Szechuan Noodle Bowl

First visit here was tonight. It’s right next to Green Leaf — who knew? This is definitely a family-​owned establishment — when we walked in, an old grandma was rolling dough and making dumplings by the side. The ladies were nice to us and kept our tea pot refilled.
Our table shared a green onion pancake, a plate of pork and chive dumplings and a plate of spicy oil veggie dumplings. Everyone then got a bowl of noodle soup — beef noodle soups mostly, but I got a wonton noodle soup. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the noodles like some of the other reviewers, but the wontons were pretty good and the soup was light. I thought the dumplings were actually probably better than the soup. I’m not a fan of thick-​skinned dumplings usually, but the wrappers were not as doughy as some other reviewers made it out to be and I found the texture to be pretty nice. Unfortunately, I can’t comment on the beef noodle soup!

Went there 2^nd time with colleagues. 5 of us ordered about 10 dishes, including 5 types of dumplings, 1 bowl of beef noodle soup, 1 bowl of wonton, 2 plates of green onion pancake, and 1 veggie dish. Pancake is the best around Seattle’s Chinese restaurants. The dumplings are home made, with thin wrappers & very tasty feelings. One of the best dumplings around Seattle. Definitely come back for more!

Been here a couple times, and left happy each occasion. This is a family owned, bare-​bones joint serving excellent and fresh szechuan food. The pork ears are served in a generous portion and are thinly sliced for maximum enjoyment of the gelatinous texture and savory flavor. The «dumpling with hot and spicy sauce» is excellent, well portioned, and with a tasty sauce. However, the sauce is not quite spicy enough to merit the title – out of character in comparison to the other dishes which were pleasantly spicy.
The Szechuan beef tendon soup is a large bowl full of succulent and enjoyably chewy tendon pieces, a good amount of cabbage and pinky-​width noodles, which are fresh and have good texture. Get this, and if you like, order it extra spicy.
The Pickled pork and vegetable noodle soup is not hot and spicy, so if you are looking for the classic mala flavor associated with szechuan food, this is not the dish you want. But it is a good soup, with pork, scallions and zha cai pickle (mustard leaf). Same noodles as the other soups, and a nice porky broth. Could be a little richer but it’s good that it’s not, because it’s hard not to stuff yourself on the dumplings first.
The owner and her family are very sweet and remember regulars. Say hey to whoever’s making dumplings by the fridge and you might get an extra one in your order :)

Served promptly after giving up on a long wait for dim sum.
Cash only!
Hole in the wall next to green leaf.
1. Pork and chive spicy dumpling — full of stuffing and not too doughy wrap. However not very spicy.
2. Vegetable spicy dumpling — I usually prefer meat but this was full of flavor.
3. Green pancake– good and worth ordering to mix up the softness of everything else, but don’t expect mind blowing favor or texture.
4. Pig ears — crunchy and good flavor
5. Seaweed– not like the Japanese style I actually prefer the flavor as it’s less salty.
6. Spicy tendon — clean simple yet so fresh and flavorful. Not as spicy as I thought it’d be though.

They’re authentic Szechuan noodles all right. So authentic that there isn’t much else to them. Noodles, beef, vegetables, green onion, and soup made up the entirety of the little bowl I ordered. My lunch here was quite small, and it wasn’t very filling. Nevertheless, I can tell that this place is trying, so I’ll be lenient on the rating.
The waitress was nice, the wait time was three minutes, and the food was exactly like it was made at home. That’s the way it should be in the International District, but I’m not going to take off points for such a silly reason. I wish they could have packed more in there, but for the generous price of $ 7.95, I can’t complain about much.

