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Nams Noodles
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
14 reviews for Nams Noodles
14 reviews in English
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Review from A H.
Madison, WI
8/19/2011
Very good pad thai and bun, which is hard to come by in Madison. Better than many of the other Asian places I've tried. Reasonable prices and easy to get in and out of quickly at lunch.
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Review from Ashlee V.
Kaukauna, WI
8/2/2010
I have to be honest in that the two stars I'm giving isn't really all that fair to Nam's Noodle.
I can only eat one dish at this place as I've got a food allergy to onions; knowing full well that onions are critical to taste for a lot of dishes, I try and stick to this one dish. Also because I generally feel guilty if I have to ask to have it removed. With that said, the one dish I can eat here is OK; the barbecued honey pork ribs are pretty solid and have a pretty decent taste, but it's nothing extraordinary.
The service isn't phenomenal either; they do what they're supposed to, but they don't really go above and beyond. Also, you have to spend $20 to be able to run a credit card here, so for someone that rarely has cash, $20 is a bit too much to spend on mediocre food.
But Nam's saving grace is its traditional-style karaoke rooms. Although a lot of the songs are mostly Asian (and by this, predominantly Korean, Japanese and Chinese), there are American/English songs there as well. And while they're only MIDI-versions of the songs, it still provides a lot of fun if you've got a lot of friends with you.
I've got some pretty good memories associated with this place, but it's not somewhere I go to a lot anyways. -
Review from Alex Z.
Lancaster, PA
8/11/2010
I ordered Vietnamese fresh rolls and pho. The pho was okay, it was not the best Pho I've had, and I think it was below par for the midwest as a whole. I'm starting to think though that Madison simply doesn't have the Asian food thing going...so by Madison standards this place might be a little better.
The fresh rolls were not very good. They were just rice noodles, bbq pork, shrimp, and lettuce. There was no cilantro or mint, nor any other fresh herbs--which I think is a key ingredient. Without fresh green herbs, the fresh rolls have little flavor. I also think the noodles used in the rolls were too big, and there was too much meat. And the meat (both the shrimp and pork) had been cooked in a sauce that was too sweet. This made the rolls come across as heavy, starchy, and bland.
The pho was mediocre. I've had worse, but I'd say this is in the lower quartile of pho quality I've encountered. The broth was heavy on the cinnamon, lacked complexity, and tasted too sweet (possibly because of too much cinnamon).
On the side I was given bean sprouts, lime, and hot pepper, but no cilantro and no basil...which in my opinion is essential. Again, the experience was disappointing.
I could be convinced to come back to this place. It is possible that the chefs aren't Vietnamese and just don't know how to make this type of food well. But if I came back, I would order something different. And as it is, this place gets two stars. I'm no culinary genius, but the mistakes / omissions this place made were VERY basic. Just use more fresh herbs--that's why I like Vietnamese food, and without that, I'd rather just eat at home. -
Review from Maybelyn L.
Madison, WI
5/19/2011
I was a regular at Nam's till they started decreasing their portion size for the same price. K23 which was the beef pepper steak with rice is my favorite!!! But this place does not appreciate customer loyalty, so please don't bother going there.
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Review from John R.
Los Angeles, CA
3/9/2009
I had the salt and pepper shrimp, which comes with a cup of soup and a dessert. Shrimp was good, plate of about 15, served fried in a peppery batter, with some jalapenos and scallions. You might not like that they come head-on, legs, shells and all. Tasted really good, but annoying to eat, thinking - "Do I look like a dumbfuck for picking off the shells?" or "is it dangerous to swallow so many shrimp legs?" Then again, sucking out that shrimp head gunk presents a dilemma too. Do you want to look like a nasty slob or not? I erred on the side of slob. Burp.
Soup was vegetable broth and cabbage, carrots, tomatos. Why even bother, just charge me a dollar less. FAIL
Dessert (which I had to remind the server to bring out - AFTER we got the check, thank you very much) was a thin tapioca pudding, served in a rice bowl with a soup spoon Nice sweet (some might say cloying) taste, but the watery texture was off-putting. FAIL -
Review from Abhijit G.
Philadelphia, PA
4/17/2008
It's a decent place but the food is hit or miss. I've had some great food as well as some really lousy stuff....once my wife sent her stuff back coz it seemed like it was a week old!
