Noodle King

Authentic Chinese + some of the best prices in town!
My Hong Kong friend and I visited here last weekend as he has been craving nu rou mein (beef noodle soup) and hasn’t found one he likes in LA yet. Here they let you have the option of all beef or half tendon/​half meat and the broth was lighter (and not spicy at all) compared to other beef noodle soups we have had recently. Although the flavor wasn’t robust, I would still recommend this dish here, which is priced at $ 8. The only mistake here was that we didn’t think to ask for their hand-​cut noodles that they make from scratch and got the regular thin noodles. You can choose thin, thick or hand-​cut noodles for most of the dishes here.
The standout of our meal was definitely the spicy wontons appetizer for $ 5. Fresh, handmade wontons with chili oil over a bed of creamy sesame sauce. I usually only have wontons in broth or plainly boiled, so what a nice surprise! Large portion and uniquely delicious!
I would also recommend their scallion pancake. Many places will charge $ 5 for this common street food appetizer which I think is absurd even with inflation. I grew up eating this weekly for $ 2 but that was years ago! I love that Noodle King sells theirs for around that old school price and that it is big, hot, and freshly hand made from scratch. Get one to share with 2 – 3 people.
Even though it is one of the easiest dishes to make at home, I also ordered zhajiangmein (house sauce noodles, $ 7) which was perfectly done here with lots of baked tofu morsels, ground pork, and cucumber slivers.
My friend wanted to get the stinky tofu, which was SO authentic, I couldn’t even eat one as the stench was too much even as I took a tiny nibble. It was served Taiwanese style with the pickled veggies on top and sauce on the side. My friend loved it but it was not for me.
When we came to eat the restaurant was full of older Chinese immigrants and we were the youngest (and only young people) there. Also, we got a free kettle of hot tea and the waitstaff only talked to us in Mandarin Chinese although it was clear they could also speak English. All 3 things are good signs of an authentic place.

ended up here after trying to go to the Flavor Garden, which was closed today, a Wednesday, unexpectedly. Watched two men arriving before us discover the same thing and choose to go next door to Noodle King. My friend and I followed suit. The atmosphere is cheerier and space larger than Flavor Garden – the wicker chairs add warmth. It’s all in a small and quiet room, though filled with patrons, which I really liked. Service was quick and responsive. We liked everything we ordered – the beef roll (less greasy than 101 Noodle Express, less herbal and aromatic than Flavor Garden, but still good – smaller and narrower in size, with thick shards of tender beef, not pounded processed meat), luscious and rich spicy won tons, un-​greasy and crisp scallion pancake, garlicky and refreshing cucumber salad and dan dan noodles which, to be honest, could have been less sticky and more flavorful. There was only the thinnest coating of a mildly flavored sauce on the noodles – however, the fried scallion bits supplied wonderful and incidental bursts of flavor. Had a nice meal and nice conversation at this place and ended up with a bill that was shockingly cheap ($ 25.00) after ordering 5 dishes and feeling stuffed but well fed.

Better than 101 Noodle across the street.
Beef Noodle Soup
Beef is great, noodles are okay.
Green Onion Pancake
Very yum. I love this here. Highly recommended.
Beef Roll
Some places do their beef roll too big and too sweet. This one is perfect. It’s a little smaller, but great flavor and texture.
Leek Dumplings
THE BEST! A MUST!
Cash Only

Beef stew noodle are the best. Sometime I get the smelly tofu and the fried intestine too. Always to go place for beef stew noodle in Alhambra area.

I’ve been coming here for years with my family and I have to say that Noodle King has the ultimate comfort food. This is not the place where I’m picky on service or cleanliness (which are usually fine). This is where I’m able to order all of my favorites in one place and have a satisfying and delicious meal.
My usual orders include beef noodle soup, liang mian (cold noodle), niu rou juan bing (beef roll), zha jiang mian (black bean noodle), cong you bing (onion pancake), chicken rice, and guo tie (dumplings). The peanuts and cold tofu salad are nice appetizers. FYI I share everything with my family… not that much of a fatty. Any leftovers are packed and taken home. Food still tastes great! In fact, we probably order to go more often.
Pro tip: you can order the beef soup (without noodles) and get a lot more broth. Take it to go, store it in your fridge, and you can make a whole meal for your family!

I ordered the Dan Dan noodles with spicy oil wontons… Nope. The noodles tasted nothing like Dan Dan-​instead it was this super dry thick peanut paste and the wontons were in this thick sweet sauce. Nothing was spicy lol. Def not returning.