party of 2, sunday night at 7pm. it’s a hole in the wall, and i’ll be honest — i was nervous b/​c it was EMPTY when we arrived. but i stuck with the other Unilocalers’ reviews and we forged ahead.
i’m so glad we did, b/​c this place was legitimately the bomb when it comes to szechuan food. i will for sure come back here on my next trip to seattle.
we ordered:
green onion pancake — this is a MUST order. great start. served warm and crisp with the simplest, but richest favor. surprising since it’s just dough and spring onions. who cares, it’s so good!
szechuan beef noodle bowl — perfectly spicy, fresh veggies, tender-​melt-​in-​your-​mouth beef, fresh, springy noodles in a fantastic broth. very very well done!
spicy dumplings — large serving for an appetizer, feel free to share these, i like my dumplings spicier but flavor was still great.
dan-​dan mein — old style noodle with peanut based sauce, noodles were fresh and springy also, and served with just enough sauce.
parking can be a pain in the international district.
it’s a tiny place, easy to miss.
totally worth every penny.

You wouldn’t think much of this place from the outside, but as many authentic restaurants are, the more hole-​in-​the-​wall-​y it is, the better. This holds true here! You know you’re in the right place when the corner table is dedicated to wrapping dumplings.
I came on a Friday evening around 6pm, and to my surprise it wasn’t busy at all. We ordered bamboo shoots to start, followed by wontons in chili oil, Szechuan beef noodle soup, and a green onion pancake. (Protip: dip your green onion pancake in your noodle soup for extra goodness).
A+ all around! Everything is very good and authentic and service is speedy and nice! You can also buy frozen dumplings/​potstickers/​green onion pancakes/​etc to go to make yourself at home. I couldn’t buy any as I wasn’t heading straight home, but something that I definitely want to try next time!

HardWok was closed on a Monday, so headed here instead.
— Green onion pancake — tasty but heavily fried. This isn’t the lightly pan-​friend kind.
— Pork and chive dumplings were average, not the best. The filling was rather non-​descript and skin overly thick. For dumplings, would recommend Ping’s in ID or Dough Zone on the E. Side.
— Dan dan mien was definitely not dan dan mien –would skip.

Favorites: green onion pancake, dumplings and spicy beef noodle soup hits the spot when I’m looking for comfort food. Cash only.

Saw good ratings here, so thought we give it a try.
Service — The service is good. The young lady was polite & had a nice smile & visited our table just the right amount of frequency.
Green Onion Pancake — Thick & dense with crunchy crust. It tasted bland. I like the crunchy crust but I couldn’t taste any green onions. After all it is supposed to be a green onion pancake. Disappointing.
Pig Ears (side dish) — Very Disappointing. It is sliced in flat medium size pieces instead of in strips like how it is normally served. I couldn’t taste the crunchy texture of the cartilage when it is sliced this way. Again, the point of the pigs ear is that crunch! It is pretty pricy at $ 3.50 for 8 – 10 paper thin slices.
Seaweed (side dish) — Tasted ok. It has a slight garlic flavor which is good. It isn’t anything special. I had better with fresher & tastier flavor.
Dumplings in Hot Oil — Honestly I don’t know how it should taste. So far I’ve had this dish in 3 different places & all 3 tastes extremely different. The sauce was ok & so were the dumplings.
Pork & Napa Dumplings — Tasted ok. The skin texture felt a little thick. The stuffing was ok. There wasn’t much of flavor. It just didn’t stand out even though I can see the owner hand making dumplings at the next table over. I’ve been to other freshly made dumpling places & those you can taste the freshness unlike this one.

Overall. It’s just ok. I might give it one more try & get the noodle soups next time before skipping this place all together. Maybe the noodle soups will be better tasting.

UNAUTHENTIC DAN DAN NOODLE
Coming to a Sichuan restaurant, you’d expect certain simple dishes to be authentic and true to taste, especially in a small mom and pop place like this; however, I was highly disappointed by the dishes I ordered.
I’ve had my fair share of Dan Dan noodles and nothing tasted as bad and UNAUTHENTIC as this. It was simply a mixture of peanut butter and scallions without any bit of meat nor hot sauce. Maybe they splashed a tiny bit of it, but clearly wasn’t enough for me to taste. Also, the appearance of the Dan Dan should be slightly red (from the hot oil), not like a bowl of peanut butter covered noodles.
Also, the people working here are not from Sichuan and probably do not even know what authentic Sichuanese dishes supposed to taste like! The service was okay but I am just extremely disappointed with the food! This is NOT a Sichuan restaurant! Will not come back again!

