Dandan Soul Food From Sichuan

My goto Sichuan place when I’m working around the Sheung Wan area.
I like this place for the lunch specials for $ 70 (at this time of writing).
It’s quite comparable to Yu in Causeway Bay (which is my number 1 favorite place in Hong Kong).
This place is definitely set up for the lunchtime office crowd though. It can get busy during the peak lunch hours so come a little later (after 1:30). But not too late otherwise you miss the lunch specials.
In terms of spiciness, when I first came I ordered medium spicy but it didn’t do it for me. So the next time around I went for the most spiciest. It doesn’t fail to disappoint (but avoid that if you aren’t used to Sichuan or spicy food to prevent lavatory issues afterwards =P)

I love dan dan noodles so I’m sad that I have to give this place a 3-​star. The noodles simply didn’t meet my expectations.
The inside of the restaurant is clean and neat, and looks very much like a restaurant made for lunch-​goers. It’s near Central so that makes sense.
This has a chain-​restaurant feel to it. Not expensive but not exactly that cheap either. About how much of a little more than what I would pay for a bowl of noodles in a Chinese restaurant in the US.
I ordered the veggie noodles, extra spicy. The noodles took ~10min. When I was given the bowl I was excited because there were quite a lot of noodles and it was red with spiciness.
After taking my first bite though, I was confused. I felt like I tasted nothing? After eating for a couple more minutes, I still didn’t taste any real flavor… just the spice. I think they put so many different spices in it that they 1. canceled each other out 2. masked the flavors of the other little ingredients in the bowl, like the peanuts. I love spicy food so I thought the spiciness wasn’t too bad, but if you’re a moderate spice eater it may be too much.
I ended up only eating about ¹⁄₃ of my bowl and leaving the rest. I just got bored eating noodles that didn’t have any particular flavor.
I don’t know… maybe other menu items are better, and maybe if I got a lower spiciness level it would have more actual flavor. But for my visit I was disappointed.

Great food, convenient to get to from the MTR station. They have options for the spice level in your food and as was stated previously, even the ‘regular’ spice level was really hot! Service was quick and attentive. Only thing I would caution is that they are cash only and do not take cards!

I don’t know much about Sichuan food. I can’t make any authoritative (or even assertive) opinions about Sichuan food.
But I do know this. Sichuan food can and should be mouth watering, 5 alarm fire, «oh god it burns», level of spicy. There should be the presence of the Sichuan peppercorns (花椒) which produce that pleasant «ma la» affect, simultaneously numbing your tongue while lashing it with heat. And pain. And pleasure in that pain.
I do know that Dan Dan Soul food is not a hole in the wall outfit. It’s not staffed by locals, unless the Caucasian guy with an Aussie accent working front of house is secretly from Chengdu. Rather, it’s a fairly slick (although not pretentious) store front in COSCO tower, a short stones throw away from the financial hub of Hong Kong.
I do know that the hallmark dan dan noodles ($ 60) is a massive bowl of goodness — pleasantly pliant noodles, crumbles of minced pork, and an errant stalk of choi sum, all awash in a sea of fierce red oil that is certain to cause much gastrointestinal distress for the uninitiated. It’s worth the diarrhea. And I do know that the mixed sichuan pickles ($ 20) make a great, but spicy, foil to the heaviness of the noodles.
I don’t know much about Sichuan food. But I’d sure like to learn more at Dan Dan Soul Food.

I always enjoy the chongqing style noodle soup. Very spicy but incredibly satisfying.

Had lunch here. Excellent choice of hot and cold noodle dishes. Great price too.

So my husband wanted something delicous. I wanted vegetables. We both were casually dressed and did not want to spend a ton of money. Did a little Unilocaling and found Dandan with high rating and one $ sign. So glad we did… we thought it was awesome!
Ok, let me cut to the chase, for $ 200 HKD, my husband and I were delighted by the deliicous noodles, we enjoyed the gai lam green fresh vegetable and marinated cucumber salad (although note the later is very spicey!) and what a steal on the value. (We event thought the sparkling water was a super summer sweet!)
But I absolutely want to highlight the «Dumplings of the Day.» So we ordered our meal and our drinks had arrived and we were just waiting. In the back of the restaurant, at a little table, we see an old woman eating or working or both, we are not sure. We then realize she is not eating, but working maticulously at stuffing and folding and kneeding pastry into these scrumpous little dumpings that are going to find their way to the plates and bellies of customers, including us. She seemed so kind, she seemed do be working so lovingly, so seemed so proud of her work. And then our dumplings arrive to the table…
Handmade, light, flavorful, delicious morsels. Go have yourself a dumping!
We will be back. Make note: CASH ONLY!