OVERALL RATING: 4.5
My mom brought me here a couple weeks back to try out their beef noodle soup and xiao long bao. Wowowow! I’m loving this place! My mom, boyfriend, and I ordered a lot of food that day. We got the potstickers, xiao long bao, green onion pancake, beef noodle soup, spicy wontons, and spare rib noodle soup. It’s a lot of food for three people.
The beef noodle soup (with thick noodle) is great! (4.5÷5) I haven’t had a good bowl of beef noodle soup in ages. I loved the texture of the thick noodle. It was perfect with the soup. It’s ridiculous how good this is. It isn’t particularly spicy so I always add the chili oil they set out. A good scoop of that and the soup is perfection. They give you a good amount of meat to go with it.
Spare Rib noodle soup: (⁴⁄₅) clear, crisp broth, delicious spare ribs, and yummy thin noodles. My boyfriend ordered this because he happens to like lighter flavors but this was so crazy flavorful without being heavy. It was wonderful!
Spicy wontons: (⁵⁄₅) this has to be my absolutely favorite dish here. It’s very different from the ones you’d get at mama lu’s or din tai fung. They add a bit of sesame sauce to give it a nice nutty, sweet flavor. I loooove the combination! It’s very unique. Everyone has their own interpretation of spicy wontons. I have never been to different restaurants with the same exact spicy wontons, and that’s okay. Din tai fung’s spicy wontons will always be my favorite but these come a close second. It’s really great.
Green onion pancake: (3.5/5)I usually like my chong you bing to be very thin and very crispy. It wasn’t as crispy here but it had an interesting chewy texture that I enjoyed. I liked the fluffy texture. It also had a strong green onion flavor which I like because many places serve extremely bland green onion pancake.
Potstickers: (³⁄₅) they weren’t my favorite. The first time I had them, they weren’t very crispy. (I really like texture.) The second time was much better however so I appreciated that.
Xiao Long Bao: (4.5÷5) Very similar to Mama Lu’s but this one actually retains soup in the dumpling! Very rarely happens anymore. Really, the best part of xiao long bao is the soup! I get so sad when they run out at night. The xiao long bao itself is worth the trip to the tiny, cramped restaurant in an even more cramped plaza that’s serving up very similar food.

It must be just me but I found their beef noodle soup to be way too bland and flavorless.
We also ordered their spicy wontons and it tasted like they put peanut butter. Not a fan of actual peanut butter in my spicy wonton. Chopped peanuts are fine, but peanut butter??? Naaahhhh…
The stinky tofu was decent… had to give this place and try and will likely not return.

Beef noodle stew– the broth was good and surprisingly light. I have never had a beef noodle stew that was not spicy in this area, but I still enjoyed it with no spice tonight. I like how the beef had little to no fat. The noodles were decent.
Green onion pancake– the flour was fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside. I think they did alright with the pancake, but I wish there was more green onions in them. The pancake had some green onions scattered inside.
This may not be the best beef noodle stew in the San Gabriel Valley but it is cheap, fast, and good. I would come back just to bring my brother to try the beef noodle stew because he does not eat spicy. The service is okay, it seems family owned. This place is a 3.5 overall and cash only.

I’ll keep this nice and short since the other reviews all say the same thing.
Beef noodle soup: heck yes! One of the best out there! I like to get beef and tendon with fat/​wide noodles. (Eating tendons is good for your skin… keeps you looking young!)
Beef rolls: these were devoured in a blink of an eye

Noodle King was once awarded 2^nd place in beef noodle soup in Souther California regional competition.
Having visited each of top three ranked places. Noodle King is No. 1 in my mind.
The broth is near clear, with slight hint of soy sauce. Fresh noodles, comes in a bit of veggies and condiment. Optional boiled egg with creamy egg yolk.
One can order half /​half on the beef and beef tendon, and for a slight dollar difference, you basically get a large bowl of portion enough feed two guests.
What I would like to emphasize is the tenderness of the beef itself. I have ordered the half option but I never went back to that. All beef is the way to go at this place.
Unlike most restaurant, the beef is either too small of chunk or too tender.
Noodle King does their beef with perfection. It isn’t small chunks, or overly tender. It is just the right tenderness and I would feel like I am eating a prime rib, I would taste the flavor of beef with steak-​like texture.
Finally, the 5-​star is for the sincere and genuine service! Today, I didn’t bring enough cash but barely enough to cover the cost of the beef noodle soup. I hesitated and ask the waitress if it’s alright I go back to my car to grab some cash. She laughed and said «Customer would just walk away not say a thing, I have been too concerned. How about making up for it next time?» I would certainly gladly give bigger tip next time. On top of that, I would like to rate this restaurant a 5-​star worthy of review.

if you speak mandarin, you’re good
I always get the beef roll and the beef tendon noodle soup
never disappoints
beef roll is crispy on the outside, the beef is nice and soft. I just hate how I can never pick it up with my chopsticks perfectly
beef soup: nice beef flavor, the beef has same texture as the beef in the beef roll, the bok Choy is good
I love the noodles; perfectly cooked

