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Noi
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Street
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good for:
- Lunch
- Alcohol:
- None
18 reviews for Noi
i love all kinds of asian food, but until noi, had very limited experience with filipino. noi turned out to be a good introduction, and i was blessed my friend abby suggested this place and helped with ordering because i wouldn't know where to start. it seems filipino food is a melding of various influences, and though distinct from other asian cuisines, i can see it being related.
apparently, KALAMANSI, which i had once before at a fine restaurant, is a typical filipino citrus. besides having a wonderful abundance of A's in the name, as a drink, it is quite refreshing. we started with the PANSIT PALABOK, consisting of fried seafood, rice noodles, egg, crushed chicharrones in a shrimp sauce. the crunch of the fried calamari, octopus and bits of chicharrones gave the dish some texture contrasting with the soft rice noodles. the flavor is very subtle.
the filipino FRIED CHICKEN is a decent size, definitely enough for two people if that is all you're ordering. the meat was a tad dry, but i liked the crunch of the skin, and it was seasoned well. one of my favorite dishes was the BICOL EXPRESS, which is a seafood stir fry in coconut milk. the menu marked it as spicy, but i didn't find it very spicy, only a slight kick and maybe more if you happened upon one of the peppers.
i can say i've had GARLIC FRIED RICE before, and the one here is pretty good. it had lots of garlic flavor. the only item we ordered that i thought was meh was the BOLA BOLA SIOPAO. similar to a chinese bao, it is instead stuffed with ground pork. the taste was ok, but it was dry and didn't taste fresh.
a brightly lit, clean restaurant that looks recently remodeled, noi is a good option if you're looking for something besides chinese in chinatown.
photos: http://www.flickr.com/...
The first time I ate here in 2005, when it used to be called Asian Noodle, a busboy embarrassed me in front of my new boss and co-workers. I won't comment on the food other than its a bistro style filipino food establishment, pricy, looks pretty, and tastes decent. I don't really frequent this place unless a friend wants to eat there.
Can you tell I'm not a happy customer? =(
But good luck. Just get some customer service training for your staff.
Noi. I can't look at the name without thinking of "Avoid the Noid," from the Domino's Pizza advertising mascot from the 80's. Did you know they actually made a computer game inspired by the Noid? Ridic. Moving on.
After a very irritating and arduous walk through Chinatown looking for a place that was still open on a Sunday night, a place that wouldn't end up giving us worms, my date and I settled on Noi.
Place itself is better lit and cleaner than most of the dining establishments in Chinatown, which ain't sayin much, but I'll take it.
Because of the raves and because I actually have quite a fondness for calamari, this be what I ordered. $10 gets you a healthily proportioned plate of it. The breading was light, which I liked, and the chunks of squid were pretty big. Be forewarned though, if you expect any kind of the "cocktail" sauce you'll find at traditional seafood establishments you'll be disappointed. The only dipping sauce you get is what I guessed was white vinegar.
My date ordered the vegetable fried rice and what was ostensibly a "soup" which featured shrimp, eggplant, and butternut squash in a coconut milk broth. I tasted it (as well as ate the leftovers the next day) and it was good, esp the squash. My only complaint is that this soup barely had any broth. Perhaps that is a traditional way of making soup in that neck of the world, maybe they have coconut milk shortages and must skimp accordingly, I certainly couldn't tell ya.
The service was fair enough and though we were the last people in the joint we didn't feel as if we were being hurried out.
Minus one star for no booze, not even beer.
Overall, if someone wanted to buy me dinner here again I wouldn't kick their suggestion out of bed for eating crackers but all in all the experience was more or less unremarkable.
Avoid the Noi? Nah, give it a shot.
I don't make it a habit of eating Filipino food, but I've had my fair share. After all, Guam (my hometown) has a bunch of Filipino people.
Well, the food here is pretty damn good. My favorite here so far is the pork adobo, but my problem with it is that they can be somewhat inconsistant with the seasoning. Sometimes it's more vinagery (which I love) and sometimes it's not.
I also love the hard deep fried pork dish (I forget the name). Dip it in the vinager dip thing they have and taste heaven...and grease.
I think they only have something like 5 or 6 vegetable dishes and I've tried 3 of them. All of them were good. Even the bittermelon was OKAY (and I hate bittermelon).
