King of Noodles

Solid 4 stars for the price. My friend and I ordered:
— spicy beef noodle soup
–Shanghai soup dumplings
–green onion chive pancakes
–shrimp and chive dumplings
The noodles were decent. We got the spicy beef house made noodles. The noodles were chewy, but were a little too soft for me. It did have the homemade texture though. I would not come back for the noodles though.
I would come back for the Shanghai soup dumplings though. They had soup in each dumpling and it wasn’t too oily. I didn’t taste MSG in there and the skin was the perfect thickness. If you want XLBs that are more fatty I would suggest Kingdom of Dumpling, which has XLBs with more flavor and fat.
The green onion chive pancakes were also great. Would reorder this too if I came back. It wasn’t dripping with oil and were extremely flakey. They did not skimp out on the filling.
The shrimp and chive dumplings could have been better. I would suggest ordering another type of dumping. I don’t think the shrimp and chive ones are the best here.
For two people we spent $ 30 and enough to take home! We weren’t even hungry for dinner!

What to order here: Spicy Beef/​Lamb Noodle Soup, Special sauce with their homemade noodles, Bok Choy, and the Green Onion Pancake. I promise, you will not be disappointed with any one of these entrees. I love their handmade noodles, except do not let it sit in your soup for too long because it does tend to get soggy.
This place is incomparable to San Tungs, the quality and portions of food you get here is amazing. This is my go-​to Chinese spot, it’s super quick and no hassle of having to wait an hour to be seated.

Good but not awesome. I had the spicy beef noodle and pork and shrimp dumplings. The noodles were a bit too soft in my soup, but the flavors of the broth was good. Few pitfalls to the broth: 1) there was way too much garlic (I’m an Asian chick and am very accustomed to garlic in dishes, but this was overkill) and 2) oily. The dumplings were good as well. Steamed to perfection, but would have enjoyed a little more filling inside. Overall I may go there again, but not a requirement. Prices are very reasonable. Parking out front. Enjoy!

Everything in King of Noodles was a great success!
The hand-​made noodles were delicious and the dishes were excellent.
Great Dim-​Sum, great Dumplings, great everything.
I’m writing this review a day after because these places deserve a good review.
Highly recommend!

Came here for lunch on a Sunday with 3 other friends. We were seated immediately — which was good because we beat the lunch traffic. Parking is harder to find around here as well. We had the cucumber salad, string beans, 2 orders of xiao long baos, pork & corn dumplings, cold noodles, and tea. Flavoring on the string beans were perfect, dumplings and XLBs were perfect temperature. Dumplings were slightly dry, but i love me my corn so it was fine: p The cucumber salad was really refreshing and the noodles were delicious. Will return :)

We initially wanted came to go to izakaya sozai, however we didn’t want to wait and came here (king of noodles) instead, due to the fact that anthony bourdain raved about this place.
So we started firing our orders, lamb noodle soup, master green soup, green onion and chives pancake and Shanghai soup dumpling.
Lamb noodle soup 4/​5, plus points for the tender lamb pieces which there was lots, the broth was rich and spicy, hand made noodles were good however in my opinion not chewy enough and not as good as terracotta warrior.
Master green soup 4/​5, same noodle complaint but overall good.
Green onion and chives pancake 4/​5, it was good, not blown away by it.
Shanghai soup dumplings 2/​5, biggest disappointment of the meal, the top was dry, the skin was really thick. These dumplings don’t even come close to dumpling kitchen or kingdom dumpling :(.
Anthony bourdain you have let me down here.
I would only come back for the soup.

Wouldn’t come back unless I had no other options. Decently good reviews, so stopped by for lunch. Had the spicy beef noodle w/​a side of pork and chive dumplings. Noodles were hand made, which I love! Broth was so-​so and ingredients inside. Plus side are the bok Choy and mushroom was fresh. Meat was so-​so. I wished it was more of a soft chunky tender meat. Dumplings were soft w/​great ratio of meat and dough. Dipping sauce was soy sauce w/​vinegar. Fresh!