I probably won’t be coming back here again since there’s so many of these little Taiwanese/​Chinese restaurants in the area which also have the same price, but better food.
FOOD
–Their «2012 2^nd best in LA» Beef Noodle soup: broth was pretty good, it comes non-​spicy. I suggest ordering it with thin anoodles. We had it with the round noodles and it wasn’t that great
–Green Onion Pancake: for the price, it’s not really that worth it. Other places give more pancake for cheaper or same price
–Potstickers: nothing special
–Snow Cabbage Shredded Pork Noodle Soup: bland, not much flavor
— Noodles were mediocre
SERVICE
They spoke broken English (not a problem just letting you know) and I had to get up to ask for chopsticks and ended up getting them myself from the counter

Whenever I’m craving Taiwanese food, this is one of my favorite spots to go to.
I always order their beef rolls, beef noodle soup (must), spicy wontons and one of their cold dishes (tofu, tendon, pig ear, etc.). I have yet to try their pan-​fried buns, so I will be coming back soon!

This hole in the wall joint is a great find!
I had a taste for Dan Dan mein and randomly picked this joint out of the listing showed up on Unilocal.
I called in and place an order less than 10 mins prior to my arrival and they had my food packed and ready super quickly!
Their Dan dan noodle is not the best but tasty and portion is big. And the price! $ 5.40?! Wow!
I thought it was going to be like $ 10!
This isn’t a fancy restaurant but definitely an authentic Taiwanese spot that serve good food for reasonable price.
The female workers at the register were nice and friendly.
I’ll definitely come back.

Like many other places around the SGV, this little hole in the wall Taiwanese food joint is great food for your money! This is one of my family’s go to places for family dinner for a cheap, convenient and delicious dinner that no one can complain about!
I love the Jia Jiang Noodles. The sauce has good flavor and is very authentic. The noodles are well cooked, chewy, and seems to be hand made. I love the gyozas as well. Good outer crisp and good filling to skin ratio. Other items I’ve tried are wonton soup and shao long bao. Wontons are pretry good, however shao long baos were a bit lacking. There was no soup in the baos and was just another dumpling. Not bad tasting though, just not quite right.
Overall great hole in the wall. Go here for cheap, fast and delicious Taiwanese food.

Good Taiwanese food.
This restaurant reminds me of the popular Taiwanese restaurants in Monterrey Park back in the 90s. The beef soup noodle here is not as good as Chuan Ma’s, but it is better than most. The selection of appetizers is impressive and tastes good.
Décor and service is severely lacking but price is on the cheap side. Might be back.

You are looking for the best Beef Noodle Soup in Alhambra… THIS IS NOT IT, but its very good still. And they make their own noodles so thats another star for you, Mr. King. The bowls are perfectly sized to fill you up, with option to supersize yourself, but thats not recommended. (from a health point of view, asians are so prone to high triglycerides and sugar, it’s best stick with the regular portion of noodles) trust me, the carbs will expand…
Broth is a dark-clear…does that make sense? The noodles are lost in the darkness of the beef broth, which you must save from drowning by placing in mouth and chew. Beef pieces you say? tender. And usually you’ll get pieces of tendon which i love with all my F up joints.
Ohh, and that little plate of mustard greens? is that what it is? I eat it by the spoonful, i take a minute to build up the perfect bite, roll the noodles with some broth on the spoon, add a small piece of beef and adorn with sour greens on top. Open wide and hope your date does’t see you devour that ladle-​size spoon in one bite… proceed to be happy-​ish.
Sodium in my opinion, is on the higher end… so watch out for that, use the broth as a complement, not a dish.
Service is FAST. They just have to build it, so if you’re starving, this is the place to go… at odd hours of course, being 3pm…4pm…but hey, no wait time is a good time.
Conclusion…GOOD…GREAT, but not SUPER GREAT. Again, does THAT make sense? slurp

Still the best BEEF NOODLE SOUP in Los Angeles (ask for Al Dente noodle)
My other favorites:
POTSTICKERS — so big, long and meaty it’s obscene
SPICY WONTON
STEWED TOFU + INTESTINE — love the chewy texture but you might not!

I came here after seeing this place on Discover Los Angeles’ best Chinese beef noodle soup list. As such, I had to try the stewed beef noodle soup.
The broth wasn’t my favorite broth in the world, but was still good. The beef however was really tender and delicious. You can also choose between 3 types of noodles: thin, wide, and round.
The serving size is generous and the price is right. Was $ 6 for the soup which filled me up.
The place is really small and did seem to get pretty busy.