the best dumpling place in Chinatown
this is the 2^nd time I came here n my wife n I shared our favorites: the 10-​piece pork n chive dumplings with spicy & hot sauce n 2 green onion pancakes! boy, were they good!.. the dumplings r always so tasty, hot n fresh, full of flavor in ur mouth! the only thing is this time, the dumplings got smaller compared 2 last time. the pancakes were crispy n tasty, good treats prior 2 the dumplings coming out.
water was good 2
service was very good!
prices came out 2 $ 16
a good hole in the wall indeed!
Ca$h Only!

This is a no frills, hole in the wall mom and pop restaurant. My husband and I love to come here for their beef noodles soup, the broth is very meaty and flavorful. Their handmade noodles are pretty good as well and never soggy. Another favorite of ours is their onion pancake, very flaky and not overly dried up like many other places.
Don’t expect anything fancy or great ambiance, just simple comfort food especially on a rainy day.

Solid food, cheap, no frills. If your goal is to shovel some hearty, quality noodle soup or dumplings down your gullet, this is a great place to do it. if you’re looking for ANY semblance of ambiance, extensive menu options, alcoholic beverages, or you don’t have cash on you, skip it.
We had the pork and chive dumplings, pork wontons, and the Szechuan beef noodle soup. Everything was tasty, but the Szechuan beef soup was my favorite. The broth is like crack! (Not that I’ve ever tried crack, but I digress.) It’s super rich, flavorful, and has a nice kick to it. All in all, we spent $ 23 and left completely stuffed/​satisfied. Recommend.

Ordered the extra spicy BNS (beef noodle soup) with homemade noodles. Soup was beefy, but most of the spice just came from extra chili sauce, which always has that weird flavor. I like my spice cooked into the soup. The beef was delicious and tender. The noodles were not as chewey as I would expect for homemade noodles and were honestly a little bit disappointing. This place is just ok.

Mhmm… nothing like a bowl of hot noodle soup to comfort you on a chilly day.
I’ve had this place bookmarked for a while and after passing by Mike’s Noodle House and seeing the line outside we decided to continue on and finally check out Szchuan Noodle Bowl.
The boyfriend and I ordered the Szechuan Beef Noodle Soup, the Original Beef Noodle with soup, the pork and chive dumplings, and the green onion pancake. We didn’t realize the place didn’t take cards beforehand, so he had to do a sly escape to the ATM while we were waiting for our food to arrive. The food was perfect for what we were craving for. His soup was beefy, hearty, and delicious. The noodles were chewy, the bok choy was crunchy, and the beef was tender and succulent. The Szechuan noodle soup was essentially the same, but spicy. It had a wonderful kick and was reminiscent of Chinese hot and sour soup. The green pancake was thicker than normal but really crispy and delicious. And the dumplings had an awesome flavor. The wrapper was hand rolled and thicker than I prefer, but the flavors were all there. We were actually able to watch a woman make the dumplings at a table next to us while we were eating.
Service was great and the restaurant wasn’t overly crowded (like some other places nearby) so it made for a pleasant dining experience. This is definitely a spot that I’ll keep coming to.

For $ 8ish for a bowl of beef noodle, this place isn’t bad. It’s definitely not authentic Szechuan pepper spice, but the broth is decent and the meat tender. The tendon pieces were on the tougher side.
Just be aware what you order if broth is important to you. My cousin thought she was getting the heftier beef broth and instead got a clear one.
Other patrons seemed to be enjoying the dumplings. CASH ONLY.

