the street to buy veggies at an informal under the bridge local chinatown-​ian farmers market. Think yelling, red bags, bok choy by the bushels and haggling grannies with square rolling carts.

I came here on a cold wintry day in search for some tasty noodles that will fill me up.
I ordered the house special noodles since it consists of fried egg, tripe, beef and duck. I have to agree with Allene T from a previous review, the broth was pretty standard. It was home made but there was nothing spectacular.
The noodles themselves were good, chewy and soft. It was a good size portion, so you would satisfy your carb fix. The tripe itself was a little chewy and bland so I would avoid the noodles with this. The beef tendon that came with the noodles had a nice five spice flavor to it. The duck was standard.
If I were to come back again I would get the beef noodles with a fried egg on top. The fried egg makes the soup creamier as the yolk oozes into the broth.
The owners here speak very little English and speak only mandarin. So if you’re like me and can only speak Cantonese you can resort to using sign language and pointing at the pictures.

And my search for the perfect noodle place continues…
I ordered the beef tripe hand pulled noodle soup. The broth here pretty much tastes like the broth you’d find at any other noodle house. Nothing special, just a beef broth. They don’t really serve spicy here, so if you ask for it, they will just dump a bunch of the spicy chili oil into your soup, making for a different taste altogether. In retrospect, that was probably not a good idea.
The noodles are a very nice texture, more firm and chewy than other places — I enjoyed them! Lots of bok choy, too. The only thing is, I wished they would have had larger pieces of the beef tripe, rather than a few little thin slices. They had an okay flavor to them, but you really didn’t get too much out of the little pieces. At $ 4.50 though, you get a lot for what you paid for and a good taste.
Next time I’ll try the House Noodles… duck, beef, tripe, fried egg… sounds interesting!

At first glance, it’s easy to dismiss this little stall. Having seen that it had just opened in Time Out New York, we take a deep breath and plunge forward; me more hesitantly than him.
The menu is simple, to-​the-​point, and full of the obligatory grammatical errors that we have come to expect and love at Chinese restaurants. A list of noodles on one side and a list of small dishes on the other side. I go with the tried-​and-​true Beef Hand Pull Noodle with thick noodles ($ 4.50) and he goes with the House Special Hand Pull Noodles with regular noodles ($ 6). We add a side of Pork Dumplings (12 for $ 3) for good measure. We’re told the beverages are in the fridge and to grab what we would like (no alcohol, sadly).
Our waiter, who took our order in broken English, also doubles as the noodle puller. Within 3 minutes, my beef noodle soup has arrived and the first sip of the broth is heavenly. It’s been a long time since I’ve been satisfied like this in a noodle shop*. The beef is tender and flavorful. The noodles, of all shapes and sizes, are chewy in that most delightful, glutenous/​gluttonous way — my aunt would describe them as «QQ».
A guy wanders in from the street and seats himself. He waves to the posse who have resumed eating dinner after delivering our meal. They know exactly what he wants and how he wants it without exchanging words. Not bad for being open for a week. The Cheers of noodle shops. He helps himself to the pickled mustard in the fridge. A hidden treasure that we overlooked in our initial scan of the fridge. A mistake you should not copy.
Kuai Le means Happiness in Chinese. Very appropriate.
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* I’ve never been satisfied like THAT in a noodle shop, perv.

Quick noodles with a lot of junk in it. It’s aight. Bordain would probably love it.

Great place, clean, warm, welcoming, full of locals. The two bowls of noodle soup we ordered were delightfully flavored. Noodles were pleasantly chewy — just the right texture. Came here on recommendation of a friend and will most definitely be back!!!

Eh, noodles, broth, and meats are all so-​so. Check out Lanzhou for a better option. I think I even liked Super Taste and Sheng Wang better too!

Last month, the Squab and I tried out Kuai An. We shared the House Special Lamien & the Ox Tail Lamien.
The house special was loaded full of different meats including roast duck. It was pretty filling, but the quality of the meats were not good. Ditto with the ox tail, it was of a lesser quality than what one is used to.
On the way to Kuai An, we discovered the Forsyth St Produce Market though!