What an interesting story of a Gwai-​Lo and a Sichuan girl, they together set up this dandan noodle shop in Hong Kong. Conveniently located at Sheung Wan, it provides a good choice for the white-​collars to grab sth hot and quick during lunchtime. As for dinner time, it is much less crowded and more relaxing to enjoy a bowl of hot and spicy dandan noodle. This is the type of dandan noodle not rich in peanut sauce and the soup base is not thick, but the spicy red oil is quite think. Without much preference on the type of dandan noodle style, I think this one is quite yummy, especially like the numb aftertaste brought by the chinese herb.

HK is a top destination for foodies. With so many choices, how does an OBC (= overseas born Chinese) decide where to eat?
The answer to the «Ultimate question of Life, the Universe and Everything» is of course through Instagram!
With a colorful and funky interior, and a pretty straightforward menu (hot soup, cold or stirred noodles, rice dishes and sides); we already got off to a good start.
As a Sichuan food «virgin», i was just totally clueless but it turned out to be love at first bite!
I’m crazy about peanut butter so ordering the peanut & sesame cold noodles was a logical choice (55 hk dollar /​6.7 €); the smooth & creamy peanut sauce with a slightly spicy flavour tingled my taste buds. U can choose ur spicy level but i played it safe.
As a side we ordered the black fungus salad; crunchy but a little too spicy.

This spot opened 8 months ago.
Let’s talk about the choices of spiciness.
There’s not spicy, Medium, Hot, and VERY HOT.
I thought I had a generally high tolerance for Spicy until now… I guess Sichuan food has some crazy spiciness going on. I had the Medium spice and all I could taste was HOT HOT HOT that I couldn’t determine the flavor of the food. This may be also due to the fact that I am inexperienced when it comes to Sichuan food.
Other than that, I really enjoyed coming here.
It’s an affordable bowl of yummy noodle texture.
It’s a medium size shop by hong kong standards, so four people to a table is comfortable.
They close at 8 p.m.
ENJOY!

The noodles are so good that they need another star. This place serves up incredibly tasty Sichuan food.

Dan Dan is our latest and favorite culinary discovery in HK. On top of having a short (always a good sign in my book) yet varied menu, service raises way above any restaurant in any similar price bracket. Jérôme is super-​helpful, especially with a non-​Asian family trying to steer away from too spicy food.
Everything we tried was not too spicy (not obvious for a Sichuanese joint), flavorful, extremely fresh and very reasonably priced.
As a matter of fact, it was so fresh that our eldest brought the noodles 2 days later to school as lunch box and loved it.
Rapport qualité/​service/​fraicheur/​prix imbattable. Pour ceux qui ont du mal à saisir les nuances de la cuisine sechouanaise, Jérôme est un guide attentif et très sympa qui a ouvert «Dan Dan» depuis quelques mois avec son épouse. Ma seule «crainte» serait que les critiques dithyrambiques attirent plus de monde que ce petit restau né peut contenir… Attention: paiements en cash seulement.

I was really surprised at how much I loved this place. I had it pegged as one of those over price, under delivering trendy places in Sheung Wan. I was pleasantly surprised by the taste, quality of the food, and the service!
I tried their Cheungdu style dan dan stirred noodles. You get to pick your level of spice when ordering (little, medium, extreme). I got little spice and it was perfect for may palette. The noodles were the perfect firmness, and I loved the peanut and sesame sauce. I also loved that there were whole peanuts in it, which gave the noodles a nice crunch.
We also had their dumplings. I kind of wish they came in a soup, but the taste of them were delicious. The skin is just the perfect thickness, where it isn’t super doughy but thick enough for you to pick up with chopsticks without breaking.
The server, I think he is also the head chef, is really nice and attentive. Even though they were closing, he didn’t rush us out and let us enjoy our conversation. Overall, Dan Dan is a solid food choice if you’re in the Sheung Wan area.

Really enjoyed the Chengdu style dandan for lunch along with the spicy cucumbers. The spice of the dishes is a perfect balance of heat without taking away from the flavor of the dandan! Will be back!