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Mon., Wed-Sun. 11:30 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
"The dim sum is amazing. It's hot, it's plentiful, it's cheap, and most importantly, it's GOOD. There are a few places in the ID that are…" read more »
This is TRUE Taiwanese Hot Pot and is the best in Seattle. Most places in Seattle are so fake and pretentious (necessitating frequent trips up to Vancouver, BC Canada for the real thing...), but Gourmet Noodle Bowl is a perfect 10!
$14.95 per person gets you authentic Taiwanese Hot Pot with all of the fixing and AYCE.
Only Shabu-Shabu is better in my opinion, of which Seattle has none.
This is one of my new "happy places". It's not just another formica, stains on the table, sticky soy sauce container noodle joint. The earth tone colors are soothing, the smell of bubbling broth hitting me as the door opens instantly lowers my blood pressure. And the two young women who seem to always be working the floor are always friendly and fast. The other table are always packed with groups of teens or families cheerily slurping away.
Their hot pot is really one of the best ones I've had in Seattle(sorry Shilla and Bush Garden) with lots of fresh meat and veggies. I like that they'll split the bowl so you can get both the hot and regular broths. The noodle bowls are also excellent. The broth in the House Special has a deep, clean flavor without a lot of grease and fat. The Duck Noodle Bowl with big pieces of duck on the side is also great. Be warned that the spicy dishes are truly spicy which I like, but I've had friends who couldn't get through a bowl.
It's a really friendly, warm and happy spot and one that's especially comforting in the deep dark reaches of a Seattle winter.
Hot Pot = Good, but not my preference of taste. (Japanese Nabe VS Hot Pot)
Taiwanese Pork Burger = Yum
This place is great on a cold stormy day :)
I just left the ID SPL branch, turned left, walking... walking... glances left ---hey, what's this? (*gour-met-noo-dle-bowl*). I check my appetite *processing* ok, i'm a bit hungry so i go in.
Yep, it is darn nice compared to other ID eats. Chairs. Tables. Paint. Decor. Interesting also how the only column is wrapped in mirrors... hm, it does seem to give the impression of spaciousness. I was actually kind caught off guard after I was seated, looked ahead and went, "--whoa... I... see myself(!)" Sorry, it's not very often those exact "settings" happen, er, atleast to myself (maybe even 1st ever?). Continuing on, the restroom has simple, balanced design; clean. I liked the recessed-lit art pieces in the side wall above a row of loud chinese groups, lol.
I had the ... *crap, brain fart* Szechuan(?) Spicy Chicken and White Rice, and a steamed Bamboo Shoots. The chicken bowl was pretty good, plenty o' spicy kick to it. The greens that came with it were really strange to me. I didn't know if it was just a sort of natural tanginess and the salt content or what. It was manageable when i mixed it well with the chicken & rice. Same weird note with the bamboo shoots. Kinda made me pucker up a bit, tense-face, *insert synonyms*. Of all this, did they put too much salt? Is this natural/normal? And/or am I just spoiled with the only previous bamboo shoot dish i've ever had: thai red curry? Don't know... I do know this: I did anticipate it (steamed bamb shoo) being different than my preconception. Also had a small broth(?), few noodles(?), and small garnish(?). The great thing about all this was that I was able to do what seems to be successful whenever I can't seem to eat something, and that's----mix it! Woot. Also, i'm pretty sure bshoots are one of those good-for-you veggies, so i was gonna eat 'em no matter what. ;)
great place and gonna try others sometime. ~xie xie.
This is one of my favorite restaurants in Seattle. I love our hot pot experience there. The sauce is very tasty and the meat is good. I don't remember how many times we go there already.
The only problem is they are short on staff.. sometimes it takes a while before you could talk to the servers.
This place makes me happy !!
They have hot pot (so happy) and not only that but it comes with [ twirllllllsss ] pig intestines, congealed pork blood jelly (haha, you may squirm if you'd like) and all that yummy animal innards most people discard when cooking.
But if that's not your cup of tea they have delightfully yummy things as well. I've tried their smaller hot pots (not the all you can eat one) and some of their small dishes. Get the kong hsin cai, its absolutely delish! And some of their rice bowls with pork? Yummy.
I much prefer this place over Facing East Taiwanese - but that's just me.
Kinda pricey and portions are small. But place makes great food and is very clean and modern looking.
Let me sum up my experience there:
1. Ingredients are fresh (every variations of themeat are good!)
2. Place is clean and spacious (really good for groups)
3. Hot pot is unique (never had anything like that)
4. Staff are friendly (don't have to frustrate yourself over rude waitresses)
5. At a very affordable price (economical!)
The reason why I gave it 4 stars is because i have never tried all the other dishes (the a la carte). I would love to go there to try their other dishes (aside from Hot Pot) but I was too full at that point of time :( will go back there and update on this restaurant :D
I am a LOVER of noodle soups. Any culture, any kind of noodle, any kind of broth...I love it all. I will take a good noodle soup over any other type of meal any day of the week. So when she recommended this establishment I was elated.
