ARTISAN NOODLE

I love hand pulled noodles. A few years ago, there were few options in Toronto for authentic, hand-pulled noodles but times are changing! Similar to Toronto’s ramen craze, I predict the rise in popularity of Chinese noodle shops to continue (Magic Noodle now has 3 locations). Artisan Noodle is one of these noodle shops in North York.

Atmosphere: Located in the first floor of a condo building, Artisan Noodle was compact with only 20 seats. Half of the restaurant space was devoted to the kitchen with a large open window and the other half was filled with wooden chairs and tables. The decor was industrial with a wallpaper reminiscent of wood pallets. Being a small restaurant, I’ve been eager to visit Artisan Noodle but weary of having to wait for a table. To avoid the dinner rush, The Hubby and I headed out right after work and arrived at 6:00pm. Even at the early hour, the two tables for 4 were full and we ended up on bar stools.

Service: I found service to be spotty and unfocused. There was only one server working and he was difficult to flag down. I asked which noodle dishes used fat noodles and his answer was “a bunch”. We sat next to the napkins/utensils and I ended up just grabbing what I needed myself. The bowls of noodles did arrive from the kitchen quickly and hot.

Food: For the two of us, we each choose a bowl of noodles and split an order of the Potato Jia-mo, a soft flatbread (Mo bread) stuffed with slices of potato, marinated tofu, tofu skin and their signature spicy sauce. The pancake was delicious, spicy and sweet, a strong doubanjiang flavour. I liked how the bread was toasted on the outside while soft and flakey within.

My bowl of noodles was the Yo Po Bian Bian Mian, hand pulled ribbon noodles (super thick), served with a topping of stewed beef cubes, sauteed tomato fried egg, mixed vegetable, chopped scallion, ground garlic, ground ginger and chili oil vinaigrette. Phew, lots of ingredients and when mixed together, created a perfect harmony of flavours. The thick oily noodles were wonderful to slurp up.

The Hubby was looking for a lighter dinner and ordered the Lamb Shui Pen, sweet potato starch noodles with wood ear fungus and cilantro in a lamb broth with Mo bread bun on the side. The strength of the dish was the broth, rich and flavourful. However there wasn’t much else to it. The glass noodles were cooked well but I found the portion lacking. Even with the Mo bread, The Hubby was not full.

Overall, I’m looking forward to trying out other dishes on the menu. Having a shop that serves up hand-pulled noodles within walking distance of home is pretty amazing.