Chang’s Noodle

Why have I only just discovered Chang’s Noodles?!? I rarely visit a restaurant more than once without an offer tempting me and even when I do its within a space of 6 month or more. However in the space of three months I have already been to Chang’s Noodles three times and have plans to go again soon.
Now I’ve been to Silk Road, all the newly hand pulled restaurant in China Town like Gourmet Kitchen, Joy Luck and even Lanzhou Noodle bar but nothing has been in comparison with their lamb noodles. I still have cravings for it!
The restaurant décor is very basic but spacious, canteen like wooden tables in the middle for bigger groups and smaller intimate seating around the side. The place is usually filled with Chinese people. Service is quick, friendly and efficient, never have had to complain.
Our first lunch included the following:
Dumplings, pork with Chinese leaves
These were delightful! The pastry was chewy, al dente filled with a lovely mix of pork, herbs, Chinese leaves with a lovely burst of warm fragrant sweet pork broth inside. Chilli oil and vinegar are available on your table to make your own dipping sauce.
Marinated meat in baked bun
Like a Chinese version of a burger. It was so good and had a nice bite to it. The bun was crisp on top, doughy and held the lovely braised tender pork and its flavours so well. A must order.
Special house lamb noodle
This is the dish that keeps me coming back for more. Hand pulled thick noodles in a hot milky lamb broth that looks like it’s been stewing for hours. The flavours were soothing and rich. It came with a generous amount of lamb, tender and sweet. The coriander added extra flavour and adding a different dimension to it.
Pita bread soaked in lamb broth
If you think of soaked bread you probably imagine mushy pieces of white bread breaking away. However this is no ordinary bread but mantou, a Chinese leavened bread that is still doughy and keeps a good bite to it even when it’s been torn up and left soaking in lamb broth. That lovely milky flavoursome broth can now be taste throughout the bread as you chew it, releasing a natural sweetness to the overall experience. With it were also strands of beancurd noodles for a more varied crunchier, bouncier texture and lamb pieces and coriander. It was a very new and enjoyable experience.
We came back for dinner one day and ordered:
Cumin lamb, chicken wings and prawn on skewers.
Highly recommend the lamb if you like things with a bite. The pieces of meat were juicy with its fat and well spiced. Sadly the chicken wings and prawns were uninspiring. The prawns were not fresh and chicken were overcooked and skinny.
Cold shredded bean curd, cucumber and carrots.
A must order! Incredible textures coming together marinated in a lovely hot and sour sauce. It was crunchy with soft beancurd pieces to contrast it. Very addictive!
Pork belly & preserved vegetables.
Deliciously melt in your mouth fatty pieces of pork in a thick oyster sauce based gravy. Seasoning was perfect even with the salty preserved vegetables adding a nice sourness to it. No regrets!
Garlic and Chinese greens stir fry.
Chinese seasonal greens stir fried and that night it was gai lan. The portion was generous, fresh and seasoned well with lots of garlic. Simple and delicious.
Braised ribbon fish
I found the fish here too bony for my liking. The texture of the fish was very rough, dry and dense as if it’s been dried out beforehand. Very oily fish and similar to dried mackerel. Nice flavour but just wasn’t for me. Still glad I tried it.
Tea eggs
These were disappointing as it tasted like a normal boiled egg. It must not have been marinated long enough for the flavours to infuse.
On my last visit during lunch I reordered my favourites and also:
Chicken noodles with aubergine in thick sauce
This had so much potential if it wasn’t so salty. The sauce was probably made from some generic preserved chilli sauce. But it was too rich, over powering the whole dish. The noodles were lovely and al dente, chicken was succulent and mostly on the bone so it was very tender. The aubergine was probably the best of it. Being deep fried it was so soft it almost melted in my mouth. Shame about the saltiness and the overload of sauce.
Although not every dish has been perfect I still plan on making regular visits to Chang’s noodles. There’s still so many dishes I want to try that is rare to find anywhere else in London. It’s so cheap too, unpretentious authentic northwestern Chinese restaurant that serves food like you would find in Xian. Cannot recommend it enough!

I’ve past by this Chinese restaurant countless times but never thought about going in. My friend recommended it and we gave it a go– glad we went.
Noodles are homemade and legit. The dumplings are also homemade and really tasty. The side dishes we got such as the tofu noodles were unique and tasted great. Best part is it’s super cheap. I’ll be heading back again.

Lamb noodle soup is a MUST. The soup was homey and warming and full of lamby goodness. Noodles were soft and chewy and thinly cut.
However. Veggies in preserved egg was really gross, with super heavy gravy smothering the veg.

Above average Chinese food near British Museum. The spicy tripe was overcooked and the noodle soups didn’t have much flavor. The meat-​stuffed buns were tasty (definitely order these); service was warm, and the prices were good.
I would come back if I lived in the area but for really authentic Northern Chinese food, Silk Road in Camberwell is a much better/​tastier choice.

Ordered food, waited, waited and 25 minutes later check on the progress and they forgot to send the order to the kitchen.
Didn’t have time to wait for a second attempt so left. Waiting staff seemed very lackadaisical, wouldn’t go back.

Cheap. Nice noodles. Downstairs you can have your own room and a proper meal (delicious!) and karaōke (songs are not very up to date but we got mostly what we wanted so it’s cool). Good for a bunch of friends hanging out

Been several times before when they were at their old location round the corner. The new larger location is on the main street, so is easier to find. The hand made noodles are still good and are a decent enough portion, so still a good cheap eat option in the area. However like many Chinese restaurants that cater primarily to Chinese customers the presentation and lackluster service lets it down a bit.

