Category

1118 Westwood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90023
http://www.noodleplanet.com/

We decided to go to LA to visit our friend Cindy for her birthday. She suggested for us to try Noodle Planet because they had a wide selection of noodle dishes. The place is about a 5 minute walk from the UCLA campus. From the outside the place looked like it would be a small restaurant, but once I walked inside I found it to be very spacious. They offer Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese dishes. The menu was well organized and the dishes were listed by which region they originated from. They had everything from noodle soups to pan fry dishes and they even had pasta. They also have rice dishes for those whom don’t want noodles. Spicy dishes are designated with an asterisk next to the menu item.

(Thai Pan Fry) - Rice noodles stir fried with chicken, squid, green onions, and eggs. The noodles weren’t overcooked and still had a nice consistency to them. The dish was well seasoned, so you so you won’t be needing any soy sauce for this.

(Seafood Pad See-Ew) - Rice noodles pan fried with Chinese broccoli, eggs, black soy sauce, and a combination of seafood. The seafood that was in the dish was mostly shrimpy, squid and imitation crab. This was my favorite pan fried dish because it wasn’t too saucy and yet it wasn’t too dry. The black soy sauce cooked with the seafood gave it a nice rich sauce.

(Laht Nah) - Rice noodles topped with Chinese broccoli and a choice of beef, chicken or pork in gravy. You have to be careful with this dish because the green chili peppers are very deceiving and easily mistaken to be a piece of bell pepper or green bean. Many of us had bitten into the pepper without knowing and had to cool off our mouths with water. I thought the dish was a bit too saucy for my liking.

(Udon Noodle Soup) - Japanese fish cake, pork slices, tokfu, black mushroom, seaweed, and udon noodles. The taste of the broth wasn’t anything too special and It just didn’t stand out to me. They forgot to add the black mushrooms to my soup. I think they might have overcooked the fish cake a little because the texture was a lot tougher and rubbery than usual. I will stick to the pan fry dishes next time I come here.

The price of their dishes range from 5 to 7 dollars which is really affordable for the amount of food you are getting. If you are going to order a pan fry dish, I reccomend you have someone to share. It’s a lot of food for one person to handle, unless you eat a lot. If I lived in LA, I would probably be a regular just so I could try everything on their menu.

Taste: 7/10
Service: 3/5
Presentation: 2/5
Total: 12/20

8993 Mira Mesa Blvd. San Diego, CA 92126. (858) 537-9683

I was hungry. Therefore, it was pretty easy to persuade me to try a new restaurant… Silver Ark in Mira Mesa. It’s next to Rite Aid (who is apparently welcoming Sav-on customers or at least that’s what their giant sign says).

And when I say new, I mean no one else has heard of this place. We were the only two customers. Even so, the service was poor. After they brought out our food, they didn’t come by to check if we needed anything or ask how the food was. I did like the decor though. The rich blue and yellow. If you look closely at the chairs and the floor, it seemed regal.

Seafood Chow Mein ($12.95 or $13.95) - sorry, but I didn’t take the detailed receipt. I enjoyed the jumbo shrimp on top of the fried noodles. There is a sauce, which is poured over the noodles. It makes the noodles less crispy, which is how I prefer it. There were other types of seafood (fish, squid, and scallops) and veggies, but I didn’t try them. Honestly, this wasn’t my idea of chow mein. It was more like a bird’s nest.

Bowl of rice ($1). I don’t think they should charge extra for a staple such as rice. How else would Asians eat?

Fish Fillet Portuguese Style ($10.95 or $11.95). I felt like having a little adventure and trying something different. Having been to Portugal, I was pretty sure the Portuguese don’t cook with curry in their foods… nonetheless, when I first tried it, I thought it was delicious. The lightly fried fish still maintained a nice juiciness and the curry sauce had a little spicy kick to it. This dish reminded me of the delicious Honey Shrimp at Tea Wiz/ Tea Rex near SDSU. (Too bad it’s not offered anymore.) But after a while, I grew tired of this dish… almost losing my appetite. I’m not sure why.

Anyway, Silver Ark offers seafood, BBQ, and dim sum. We went for dinner and sadly missed out on the dim sum. Maybe that would have been a better experience.

Taste: 7/10
Presentation: 3/5
Service: 1/5
Total: 11/20

15351 Brookhurst. St. 101-107 Westminster, CA. 92683. (714) 775 - 8828.

I went to this restaurant a few months ago for a wedding reception and the food tasted okay. For this visit, everything tasted a little better. But not too much. Our group ordered the same eight course meal that we had a few months ago. I was with my dad and a few family friends. All the photos taken for this lunch was done by my dad. I didnt want to do it, because I didnt want the rest of the adults blaming me for holding up their meal. ^o^ hohoho

The first dish they bring out is the appetizer. I was never a big fan of this because its just filler food. I prefer something that has more body to it. Plus, cold seafood dishes never please me!

The soup was bland and needed salt and pepper. It was brought out in a large bowl and served into individual dishes by the waiter. I just happened to put my bowl onto my plate for photo presentation purposes.

Vegetables, what more can i say?

(shrimp leftovers were combined with the appetizer)

There was also dishes for fried fish, fried rice, shrimp, duck, and quail (not shown). I probably liked the shrimp the best. It wasn’t overpowering or lacking in flavor. The duck was soft and juicy, but it tasted some what like hometown buffet roast beef. Quite strange! And the fried fish tasted so-so. Fried rice was very dry. Quail had a very salty seasoning to it.

Overall, this meal was difficult to rate as there were some dishes that I liked, and some that were just okay. There was nothing that I thought was outright bad. Its just personal taste that I find some of their dishes as so-so.

Taste: 6/10
Presentation: 4/5
Service: 3/5
Total: 13/20