Ok to try sometime if u r in the neighborhood, but I wouldn't travel much for it. -
Review from Merdy T.
Madison, WI
3/19/2010
I have a mixed feeling about this place, it took me a while to decide whether to give this place a 2 or 3 stars.
I personally don't like this place as much, the foods were so-so but I can't say anything very negative about it either. I have been to this place few times, not because I crave for a good Chinese food or because I love one specific dish, but simply because there wren't many other choices around Madison. That is, when I feel like Chinese foods but don't want to go to Fugu or HK Wok.
I prefer to go to a restaurant specialized in one type of cuisine, and I'm always confused what to order in restaurants like Nam's because they have Thai, Chinese, Viet, etc. Why would they do that? I think it's because they don't have any special dish that is their forte. For this particular place, however, always gofor the Chinese and go someplace else for Thai and Viets. The Chinese dishes are decent in general, but the Viet and Thai dishes are mostly dissapointing.
So, to end this indecisive reviews, here are my reccomendations on what to order:
Singaporean Vermicelli (is this a Chinese dish? I beg to differ), egg drop soup, congees, fried rice, tofu and vegetable hotpot,.. and.. that's all I can think of! Also, try to go for lunch, coz' it's cheaper and more worth it! -
Review from Mio S.
Madison, WI
12/8/2008
Good lunch spot for engineering grad students/profs. The lunch special (~$8) comes with soup, large volume of food + spring roll. The service is super quick. I ordered Kung Pao beef - wasn't impressed, but wasn't repulsed by it either. Next time, I plan to order something with noodle. I figured that they might do the better job at noodle since it's in the restaurant name. From a quick glance of the menu, seems like they've got, pho, chow main(or chow-fun as it is called in midwest), and rice noodle dish. They even have hot-pot, which is a favorite of my friend's advisor.
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Review from Jody M.
Madison, WI
4/29/2010
I go here specifically for the best congee in Madison, IMHO. The yo tiao is hot, fresh, and plentiful. Congee is the ultimate comfort food and a weekend treat. Also like the kimchee wraps. Cowabunga!
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Review from Cyber D.
Madison, WI
12/24/2010
The lunch special is good but the staff often forget to bring the soup unless you emphasize this when you order. They now bring a napkin-wrapped fork, spoon and chopsticks which is nice. Their book lunch menu can be pricey but the food (eggplant casserole, mushroom beef, steamed fish) is GOOD, however the staff brought all dishes at different times, we had to request plates, and even had to ask to place our order after 15 minutes although the place was not busy. It's a shame because I like their food but service is awful. The Nams Fried Rice used to be my favorite but now its gotten somehow greasy. Also watch when you check out because they make mistakes in computing sales tax. When the owner checks you out he often rounds the bill up to the next dollar and once attempted to round my bill of $8 up to $10 until I told him the tip was on the table.
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Review from Jenny B.
10/21/2008
The food here are decent, and the options weren't much the last time I went. Considering their location being so close to the private Regent street dorm, it's good place to grab short lunch. The broth taste of the soup is okay and the dry combo noodle is also just so-so. I think this place is good for just like short break lunch and if you have nothing else to eat as an option.
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Review from Chosen O.
Los Angeles, CA
4/28/2010
The food here is decent has a mixture of vietnamese, chinese and thai cuisine, its a chill spot because there's a bar in there, and also three karaoke rooms as well.
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Review from Cherry C.
Madison, WI
2/23/2010
A few years ago Nams was one of my favorite restaurants for their quality of food. Now it just seems to have changed, a lot. Nams Fried Rice was my favorite, now it's extremely oily and too soggy. The service is quite poor - my sister and I sat in before a few other groups and they received their food first as we waited 30 minutes.
I've eaten here a few times during work, one of the worst things on the menu is Emperors Chicken - I thought it was going to be similar to something of a General Tso's chicken, but it was an entire steamed chicken with fish sauce! YUCK!!! I'm never ordering that ever, again. Recently i've been eating their pho - for take out and dine in and it's been all well. My last dine in experience was the worst. My pho had about a pinchful of noodles and a HUGE bowl of broth & meat.......... pho? really? or is it soup?
It's an OK place to go once in awhile. -
Review from jon a.
Madison, WI
4/3/2007
Great food. The number of menu options are nearly overwhelming which is good and bad at the same time. Good lunch place and the service has always been excellent.