Don't be fooled by the address on this website...it is NOT between Cherry and Columbia like Yelp states. It is in the ID further South so don't make the mistake and drive into downtown. I ordered the Brisket Noodle Soup and my gosh it was a HUGE portion. You definitely get your money's worth at this restaurant. However, I found the soup mildly lacking. Perhaps I am not well versed in Taiwanese food which is why I found these noodles to be too thick and slightly gummy. The soup was also mildly flavorful but I have had better.
I will come back and try a different dish...people seem to give the hot pot high marks and when I was there a couple had ordered 2 portions of hot pot and spent probably over 2 hours there just eating and talking.
I gave Gourmet Noodle Bowl 3 stars, would have preferred to give it 2.5 based on the noodles alone, but would have given it a 4 if I were basing it on the Taiwanese Bun. You MUST try the Taiwanese Bun.
don't really like the food here. the house noodle is blaerh.. tasteless and nothing fancy. maybe the ONLY SINGLE fishball is nice. that's about all.
the pork belly bun was pretty good.. the pork chop is not too bad too, not the best i ever tasted, but the pickles are great. fresh-tasting, not the usual american type. chinese style..
the beef curry is a-ok too. it's too watery..
IMO, i ordered wrongly as i went there on impulse and did not research 1st. it seems that every1 is raving abt the hot pot; when i came in a good lot were eating the hot pot too. they're a little steep ($14 pp) thus i did not try it. will bump a star up if the hot pot is good...
Gourmet Noodle Bowl is a lonely island in a sea of Cantonese options for those who crave Taiwanese food.
I, like many other reviewers of this place, love noodles. The noodles are the kind I like - thicker and more doughy, not sure if they're "hand-shaved." The noodles here do not quite hit the spot though.
You can also find other Taiwanese comfort food options here - deep-fried pork chop, pig blood soup, stir-fried kong xin cai (literally "hollow heart vegetable," aka water spinach), gong wan (pork ball) soup, intestines, fish ball soup.
I've also been here for hot pot on the weekends. They do have the "yuan yang" pot option where you can enjoy spicy broth on one half of the pot and regular broth on the other half. The portions are fairly generous, and ingredients are fresh.
For some bonus points,
-Less crowded than other places in the ID (which don't necessarily have better food)
-More upscale interior than other places in the ID
-Nice dishes (white, squarish bowls and platters with CB2 or Crate & Barrel trendiness)
-Quiet
-Friendly staff
This is one of my favorite places in the International District. I work in the area and think this is one of the better lunch places around and there is usually no wait. They have handmade noodle dishes and hot pots that are pretty popular. I love that this place is actually clean. (avoid the fermented tofu dish). It is nice inside and pretty inexpensive.
They changed their name but the food is pretty much the same.
Went here for lunch with a friend. The restaurant is in a newly renovated building. Clean, nicely decorated, modern interior design.
There was only us and another couple when we got there. (We were there at 4pm. I hear it gets busy later on.) We had hot pot. Very tasty. Our server was friendly and attentive as well.
I definitely have to come here to try out the other dishes.
Hard to find Taiwanese restaurant here in Seattle,
Service = always slow
Ambiance = for a Chinese establishment in Chinatown, Grade A
Food = Blend, but typically Taiwanese food sold in a restaurant in TW has a tendency to be a bit blend as oppose to the streets.
Price = $$
Crowd = Taiwanese
Personal Favorite = Sate Hot Pot
Worst = Long waits not for table for waitress ;(
Meal for two = 50
Final Say = Worth the wait!
Great hotpot, ingredients are fresh and feels very clean. Reasonably priced as well. Service is slow as anything though so be prepared for that. For the hotpot, the standard price per person comes with meats, veggies, and some noodles. For extra price per dish, you can get things like fish cakes, the different balls, pigs blood, etc. The dishes are about $2-$5 per if I recall but they are huge - so you really do get your money's worth.
Tried lunch here too for the Taiwanese dishes which weren't as good as Facing East but were decent. Esp try the pork bun, braised pork w/ rice, etc. I didn't get to try the noodle soups but they looked pretty tasty and huge portions there.
The food here is really good. I strongly recommend ordering one of the dishes that includes handmade noodles. I've tried the house special noodle soup, taiwanese ground pork noodle, and beef chow mein. All of these dishes are excellent.
The restaurant itself is clean and attractive and the service is friendly but I've never seen more than 3 other tables occupied. I feel a little twinge in my chest every time I walk by the packed restaurant next door and wonder if the place I like will be able to stay in business.
I strongly recommend bring cash if you're eating with a group because we had some problems trying to communicate a check split between cards.
Two coworkers and I had lunch here on a Wednesday. We had no problem getting a table and the place was very clean for a Chinese restaurant.
The three of us ordered the hotpot which came with a spicy broth and then regular broth. They gave very generous portions of sa cha sauce, green onions and cilantro and even brought out chili sauce on request.
