Northern Cafe 兰州拉面

The atmosphere of this place is great—it feels like a galaxy of Chinese New Year vibes. The noodles come in huge portions, and I really appreciate that they’re handmade. The soup is a bit too light for my taste, so the overall meal feels quite starchy. They do offer a variety of side dishes, which are tasty and help balance things out.

The English name of this restaurant is misleading and the Chinese subtitle is the actually what they served. It’s a cheap place to get some noodles (4-5 different sizes based on its cross section) and cold dishes. To be honest, the beef on the Lanzhou Beef Noodles is very generous. The soup base is okay and surprisingly they serve pork noodles.

You can eat here occasionally! It's very affordable! The cold dishes are delicious!

The place is clean, and the service was quick and friendly. I ordered the Noodles with Soy Bean, Beef Roll, Pork Wontons with Chili Oil, and Spicy Beef Noodle Soup to-go. While most of the dishes met my expectations, the Beef Roll was at room temperature, and the Spicy Beef Noodle Soup was disappointing. It was overly salty and, despite the spice, lacked the rich, savory flavor I've had at other restaurants. On the plus side, the to-go box packaging was pretty good. However, I weigh the food quality more heavily in my rating, which is why I’m giving it 3 stars. Overall, it was an OK experience, but I won't be ordering any soup-based noodles from this place.

Lanzhou pulled noodle had good clear soup, yummy beef, but the regular noodle was thicker thank we expected. The lamb skews had great flavor but some fatty pieces were very chewy.