This place is overrated by getting a 4 star, not sure if people coming here don’t normally have authentic chinese food or if the rating is based on the pretty decent service (for a Chinese restaurant).
Regardless, growing up in Taiwan and a lover of taiwanese/​chinese restaurant, i’d say this place is a 3 stars. Don’t get me wrong — I had a pleasant time here and I enjoyed the food, I just don’t understand why Szechuan Noodle Bowl gets a 4 star while some other better restaurants get a 3-​star. Either way, Service is good and the food is good, but not amazing compared to other restaurants in Seattle.
Green Onions /​Scallion Pancake (4.5): Probably the best dish I ordered here. There’s a great crunch to the pancake skin and just enough filling in the pancake to really get the perfect blend of soft and crunch. Highly recommend this as a must order!
Szechuan Spicy Beef Noodle (3.5): The broth was alittle bit too spicy for me, and it wasn’t exactly the szechuan numbing spice that i enjoy. It was more like regular Chinese spice, not Szechuan spice (for those that know what I mean). The beef brisket was delicious though!
Wonton Noodle Soup (4): I liked it. I liked the wonton and the simplicity of the dish, although I would appreciate more depth in the broth. However, If i were to come back here, I would order the wonton noodle soup.
Hot and Spicy Dumpling (2): Not hot and spicy at all, more sweet and sour. It was overpowered by Vinegar and the meat within the dumpling was a bit too sweet for my taste. I grew up with a grandma who made and sold hundreds of thousands of dumplings, so im pretty picky about my dumpling. The Szechuan Noodle Bowl dumpling skin was too thick and them eat was too sweet — HUGE dumplings though!
Overall, their homemade noodles is pretty thick and not as QQ as I like. The dumpling skin is also a bit thick. However, I appreciate homemade food so i liked that they homemake everything. Prices were reasonable although portions are on the smaller side compared to other Seattle restaurants.
If you’re in the area and looking to eat here, do so. You won’t regret it, just don’t come here thinking it’ll be the best chinese restaurant in town because of the rating.

On a recent Sunday, Seattle forgot that it was the middle of June, and went back to early spring weather. I took advantage of the unseasonally cool weather with a nice steaming bowl of beef noodle soup ($ 8) from this small eight-​table restaurant in the International District.
The broth was outstanding. Intensely beefy, with a moderate spicy kick. I would have this broth pumped into my arm intravenously. The noodles themselves were a bit soft for my taste — almost mushy. I don’t know whether that’s intentional for this style of noodles, but based on their udon-​like appearance, I was expecting a little al-​dente-​ness. (YY, or ZZ, or whatever you call it.) There were a few cubes of braised beef in the bowl — a little gamey (which I like), tender, but slightly dry. Also in the bowl: braised bok choy and chopped scallions. Reasonable portion size for a lightish lunch.
I was hungry, so I got the much-​talked-​about green onion pancake ($ 4) as well. Noodle Bowl’s version is unusual — thick, flaky, heavy on the oil and light on the scallions. It could almost have passed for a crispy, savory pie crust. I prefer the more common, thinner version, but this was tasty too.
In a neighborhood densely packed with noodle joints and/​or dumpling joints, I think this place warrants a return visit or three.

Totally inconspicuous tiny little shop in Chinatown. From the outside, you wouldn’t be able to tell that this place has the reputation that it does for excellence in Szechuanese cuisine.
As we entered, two ladies were hand-​making the skins and wrapping pork dumplings. Evidence that their food is indeed handmade and fresh!
We ordered green onion pancake, bamboo shoots, hot/​spicy pork dumplings, and szechuan beef tendon noodle soup. All were pretty spicy but EXTREMELY delicious. Beef noodle soup is a tough dish to make to have it meet all 3 requirements of deliciousness in broth, noodles and beef. Their broth was on par with the «homeland’s» (aka asia/​china) level of quality and flavor. However, their noodles were not as chewy as hoped. Nonetheless, the soup was mmm.mmm.good. (which is an inappropriate reference, because this soup was actually about 1,000,000 times better than Campbell’s bullsoup). hah.
Highly recommended for an inexpensive and very satisfying spicy dinner! Go Szechuan Noodle Bowl!