I think some of the other reviews complain that the prices here are a bit high, but I don't think so. They may be a bit high compared to fast food/food court type Filipino places which serve some of the same dishes, but you're paying money for not just the food, but to have the food served in a presentable manner, in a restaurant that is probably one of the nicer-looking ones in Chinatown (um, quite an easy feat), and waiter-service. In the end, each dish is between $9 to $15. When I go with a friend, we usually get two dishes and rice and it comes out to about $35 or so after tip.
Closed!! Sucks!
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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11/3/2009
First Filipino restaurant in Los Angeles that I thought to myself "finally, a place to bring my… Read more »
I've had much better Filipino food for much less than the price of some of the dishes here. It's a nice space and the servers are friendly. They play TFC (The Filipino Channel) on LCD TV's which is funny. But the food just isn't anything noteworthy. If you're in the mood for Filipino food, there's a ton of places that you can find great Filipino food for great prices.
I've only been here for lunch and I really think the owner should consider putting together some lunch specials like the Thai place next door.
There's two paid parking lots on either side but I'd suggest finding street parking.
Tip: The halo halo is actually pretty good and should be shared. I shared it with my BF and we couldn't even finish it!
After my experience @ Noi, I can now say I've had almost every type of Asian cuisine.
Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai and how Filipino food.
I have to admit I had Filipino food before at a Christmas party but it just wasn't good. I guess sitting on the heating plate throughout the party dried it out. Only the egg rolls were edible, with PLENTY of dipping sauce.
We had the pancit and the pork cracklin' with white rice. Pancit is thin rice noodles served with garlic, chicken and vegetables. So tasty.
The service was very good and the price reasonable. I've been told the dishes we had were very "entry-level," so who knows what my next Filipino food adventure will hold.
Easily the best Filipino food I've ever had at a restaurant without question, and that covers a lot of ground.
We started off with the calamari, and it was AMAZING. The portions that were given were huge, and the batter on the calamari wasn't too heavy but there was still a nice crispy texture. From there, we had some pretty entry level items (I really wanted to get their sisig!), but I was very pleased with what our party ordered. The crispy pata & the inihaw na baboy were the highlights for me, as Noi fully satiated my swine cravings. If it's any consolation Mr. Pig, Noi crafted you carcass into something beautiful. The pancit was pretty good, and the bistek & fries is absolutely genius.
Noi really sold me on the idea that Filipino cuisine should be a viable force in mainstream America. The flavors to me are pretty parallel with America's palette and Filipino dining experiences as a whole are pretty casual. The interior was put together nicely, though I could do without Wowowee on the TV. I'm tired of seeing Willy's face.
Mariel can stay though.
im not sure if they closed or not but it was decent. i went there, and it was closed with newspaper covering the windows. I'm hoping it's just renovation but I'm not getting my hopes up since every time I go there it was almost always empty. sigh...
Suggested by my friend Leon with the sales pitch question, "Have you ever had Filipino food in Chinatown?"
okok, i've been eating in Chinatown my whole life, and not once has a Chinese restaurant ever served Crispy Pata or Sinigang. So VanneDammit I had to try it.
after circling the block once we found parking on the next street over. But a cut through the pay lot, and we were there in a snap.
Walking towards the entrance my idiot not piecing 2 and 2 together brainless self, finally realizes the meaning of the restaurant name. NOI, short for Pinoy. errrghhh uggghhh tard-slap myself.
We walk in and the play is beautiful. I mean, it's not your typical Filipino restaurant. There isn't an excessive amount of Bamboo, wood carved Carabao, no Kareoke machine, Wowowee wasn't on a corner TV, and definitely no counter selling Choc-nut, chicharron, and pan-de-sal.
I was impressed.
Right when we get seated, i get a text. "What are you ordering at NOI?" and here is where it got creepy. I totally thought the text said it was from Clara (one of my psycho ex g/f's) so i shifted my eyes around the restaurant and saw Czara smiling at me. I looked at my phone again and it said Czara.... ooooh the relief. I was 2 seconds away from screaming restraining order and running out. LOL.
So Czara walks up, i give her a hug, introduce to my lunch buddy David and after a minute or so of quick catch-up, i ask what she suggests.
She said, "you have to have the calamari for sure, and the Siningag (Filipino Garlic Fried rice)." I think, "GAME" (Filipino slang equivalent to, "I'm in."
