Hong Fu Noodle

highly recommend to try .this is robin from china to write this. not familiar with the other «chinese» food in the downtown aera. this is the truly chinese food with traditional taste. if any wanna wanna try the true chinese food. this is the right place.

Was craving something rice-​y and popped in here for the £7.99 lunch special. You get some form of soup, gyoza, or spicy edamame (this was great! big bowl of them steeped with whole chilies and slices of ginger and salt) and then a rice or noodle dish. We both had the chicken/​duck in the namesake Hong Fu sauce (the typical chinese «brown sauce» sort of like oyster sauce + soy sauce) which was fine, just fine. We also requested the char siu pork buns which were a bit shoddy looking (but this signalled homemade, I hope) tasted like it should (bright red and sugary minced pork in a soft white steamed bun). I wouldn’t say come of your way to go here but if you’re in the area, it hits the spot.

We have been to this noodlebar several times now and we are very pleased with the dishes, service and the atmosphere. They are very well located on Waterloo Place overlooking the Balmoral Hotel, Waverley Station, Princes Street Gardens and the War Monument. A window seat is recommended!
I am used to hot and spicey foods, I normally would request additinal spices /​chili /​pepper — what I didn’t have to do here! My favourite starter dish is found here: Edamame! I recommend their chef’s special (beef in garlic & chili sauce) and the dumplings — on request you can get normal cutlery, but authenticity requires chopstick. When we visit the place is always frequented by asian people and that is an recommendation in itself.
There is a space in the back with big round tables and I noticed on one occaision they had a group of about 30 people in — so I’d gather from that they do groups as well.
— good for a night out or a quick bite.

Hongfu offers an excellent range of dishes in no-​nonsense surroundings. Portions are generous, dishes are well-​executed, with the Mongolian beef, and mountain chicken proving particular favourites, with our party.
Overall, we think Hongfu has solid claims on being one of the best restaurants of its type in Edinburgh.

I so wanted to like Hong Fu Noodle.
The Man has been wanting to come here for ages so last night after viewing a property, we came here for dinner on our way down the road.
Hong Fu Noodle is located where The Ark used to be — so it was a little weird for me to be eating a meal where I used to come for gigs. The layout was ok, if a bit chilly, but the ambiance was definitely lacking in that there were a maximum of two other tables in the reasonably sized restaurant, it felt quite empty.
This place serves what I imagine is proper Chinese food — no sweet and sour pork or chow mein in sight. We started with pork dumplings (I would call them pot stickers) and ribs. The dumplings tasted nice but were, I would say, a little under done. The ribs were lukewarm (they had clearly been sitting while the dumplings were made) and very dry. To make up for this they were slathered in sauce. The Man loved them, though, so that worked.
For our mains, I ordered the monk’s vegetarian noodle (soup) and The Man ordered the Chinese roast duck and pak choi on crispy noodles. The duck was dry and the noodles were not crispy, but this dish was overall very tasty. I kept stealing bites until he finally just swapped dinners with me. My soup was atrocious. It had a layer of veggies (1 pak choi complete with dirt, a couple of bits of carrot cut like butterflies, a couple of strips of bell pepper, a couple of muchrooms and something called cloud ear — I’ve just looked this up on Wikipedia and the article says this is «…usually sold dried and needs to be soaked before use. While almost tasteless, it is prized for its slightly crunchy texture and potential medicinal properties, including its newly discovered anticoagulant properties. Of note, the slight crunchiness persists despite most cooking processes.» It was slimy, not crunchy. Anyway…)
The broth was about as tasteless as dish water and the noodles were just gummy and flavourless. Even The Man agreed it was pretty minging.
Our meal came to £31.90 which we both agreed was quite steep for what we’d eaten. We went up to pay and were informed that they don’t take cards. Maybe I just wasn’t paying attention but I didn’t see a sign stating that anywhere. We had just enough on us, but unfortunately had to leave a very small tip for the lovely waitress because we’d run out of money.
The saving grace of this place was the waitress. She was literally the nicest and most polite waitress I have ever come across, ever. I really felt terrible about scrapping together a £1 or £2 tip from whatever coin we had on us.
But then, as we both lay in bed last night with our tummies making gurgling noises and with heart burn (or something) up a storm, I felt a little less bad.