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Tokyo Noodle Shop – Edmonton, Alberta

We take random trips out to Edmonton and this particular afternoon we were there and found ourselves at Old Stratcona area fueling up. We decided to eat something before the drive home for the evening, so this was an early dinner when we went downstairs to Tokyo Noodle Shop. It was a busy Saturday night as the place was half full, not sure if everyone else is doing what we’re doing or what’s going on but it was a lively place!

I ordered their Chicken Ramen which the waitress said it comes the way it looks in the picture when I asked if there was corn in the ramen. I know it sounds strange, but I do like corn! The chicken ramen wasn’t bad, a nicely grilled piece of chicken that sits on top of the soup with a generous portion of noodles and toppings!

The other noodle we ordered, they called it Deluxe Udon, which was a bowl of udon with chicken and crabsticks and it also came with shrimp tempura.

The Shrimp Tempera that came with the Deluxe Udon was pretty decent! The shrimp was clean with a good texture and it was perfectly fried to a nice light crisp.

Overall, we enjoyed our dinner here. It was fun to see the beautiful presentation that they have for the customers that order sushi. They really take pride in the work they do, and it does show!

Tokyo Noodle Shop

10736 82 Ave NW,
Edmonton, AB
780-430-0838
Tokyo Noodle Shop Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

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Hoang Long Noodle House – Edmonton, Alberta

We often stop by West Edmonton Mall when we go visit Edmonton, even though we may have nothing to get there or anything. This time, we just walked a circle and the decided we will get a quick bowl of pho before heading home. Located right inside the mall – outside of the supermarket we found Hoang Long and it wasn’t busy – but had a few tables.

Once inside, we pretty much got to sit where ever we wanted as they were not busy. The menu was kind of neat as it’s quite customizable by picking options of what you want in your noodle soup. I wasn’t feeling that great so just wanted to stick with my favourite, so I got the Beef Noodle Soup with Beef Balls as that’s the “1 item option.

My hsuband got pretty much the same thing, but his was Beef Noodle Soup with Rare Beef instead. It was quite rare and tender! the bowls of soup was average in size and the prices seems high for a bowl of pho, but the location was nice.

Overall, the food was decent. It wasn’t the best but it’s nice to sit down in a mall to eat dinner that isn’t your typical chain restaurant or bar/pub. For basically $20, you can’t go wrong on a nice hot bowl of noodle soup.

Hoang Long Noodle House

West Edmonton Mall
8882 170 Street
Edmonton, AB
(780) 483-0891

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Xiao Chi Dian 小吃店 – Shanghai, China

A very cool little place that we went to is actually a street side restaurant, which typically are dirtier but local and delicious. This one that we went to was Xiao Chi Dian which directly translates to Little Eat Place, or something like that!

At this little eat restaurant, we ordered some Xiao Long which came to the table in a bamboo basket steaming hot! It was really good! These xiao long bao ranked really highly on our Shanghai trip!! Steaming hot, tons of flavour, great skin with a great filling! It was divine!

The main attraction for this visit actually was for their lao ya fen si tang 老鸭粉丝汤 which was recommended to us by our friends wife! This steaming hot bowl of glass noodles (粉丝) has some duck and tofu in the soup. The flavour of the soup has left us all speechless! So what if this place is a little dirty… the food really compensates for it!

Lastly, we ordered some Fried Pork Chop to share amongst us all! It wasn’t anything to rave about, but it was a great piece of fried pork chop! The pork was still tender and juicy and the crust was really crispy! They used Chinese Vinegar for a dipping sauce which was good, and it helped cut the grease!

Overall, we have nothing negative to say about this place. If I had to say something, it would be that there isn’t a lot of seating at all. They do have tables on the upper floor, and that’s where we sit. We did pretty much take up the entire upstairs… with just 6 of us!

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Bugis Street Brasserie – London, England

This restaurant is located inside the Copthorne Tara Hotel in Kensington, London and this was the hotel we checked into. After a long walk to the hotel from Trafalgar Square, we quickly went downstairs after putting our belongings down and headed to Bugis Street Brasserie.

We got seated and the staff here are extremely friendly. The waitress spoke to us in Cantonese through the duration of our evening at Bugis Street, which was probably practice for her, as I don’t think too many Asians would eat Chinese food while on holidays to London.

The Hainanese Chicken Rice – 海南鸡饭 that we ordered was quite a large portion, with a big bowl of rice, probably more than a quarter of the chicken, and some sauces that came with this order (which is typical) was really pleasing to the eye and the stomach. This dish was the most pleasing for me, as I had a cold during this time – and a bowl of rice always satisfies an Asian’s belly. It wasn’t hot and warming though – like my next dish.

We ordered the Singapore laksa 辣沙 which is a spicy noodle soup that really originated more from Malaysia in my opinion, even though it`s called Singapore Laska… but it does have a Chinese name – which always always fun to think about the Asian dishes and their names (“laksa” meaning “spicy sand” in Chinese, and this is from the sandy or gritty texture in the sauce from the ground dried prawns). Anyway, enough with my tangent, this belly warming noodle soup was full of intense Asian flavours such as lemon grass and ginger. A hot and spicy bowl of soup right before bedtime makes for a restful sleep. This dish wasn’t so spicy that you’d need to use the washroom during the entire evening, which was wonderful! This bowl of Laksa wasn’t authentic to me, but it was a very tasty bowl of noodle soup!

Finally, we ordered something much more Chinese which was Fried noodles with shredded chicken 杂菜炒面 and the noodles in this dish was really thin and delicate… which meant a lot of short pieces, but the flavour was plentiful, and the chicken slices was generous in portion sizes and slices.

Overall, I really enjoyed this stop for dinner #2 of the evening at Bugis Street Brasserie, after a long hike from dinner #1. It was extremely satisfying to the tummy, the body and the mind! It was a wonderful way to wind down the evening as everything was so pleasing and satisfying.

Bugis Street Brasserie

Copthorne Tara Hotel London Kensington
Scarsdale Place
Kensington
London
W8 5SR
United Kingdom
44 (0) 20 7937 7211

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Rice For King – Calgary, Alberta

Everyone loves a nice bowl of Vietnamese Noodle Soup! I work on Macleod Trail in the South, and it was to my excitement everyone there loves to go to Rice For King. I liked it there so much, I’ve been back even outside of work hours! Rice For King offers an extensive selection on their menu, and they are very accommodating to their customers request.

I love the Beef Ball Noodle soup, I think it’s one that is hard to goof up on. My husband usually takes the rare beef Pho, and we both enjoyed our soups. The broth was nice and flavorful, even without putting extras in the soup.

I’ve never tried their salad rolls, but all my co-workers rave about them! They say it’s definitively better than going to Co-op a few doors down!! So, that means I will be back to try more items on their menu.

I love the way this restaurant takes their branding so seriously, and everything has it’s custom “K” on it.  I use to think only restaurants who were about to take pictures of it would do that, but Rice For King does it for every dish!

I was just there a few days ago as well, and I got the Bun – Rice Vermicelli Bowl with Grilled Pork and Spring Rolls. I don’t have a picture of it, but I dcan assure you, it was large, and plated really nicely, and it also tasted good. The Fish Sauce that they use is really quite flavorful! I love how they use square plates, its a little different but they try to incorporate their logo onto everything they present to their customers.

Rice for King

9190 Macleod Trail SE,
Calgary, Alberta