SF Dumpling Hunt #1
Xiao Long Bao — insufficient soup filling, just OK.
Dumplings (Pork Chives) — awesome. Simple but good. I forget to chew sometimes and swallow these whole. Yum.
Onion Pancake — could benefit from more layers and green onion.
Handmade noodles with special sauce — loved the flavor but they totally skimped on the amount of noodles… At least give me fatter/​chewier noodles! Mushroom, pig ears, pork & egg. Pork bits meh.
Just the right amount of food to fill 2 hungry peoples. Although I regret that potstickers were not ordered =(
This place is very chinese.

If i lived in SF, King of Noodles would see my face every week. I love LOVE anything made from dough, and from a taste and texture stand-​point, this place nailed it!
Green onion pancake — chewy, not oily. you could taste the green onions.
Shanghai soup dumplings aka xiao long bao — meat tasted fresh, chewy dough, soup amount was just right. Every slurp was fantastic.
Chicken and chive dumplings — just aite but i’m not a big fan of chicken or chive in my dumplings so it’s more preference than the taste itself
Spicy beef noodle soup — amazing!!! i’m pretty sure they use the spicy sauce that’s at every table in their base. It’s spicy and sour, just the way i like it. The noodles are handmade and it’s absolutely apparent in every bite.
Food was so good we went across the street to their bakery (yum yum?) and bought a ton of frozen dumplings and baos.
Warning: i heard there’s normally a wait but we came at 2pm and were seated immediately. Can’t wait to return someday.

This place is such a little gem. A little dumpling gem.
One of the perks of being in the Sunset is the adjacency to tons of great Chinese food — King of Noodles is definitely one of the greats, IMO. Stumbled upon this hole in the wall a few months ago, and after a bit of apprehension based on the aesthetic (it’s nothing fancy), decided to give it a go. So happy I did. I was introduced to soup dumplings/​xiaolong bao, which is now one of my favorite foods!
Menu favorites: xiaolong bao, the handmade fresh noodle soup (they really are handmade, I watched them do it!), and the string beans.
And you can’t beat the price. I feel like I ordered 65 dumplings and stuffed my face, and the bill was still cheap af. If I could just unhinge my jaw and inhale the soup dumplings here, I totally would.
They’re a small business, so don’t go if you’re in a hurry — they’re not super slow by any means, but they’re also not super fast as they don’t have a huge staff. But the service is very friendly and they’ve always been so nice and attentive.
Side bar, looked all over Chinatown searching for something similar, and came up with nothing. Cementing King of Noodles as my go-​to!

More like 3.5 stars but when you make such a bold statement on the name of your restaurant — it better be true.
Unfortunately the noodles are just not up to par or maybe I got a bad batch. Overcooked and the more I ate, the soggier it got.
The beef soup/​broth however was the bomb — awesome flavor/​seasonings and you could tell it was stewed for a long time — the bone marrow extracts settled at the bottom of the soup.
The soup dumplings were surprisingly better than I thought. No Joes Shanghai but not bad.
The pork and napa cabbage dumpling were average at best. The filling was a bit bland. For apps — I tried the black fungus and cucumber — this was pretty good, lighter on the flavor but I kinda like that. Ingredients were fresh and the garlic marinade was good.
The cold bean curd strips with cilantro was ok — seasonings were lighter than others I’ve had but it was decent. Portion sizes to price were good in my opinion — especially the appetizers.
Credit cards are accepted — which is a plus. Service is prompt and to the point. It’s not a huge restaurant so large groups probably wouldn’t be good. Overall a decent place to get your chinese comfort food if you’re in the area.

always a good go-​to when we’re in the area and craving chinese style noodle soup. my favorite is a toss-​up between the spicy beef noodle soup and the beef tendon noodle soup (not spicy).
i love the spicy noodle soup because king of noodles really knows how to pack a punch. my only complaint is that the spicy soup base has a distinct sour taste to it — perhaps from use of vinegar? i’m not exactly sure what it is, but the level of spiciness pretty much distracts me from this sour taste. i’m salivating now just thinking about it.
on days when i’m not feeling the spicy/​sour mix, i go for the beef tendon noodle soup (btw, this can also be made spicy — but then you encounter that spicy/​sour taste problem again). the beef tendon comes in large chunks and is so soft and chewy. the noodles in both these dishes suit my preferences well: not too thin and not too thick, with the slurping capacity of spaghetti but the texture of udon.
other favorites here include dumplings (pork + cabbage or pork/​shrimp + chives) and green onion pancakes. though i’ll be honest, these two dishes are generally good at most chinese places, and the ones at king of noodles are nothing to write home about.