I must say the meat was very high quality (beef, chicken, pork i think, fish balls, etc.), comparable to Szechuan Chef in Bellevue. The waitress checked on us a few times... overall service was pretty decent. I would definitely come back and want to try the Taiwanese dishes next time.
i've been here a couple times before but never for the hotpot...that is until this past weekend. me and a bunch of my pals decided to come here after an Ms game on saturday. weather was chilly and we needed some warming up. a couple of my friends were getting hangry (so hungry, they're angry) and one of them suggested this place for the all you can eat hot pot ($14/pp). OH YEAH! we got there kinda late but they were hella accomadating as our posse grew by 2 additional people after we had already gotten seated. the waitress didn't trip when i told her we now were gonna have 7 peeps as she went and moved some people that just got seated at the bigger round table in back and swapped it with our smaller set up. woot. we had 2 refills of the meats and veggie plates and they were cool enough to come by and ask us if we needed anymore as the kitchen was gonna start closing up soon. i kinda wished we did because, even tho we was mad full, it was THAT tasty. we had thin sliced beef, pork, and chicken for the included meats. veggies was napa and some other kinda chinese greens. we also got the clear thin noodles and udon. they give you a grip of condiments like green onion, saa cha sauce, garlic, cilantro, spicy soy sauce. egg is add'l if you're hong kong style like me :) we added some extra fishballs and fried tofu (even tho there was already some with the broth). speaking of which, we opted for half spicy, half bbq broth. she messed it up and accidentally brought half chicken broth instead of bbq but my homies, being as hangry as they were, said we'd just keep it. she did bring some of the chinese bbq sauce and dumped it in for us, tho. i spent most of my time focusing on the spicy side. it's tasty but no where near as tasty as little hot pot in bellevue but it's still very good for price. a lot of other people felt the same way as well seeing as the restaurant was jam packed that nite and just about every table was runnin' the hot pot option. i'll be back.
I like this place so far based on the house noodle soup and the xo-sauce handmade noodles. I will be returning to sample more items and if they continue to impress I might even give them four stars.
The rating system won't allow me to give a half star unfortunately, otherwise I'd be more precise with a 3.5 rating. The place looks new and clean from inside and out, and will probably seat 30 to 40 when it's full. They definitely don't skimp on the portions here, so if you're hungry for some handmade noodle soup, get you some wonton noodle brisket soup, and ask for spicy. They're decent, and they make nice noodles here. Mine tasted good, and very hearty... but I wish their egg noodles were a little thinner and more abundant. I get the feeling their noodles are portioned by weight, and thinner noodles would've filled out the soup more. They are definitely authentic, so don't come looking for magic dragon. Come and try the braised pork bun. Try the pig's blood. Try the hot pot. I'd like to come back here and try more of their food, but for now, I wouldn't give them 5 stars.
Gourmet Noodle Bowl--the best hot pot I've ever had in my life. It's been a few months since I've been to this restaurant (sadly we moved out of state), but I've eaten here probably 20 times over the past couple years. The first time I ate here was with my husband, and we ordered hot pot for two. After that, we never ordered anything else but hot pot (after getting hooked, how could we not order hot pot?!) Here is my description of the hot pot we would order from Gourmet Noodle Bowl:
* Hot Pot - Broth: we would get the broth half spicy, half plain (the soup pot has a divider in the middle). It would arrive at our table with fried tofu and certain unappetizing animal parts that we would fish out and set aside. We would wait to drink the broth towards the end of the meal, which would be extra flavorful with all the meat and veggie juices.
* Hot Pot - Meat: beef, pork, and chicken. The meat was always of high quality, partially frozen, and thinly sliced. Each piece was absolutely delicious after boiling in the broth for about 30 seconds and dipping into our sauce.
* Hot Pot - Sauce (or sides): cilantro, green onion, garlic, and bean paste (they give a bowl of each). We would crush a little of each into our individual bowls and use the concoction as dipping sauce. We would also add some of the garlic and bean paste to the pot of broth.
* Hot Pot - Veggies and Others: firm tofu, enoki mushrooms, udon noodles, thin rice noodles, sliced napa cabbage, and leafy greens (still not sure what kind, but they were hearty and crunchy). The vegetables were always well washed, cleaned, and freshly cut.
The hot pot for two is around $32 and it's all-you-can-eat. You can specify exactly which meat or vegetable you want more of when the time comes.
Other details:
* Restaurant: clean, decent ventilation, high ceilings, able to seat groups as well as couples.
* Service: very good, unless they are really busy.
* Bathrooms: spacious and clean!
* Parking: on the street, which is sometimes difficult to find. The food is worth circling around to find something on the street or paying for the lot at Uwajimaya (or buying something at Uwajimaya to get the parking validated) and then walking a few blocks.
After eating here, I really fell in love with hot pot. I've tried others and feel Gourmet Noodle Bowl is by far the best place for hot pot. I've heard that other food at this restaurant is good, but I can only speak for the hot pot--DELICIOUS!!!!!
Neighborhood: International District
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: International District
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Roosevelt
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: International District
Category: Chinese
Neighborhood: Wallingford
Category: Dim Sum
Some of my favorite dining destinations in the…
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