So We order the Calamari, the Siningag, and Kare-Kare (beef and oxtail cooked in a peanut sauce with Bak-choi (chinese broccoli), and green bean strings, served with a side of Bagoong (shrimp paste). To drink we ordered a mango shake, and a Royal True Orange soda pop.
The food came fairly quick (within 10 mins) and it was delicious. I mean, the Kare-Kare was a little watered down from how Mom makes it, but she tends to make dishes incredibly rich so this is good according to Filipino cuisine standards.
But man o man was Czara right. The Siningag was yumz squared, and the Calamari was bombdotcom...!!!!!!
This place is great if you want to introduce your non-Filipino friends to Pinoy/Pinay cuisine because of the Modern Makati-style (Makati a trendy new age city in the Philippines) environment. The food is awesome and foreigner-friendly so im sure everyone will enjoy it.
The only that kinda kicked me in the arse were their prices. I mean, if i were in the Phils, i couldve ordered 10 times the amount we ordered for that price. But we're in LA so this is normal i guess. hahahahaa
Blargh. 2 thumbs up from my Korean buddy (filipino food first-timer), which makes this Chinatown Filipino food mission a definite success.
I'm not Filipino, so I can't speak at all on the level of "authenticity" of this place. I've just enjoyed to food here every time I've come, which has been often over the past few years at Chinese New Year. They changed the name and the manager apparently gets on people's nerves but I've never had a problem with the service.
I DO think it's a bit pricey, but, on the other hand, one dish (in my case the seafood medley thing whose name I can't remember) could easily feed two.
it's pretty damn tasty, and very accessible to non-Filipinos.
I signed up with Yelp just so I can write this review. I'd also like to note that of the 3 people who have given Noi a 4-star rating so far, 2 of them were not Filipinos. I was born and raised in the Philippines, so take it from me: this place is pure ass.
The food and service does not justify the ridiculously high prices. I'll admit, before it was Noi, I think it was called Asia Noodle, and THAT was a real (and excellent) Fillipino restaurant. After Noi took over, it's just pure crap.
The classic mami noodles ala "Ma Mon Luk" tasted like chlorine, and the broth had a nice layer of fatty substance on top. The noodles had a cheap, udon-like consistency, and you could easily count the number of strands in the bowl. The dinuguan was so disappointing I actually didn't mind throwing away more than half of it (*gasp!* an Asian throwing away food!). When it was Asia Noodle, the dinuguan actually had pieces of white meat in it; now, it's made mostly of stomach lining, so it's kinda like chewing on stale rubber the entire meal.
The siopao tasted like siopao; can't really fuck that one up. Nothing to write home about.
The service comes with a "you can go fuck yourself" attitude, which I personally don't really mind, but really made me wonder why I was forking out money for it and the crappy ass excuse for Filipino food.
There are MANY other options out there. Avoid this one.
it's a bit on the pricey side compared to other filipino places. maybe cuz it's really the only filipino place in china town.
it's only my second time in here, but both times it wasn't very crowded. we had crispy pata, pancit palabok, and the seafood fiesta with steamed rice. the crispy pata was a-ok. i didn't see any mang tomas sauce. the palabok was kinda bland. i did enjoy the seafood fiesta. very tasty.
i gotta try something else next time i come. maybe some halo halo too.
This place is expensive!!! Food was ok but not for that price. Didn't have any lunch specials. The decor was nice though and very trendy. I sort of like hole in the wall places. The place was not busy. Service was good though.
We ordered the crispy pata and every guy in the place eyed our dish. Yes, it was a guilty pleasure and it was GOOD. I admit, I'd do it again, and, in fact, have, every time I've gone back. You can't beat a big piece of juicy, crispy, flavorful pork. The calalmari was stellar, though lately, not as good as it used to be. Not sure what happened there.
I should have gotten the calamari I guess. My steamed wontons were cold, though I was so hungry I ate them all. I think they might have been good hot. The soup was a big disappointment to me. The broth was bland and cloudy, the chicken chunks were mostly scrap meat, the bok choy sparse and most of the spinach was brown with age. I saw a couple dishes go by that looked good, but with the prices so high, I don't think I can afford to give Noi a second chance.
Great tastes! Unfortunately they are closed as they are in the process of moving.
Lunch specials are not on the menu but they are listed on the table card. I ordered the half chicken special. It was crispy on the outside and tender/juicy inside. It's fine for lunch. Portion was so big I couldn't order the halo halo everyone's been talking about.