This is a great place for Shandong cuisine (AKA handmade noodles, dumplings, and assorted pancakes/​pan-​fried goodies). I don’t know what other reviewers are trippin’ on, but this place is great! Now that I live down the street, my dream is to become a regular here. (I know, I dream big.)
Rating breakdown:
1.5÷2 Stars for Taste –
I’ve been here several times now. I always want to try new things, but I also can’t help but order the delicious things I got last time too. Here are some things you can’t come here without trying:
Appetizers:
Turnip pancakes — They look pretty small and unassuming (two cakes per order), but these are little bites of heaven right here. Juicy filling on the inside, perfectly flakey on the outside. Mmm…
Green onion pancakes — crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside. Perfect with some soy sauce and vinegar.
Spicy beef tendon — Actually not spicy at all, but it’s a well marinated, thinly sliced tendon.
Black fungers (fungus) with fresh cucumber — You like garlic? ORDER THIS.
Cold Wide Bean Noodle — The Qest (chewiest) noodles in a light garlic and soy sauce. Be careful though, those noodles are almost alive. If you’re not adept with the chopsticks, you may end up splattering sauce all over yourself… or your friends seated in the splash zone.
Main Dish:
Lamb noodle soup — fatty chunks of lamb in a savory but not overly gamey soup. The noodles are handmade, chewy, and delicious.
Bean Paste Noodles — They have a pretty unique take on Zha Jiang Mian and incorporate green beans and shallots in their bean paste sauce.
Dessert:
Fried Bean Paste Cake — I’m not a huge fan of red beans, but my sister has reliable informed me that these are heavenly.
I wasn’t a huge fan of their dumplings or xiao long bao, I thought they were just OK. The skins weren’t super chewy or thick, which is how I prefer them. Also, the marinated whole chicken is definitely not worth $ 20. Give them a try though and see for yourself.
¹⁄₁ Stars for Value –
The noodles are a pretty good deal at around $ 8 – 9 a bowl. Each bowl comes with a generous portion of meat and handmade noodles. The appetizers are around $ 6 – 7, but they’re big enough that they almost count as a whole dish by themselves. I would say expect to spend about $ 10 – 15 depending on if you order family style or are dining alone. This is the kind of place where you order more and take the extra home!
0.5÷1 Stars for Customer Service
The servers are usually super friendly to us but that’s because they think my Dad is super funny. Usually I luck out when I come and I am seated right away, but I have definitely seen people waiting for ~15−20 minutes when there were tables sitting open but uncleared. The younger waitress is pretty good about refilling water and tea, but the older server often forgets to come back or check in. I don’t know though, it’s a Chinese place, so generally, you have to be assertive (but polite) to get what you want.
Bonus star because I’ll definitely be back when I’m in the mood for a carb overload. I made sure to grab a takeout menu on my way out!

This place is so under-​rated! Their noodle soup is the BOMB. Our party of six all ordered the same thing– the Marinated Lamb Noodle Soup. Their noodles are homemade and fresh, making it chewy and delicious. The broth is also the perfect flavor, not too bland or too salty like a lot of noodle soups are. Their portions are huge, they’ll fill you up and keep you warm on a super windy day. Honesty, one of the best bowl of noodle soup I’ve ever had. I will definitely be back the next time I’m in SF!

My friends and I came here after seeing the super long line at Sam Tung. When we arrived, there were plenty of tables and they served us very quickly.
They have a large variety of noodles, dumplings, etc. The food was pretty average, but the one thing that really stood out was the service; the lady serving our group of 8 was very friendly and attentive.
I’ll probably come back again if in the area.

