La Mian Lounge

Summary

Astoria in the last few months has seen an uptick on Asian restaurants that aren’t fusion and are more authentic. This one just happens to be on Broadway near my partner’s old neighborhood. We’ve been around this area before going to eat Shanghainese food. Today, it’s for noodles.

This was the braised beef tendon. It was marinated in chili oil, garlic, scallions, sesame oil, and other things that I probably missed. It’s a very traditional cold appetizer dish. The beef tendon was actually quite crunchy but cooked properly and thoroughly. I’ve been to Chinese restaurants in NYC where the tendons were hard as rock. But here, it’s pretty clear that it was cooked thoroughly.

This was the house special beef tripe and was marinated in the same sauce as the braised beef tendon. The tripe had more of a spongy taste rather than the beef tendon’s crunchy texture. The tripe though was cooked very thoroughly out and quite tender. Both of these cold appetizers so far stay true to authenticity.

We also got the skewers for 2. This came with beef, lamb, fish cake, tendon, chicken, and chicken wing. It’s actually a pretty good deal. Not pictured were the beef and lamb skewers. They’re all seasoned the same, but they were tender. We particularly enjoyed the tendon as it was very soft compared to the braised beef tendon appetizer dish.

The chicken noodle soup was ordered with regular noodles. The broth was actually very light but with noticeable chicken flavors in it. The broth probably could use a little more salt if you asked me, but it’s not really necessary. The noodles themselves were a little thin for me, but the partner enjoyed it.

The braised beef noodle soup was actually pretty good. It’s mildly spicy and was ordered with thick noodles. These thick noodles were not udon size, but they were still bigger than ramen. I guess they were similar to thick lo-mein noodles. The dough used had a nice bounce to it. The broth itself wasn’t too salty and had a faint beef flavor to it. I would think of it as a tad light on flavor, but it was still pretty good. The very surprising thing about this was that the beef was all tender. I’ve been to some beef noodle places where the beef was chewy, inedible, and seemed like they weren’t braised at all. This one actually was all very tender and probably wasn’t added on later.

The service was very fast which is how I like it. When we went, they had a 20% discount off the entire meal as a grand opening special.

Final Verdict

There is no need to go to Flushing now for beef noodles if you can get to Astoria easy. This restaurant for authentic Chinese soup noodles is actually very enjoyable. The freshly made noodles were actually delicious. If you like thick noodles, you won’t be disappointed. We hope they expand their menu and add just a little more salt into their broths.

Yelp Jabs

I’ll admit I am biased when it comes to beef noodle soup and I made the mistake of having the noodles extra thin. Because they’re hand pulled, the noodles overcook in the hot broth. Although I love thin noodles, I think the way to go is thick as possible.

Of all the beef noodles I have had on this content and Asia, thin noodles rarely go well with beef noodle regardless if the broth is hot or not. The noodles are really what add a nice texture to the soup, so you want that thickness or dough consistency to take your mind off the broth at times.

Tons of noodles in the soup, but not much else.* few (no?) main dish options outside of noodle soups. Would be nice if there were various meat, veggie, noodle dishes that were not soup.

It’s definitely hard to please the Yelp crowd. Some want more noodles, and others want more condiments. Perfect world would have both, but we don’t live in a perfect world. So what’s the best compromise? I personally would prefer more noodles especially if it’s thick like this restaurant’s. But that’s just me.