I guess you could call my visit here a mistake. I had memorized the address «28 Forsyth Street» a long time ago, knowing that there was a highly regarded hand-​pulled noodle shop there, but when I finally decided to show up, the name was unfamiliar. «Wasn’t it ‘Eastern Authentic’ or something? What’s this Kuai An business?» For a moment, I considered turning around and heading to one of the dueling hand-​pulled noodle places on Eldridge, but the name Kuai An sounded vaguely familiar too, so I walked in.
Post-​eating research eventually showed that the location did indeed house Eastern Authentic Noodle House sometime back, only to be replaced by Kuai An sometime in 2009, and that I’d heard about Kuai An through the Village Voice and Salon. All that was immaterial as I sat in the blindingly orange room, however, and was handed a menu printed on cardboard that was shaped like a hotel’s «Do Not Disturb» sign, slit hole and all. I had no reference point — all the soups sounded equally mysterious and tasty. So I went with the «house special» noodle soup. I also added on dumplings, which on the menu were labeled thusly: «dumplings».
As soon as I placed the order, I saw a man in the kitchen start to, yes, hand-​pull my noodles. (HEY STOP LAUGHING.) It was hard to see, and it made me miss the spectacle of Lam Zhou, where your noodles are made right in the dining area with a pleasing *thwack*-*thwack*. Hidden or not, it was efficient: I’m not even sure two minutes passed before a huge bowl of soup was placed before me.
It turned out to contain a whole host of animal parts. Various cuts of braised beef, sure, but also pieces of duck (including, wonderfully, a duck *neck*), tripe, and what I think was tendon, not to mention vegetables, an egg fried to within an inch of its life (yet somehow still with a runny yolk), and of course reassuringly heterogeneous noodles. A bowl of chili sauce was also provided, but frankly I was sweating just sitting in proximity to the steaming bowl.
The Asian cuisines all seem to have their noodle soups, each with different emphases. I think it’s fair to say that fans of phở concentrate on the broth more than any other element, though of course each is important to the bowl as a whole. Soba, on the other hand, is all about the noodles, as evidenced by the number of preparations where a broth isn’t even really involved at all. Then you have Japanese ramen, where the aficionados are hyperholistic about the bowl, wanting each component to not only be perfect individually but harmonious with the rest like a string quartet. As far as I can tell, Chinese hand-​pulled noodle soups are primarily about the noodles. Kuai An’s were nicely springy to start, but as time wore on, the heat of the broth cooked them into limp submission. I could tell this would happen from the get-​go, so I found myself shoveling the noodles into my mouth almost as fast as I could. But given the sheer amount, I could not entirely avoid the degradation. Oh well. The broth was perfectly fine, though not particularly deep in flavor. The various toppings were spot-​on, though. That tripe was squeaky clean and didn’t fall prey to chewiness, the beef parts were tender, and I sucked on that duck neck hard enough to cause permanent hickeys.
I’d almost finished by the time the dumplings came out, of the steamed pork-​and-​chive variety in the Fuzhou style. No dumpling sauce provided. Maybe I could have asked for some, but it turned out I didn’t need it, for the dumplings were a more unequivocal success than the noodles. A nice wrapper surrounded a moist, succulent filling with enough liquid inside to almost remind me of soup dumplings. At $ 3.50 for 12, perhaps a little pricier than the going rate of some other shops in the area, but still a great deal however you slice it.
Overall, I had a pleasant meal there. Hand-​pulled noodles have never been something I dream about, and Kuai An didn’t convince me otherwise. I don’t think any convive would scoff at you for its lack of authenticity, though, and if you put this place in any other city in the US, it would be thrilling. Here in NYC? Just another hand-​pulled noodle shop.
Probability of return within 1 year: 10%, not because of inherent quality issues but just because Eldridge Street is so close

The New King of LanFuj noodle soups in Manhattan. Dangerous atmosphere adds to the excitement

An avowed hater of winter, when cold weather hits I head straight for the varied soups and stews of the city. Ramen, phở, matzo, borsch or goulash — all valuable tools in defrosting frostbitten tongues.
Which helps explain why I was so distraught at the closing of Eastern Authentic Noodle House, a fine purveyor of hand-​pulled noodles on Forsyth and Canal.
Thankfully, the shop was swiftly replaced (renamed?) by Kuai An, which upholds the civic duty of its predecessor by providing beef broth with aplomb. Sit down shivering at a table and within milliseconds steaming bowls of noodles will appear.
Although one should refrain from dipping frozen fingers directly into to steaming bowl, there’s no surer (or tastier) remedy to the winter chills than a bowl of Chinese penicillin.