LANZHOU HAND PULLED NOODLES

One evening, The Hubs and I found ourselves in Markham looking for a casual place to grab dinner with friends. We narrowed down our choices to a few restaurants in Peachtree Plaza and decided to make a call once we were there. This led us to Lanzhou Hand Pulled Noodles, a small mom and pop shop, specializing in their namesake. Being a weekday evening, the restaurant was quiet with only a few tables occupied. A single server took care of all the tables, who was efficient and got the job done. There was a large TV playing a Chinese talk show, the soundtrack of the evening.

Between the four of us, we decided to share four types of noodles. The menu consisted of appetizers, stir fried noodles and soup based bowls. With each dish, there were option to customize the width of the noodle and hand pulled vs. shaved. We chose one stir fried option and 3 soupy ones. My favourite bowl was the Original Lanzhou beef with a clear, savoury broth garnished with cilantro. The Noodles had a good chew and the bowl was very satisfying. I found the lamb fried thin noodles ok, but not amazing. The dish did not have strong wok air.

The most disappointing bowl was the hot and sour soup, my choice, which was underseasoned. With a bright orange colour and good thickness, the soup had all the earmarks of being delicious, but fell short when it came to flavour. The noodles of this bowl were also thinner, and a touch overcooked to my liking. Our last bowl was a Red Braised Pork broth that was solid with large chunks of meat and a soy seasoned broth. Compared to the hot and sour soup, the noodles were much better and there was more depth of flavour (fat) in the broth.

Overall, not bad but not great. A safe bet to try would be the Original Lanzhou Beef Noodles.