Hey everyone,

I’m not going to lie…. even though I’ve been trying to hide it. But I’ve had noodles 3 days in a row. And 2 days in a row last week. Not all of them were ramen!! But I’m definitely noodle’d out. With a restaurant like Noodle & Noodle down street from work, and having those Sun Noodle ramen kits at home, being noodle’d out was inevitable. Today was a cold day and I had a hankering for spicy ramen at lunch.

Gloomy day in Pasadena

I felt a little awkward going back to Noodle & Noodle again since I was just there on Monday, but the manager recognized me and seemed happy to see me return. I was bummed that the server I really liked wasn’t there today. She knew that I always ordered hot tea with my meal and I liked sitting at either the bar or the lone table at the front. I really should remember to ask for her name…

I ordered their Spicy Miso ramen, which included all the same stuff as their Tonkotsu ramen, (chashu, corn, cabbage, seaweed, menma, boiled egg, kamaboko, and green onions.) They had everything in my bowl this time! Including menma… ick.

Before I even dug in, I took all the menma out. Eventually I’ll blog about why I hate menma with a passion… Anyway, I took a sip of the broth and it made me cough! It was quite spicy at first taste. You need to take a good swirl through the broth to mix the spicy chili around. After having done so, I was able to tolerate the heat. If the spiciness were on levels 1 to 3, I would say it’s at about level 2. The miso broth was light but I can still taste it despite the spiciness. The one thing that I wish they were better at was draining the corn because it tasted like the corn juices got into the broth. It wasn’t bad but it made the broth taste a little sweeter.

The noodles were cooked just right, firm yet chewy. And the chashu was amazing like before, perfectly tender and flavorful. I think this place really knows how to cook their meat. I actually got my seaweed today, I think… I didn’t see anything different other than the brown strips which might actually be mushrooms. Whatever it is, I liked it and it complimented the other vegetables nicely.

Overall the ramen was good, but not as rich like the ramen broths I’ve had at Japanese ramen joints. But I really like going there! I was still hungry so I ordered their chocolate gelato with raspberry sorbet in the middle, covered in cocoa powder.

The gelato was good but a little bit hard to dig into with a spoon. But I guess it had to be in order for it to keep its shape. The gelato definitely helped get rid of the spiciness that lingered in my mouth!

The service today was okay. The manager started my order and brought my ramen, but another server took over afterwards. There was actually a big crowd today, about 20 customers or so when I’m so used to being the only one there. I guess people are catching on! Because there was only one server and the manager suddenly got caught up helping with cooking, the service was a bit slow and the server didn’t check up on me at all unless I made eye contact with her.

I mentioned earlier that I went to Noodle & Noodle on Monday, and I ordered their pho. I thought it tasted great! The soup was delicious, the noodles were good and the brisket and meatballs were tasty and tender! Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture. I didn’t think I’d blog about it. Last Thursday, I ordered their Dry Noodle with Roast Beef. It was awesome! The roast beef was so tender and flavorful, the thought of it right now is making me drool! The dry noodle, vegetables and light sauce went well with the heavy roast beef. I actually took a picture! Noodle & Noodle definitely know how to cook their meat!

Alright, that’s enough talk of noodles. If you’re ever in the area, you should definitely check out Noodle & Noodle. You too, will get noodle’d out.

Joan