Arrived at 4:00pm on a Saturday. A few other people inside. Service was quick. The food was delicious!
Bok Choy prepared in a garlic sauce, not to be missed.
Veggie Chowmein was finger licking good, with perfectly made fat noodles.
Onion pancake is also tasty, and vegetarian (the chive pancake is made w/​shrimp).
Veggie dumplings were good but not great, would skip them next time.
Feast for 2 + leftovers + tax + tip =$ 35

— Handmade noodle with bean paste
— Pork/​Napa dumpling with qq noodle
— Chive pancake
6.5÷10 would eat again

May not look great on exterior but great place for breakfast on weekends! Authentic Southern China (Shanghai area) breakfast/​lunch food!
FOOD: My friends and I (4 of us) shared two dumpling dishes (12 each), one Shanghai xiao long bao (6 counts), one pan fried dumpling (5 counts), one green onion pancake, and a string bean. I really liked the SHRIMP WITH CHIVE dumpling, since the flavor wasn’t too heavy like the pork ones are. Xiao long bao was so-​so — there was less soup inside of it than I expected. String bean was pretty good with minced garlic but was pretty greasy. But overall I really enjoyed the meal because it minded me of home and my childhood.
SETTING: The exterior of the restaurant don’t look too impressive, and there is about 6 – 7 tables inside with a few extra chairs on an island facing the kitchen. Overall it’s pretty clean.
SERVICE: The dishes took about 15 – 20 min to prepare, which is considered long for Chinese breakfast food. But I guess it’s because they make everything from scratch — I see the cook making dumplings and bringing them into the shop. The string bean took almost 30 minutes but it was steaming hot when served and tasted pretty good.
PRICE: Together we paid $ 48 so $ 12/​person, which is not bad for how full we were.
OVERALL IMPRESSION: I grew up in Suzhou (near Shanghai, in Southern China) and this is the type of food my grandma prepared for me when I got off of school everyday. So the taste has very special place in my heart. If you compare the flavor to Northern Chinese food or Canto food, it will definitely be lighter. But the smell and the delicacy of the food really makes the taste unforgetable

Came here with my boyfriend for dinner a while back. It’s actually decent and not bad of a dumpling shop.
Beef noodle soup: ⁴⁄₅: the soup was flavorful, they had a good portion of beef compared to most other places. Noodles were cooked perfectly. The portion is pretty big, you can definitely share with someone.
Shanghai soup dumplings: ³⁄₅: not the best soup dumplings but not the worse. The skin is really thick but it is able to hold the soup in. Not as flavorful as other places like Shanghai dumpling king or kingdom of dumplings but it’s still decent. Just kind of sucked that it only comes with 6 in a order as opposed to most other places that have at least 10 to an order.
Napa and pork dumplings: 3.5÷5: not bad, felt like it tasted similar to kingdom of dumplings. It’s pretty good with their orange hot sauce. Plenty of filling and has a decent flavor. Would definitely come back to try the other dumplings.
Not bad for a nearby dumpling/​noodle shop if you don’t want to go too far away. Service is quick as well. Overall, worth coming back for another try.
Total for 2: $ 40

Aside from the handmade noodles, unfortunately, the service here isn’t great and I also found a mosquito in my noodles. I have been coming here mainly for their hand-​made noodles and dumplings but I’m not sure if it was an off day or if they’ve gone through internal changes but quality hasn’t significantly improved. When I came here most recently, my moms friend had been saving a seat for us for about 20 minutes (maybe this was the reason for the poor service). I sat down and after a quick glance at the menu, I called the waitress over to place an order. The first thing she said was «you can only order once. If your party isn’t here yet you shouldn’t order»…hmmm, I’ve never heard of this rule before.
When my mom finally arrived, we got another waitress and I told her what the lady had said and she said not to worry about it (okay?). Once we ordered our dishes, our noodles came and the first thing I noticed was a mosquito in my bowl. It wasn’t the traditional fruit fly or anything but a dark and quite frankly larger mosquito. I am hesitant sometimes to make a scene over insects in my food as I know it can create a bigger scene for the establishment so I very quietly told them to take it back for a new one.
Long story short, the dumplings are goood but I’ve had better. The handmade noodles are the main reason why I’ve been coming here and now that I found a mosquito, that might change also. Service wasn’t amazing so it’s hard to fight for this place but maybe they had an off day. Would i come back? Maybe in a few months, I think I’ll give this place a break while I search for another hand made noodle shop :/

Der Service war etwas asiatisch-​zurückhaltend, war aber ok.
Das Essen dagegen war sehr gut und offensichtlich frisch zubereitet.