Even though I’m Chinese, it was my first time having northern Chinese food! I went around dinner time, so it was poppin’!! But we got a seat after a 10 min wait. The service is very quick but not too friendly. I feel that most of the stuff weren’t fluent in English (or maybe it was my American accent). It’s better to go with someone who speaks mandarin.
I got the broad noodle with lamb broth. I was very impressed with the noodle after hearing that the noodles were hand made and cut! It was al dente! Not too soft but not hard! The chewiness was on point.
We also shared the fungus with soy sauce and pork. When I saw the pork, I was in shocked because it looked very fat, but then I tried it and fell in love. Very soft and thinly sliced! The moment I put a piece in my mouth it would just melt onto my tongue.
It was heaven!

Three stars for food but drawn down by service to an unimpressed one. Three of us ordered: 1x noodle soup, 2x dry noodle dishes (plus dumplings to share).
The noodle soup arrived; the dry noodles after another 10 minutes. We asked after the dumplings. They never arrived; we received no apologies. We had to prompt the staff to take them off the bill.
We paid in cash and deliberately removed the service charge. As we left, the staff chased us down the street.

I believe I have found the single authentic northern Chinese noodle place in central London after a 12-​month quest, something that I thought was quite near impossible and hence abandoned. Having passed by this shabby little noodle shack multiple times, I finally tried it last weekend and what a pleasant surprise! I was almost mad at myself for not going there earlier. One caveat though, it is not those fancy date night kind of places so if you are looking for that, this is not the place. Yeah, so all the stars I gave were for the food.
The FOOD is the real winner. I ordered the «dry» noodle with gravy. It is served cold/​room temperature and it’s yes it is quite literally just noodle and gravy, no meat, no sides. But this is the real deal! It is a specialty from the central port city of Wuhan in China and is the kind of dish that my grandma (who is from the region) will make at home. My friend ordered the house noodle soup with lamb. I had a sip of the soup and it tasted almost as good as the ones I had in China, well it’s London and you can’t really ask for more than that. We also had the sliced pork belly with garlic sauce, a Sichuan cold plate and the stir-​fried mixed veggies, and they tasted just as I expected them to. By the end of the meal, I was a very happy girl. Hmn. I am already anticipating my next trip there.
On my way out, I did notice they have this other menu with the standard «westernized» Chinese food (think kung pao chicken, broccoli beef and egg rolls). If you want to try something authentic, ask for the other menu!

This little restaurant serving Northern Chinese food is packed with a lot of Asian customers — part of the reason why I stepped in. It seems they have 2 menus: Northern Chinese (little red menu), as well as your standard Chinese dishes, such as fried rice, beef fried noodles, singapore fried rice noodles (laminated yellow menu).
I’ve been here twice, and I would recommend sticking with the Northern Chinese dishes, as that’s their specialty. The first time, I had their lamb noodles which were quite good, though the soup was just lukewarm. I like my soup piping hot! The noodles were quite good, definitely thick and handmade.
The second time, I waited nearly 20 minutes to get my «dry» noodle dish. I Forget what its called, but thats how they described it to me. It was boiled noodles with soy sauce and other seasonings, and lukewarm lamb. This was just OK — i added a lot of chili oil sauce to the dish and mixed it up. I think they originally forgot about my order, so service is definitely not something you can expect at a restaurant like this. Also, there is tip added on, usually something like 50p on my noodles, so if you order more, I’m not sure what it would be.
Yes I’ll come back here to try other things, but I’ll bring more people. Other things on their menu that I’d like to try are their cold appy dishes, averaging around £5 — marinated cold pig ear, tofu shreds, sea bass… there are a lot of other interesting things that I’d like to try.

The surroundings are not very exciting, but the food is outstanding and more than compensates. The waiting staff were very friendly and helpful; particularly so to the (rare) non-​Chinese customers, like us, who needed guidance navigating the menu. The noodle dishes are particularly authentic and tasty and the value for money is superb. Highly recommended!

Fantastic Chinese and noodle place! Properly authentic without being challenging; exceptionally polite and helpful staff which is good because the menu is largely not in English. I have to go back again soon!

I think you may have made the mistake of ordering the wrong type of food. Like most Chinese restaurants, Changs offers dishes outside of their speciality. It is a restaurant that specialises in Henan and Szechuan cuisine. They have now translated their Northern Chinese dishes their cooking is very, very good and the value for money cannot be faulted.
Compared to the trendier Szechuan places near Chinatown, this place is better and better value.
Recommended: Henan lamb noodle soup (with knife cut noodles), dry green beans with pork (gan bien sze ji do), water mouth chicken and the steamed dumplings.

There are so many little non-​chainy food places around the British Museum/​Bloomsbury area that occasionally curiosity gets the better of you and you think, «Well, surely this place wouldn’t still be here if it were that bad?». So, feeling like a spot of Chinese food and keen to avoid the vegetarian-buffet-which-isn’t-comfortable-enough-being-vegetarian-to-refrain-from-mock-meat-dishes cliché, I spied the lunchtime offer at Chang’s Noodles on the small sandwich board out front: «soup + dish + rice = £4.90».
Being seated wasn’t a problem, as I was the only one in there. The atmosphere felt very much like eating in the front room of your granddad’s house. A perfunctory soup arrived, but I wasn’t expecting Ottolenghi for a fiver. For «dish» I had selected the crispy chilli beef, and what arrived seemed more like deep-​fried styrofoam twiglets drenched in a sauce made from sour regret.
I chalked it up in the Loss column and decided to leave & say no more about it. So I walked up to the register desk and handed over my fiver. The guy handed me my bill, with £5.40 written on the bottom in red.
«I thought the lunchtime deal was £4.90?»
«Well, 50p tip, isn’t it.»
So, new formula for the board out front: «bland food + disinterested service + misleading promotion = one-​star review from mrfrisky». It makes sense why the Pret next door was so popular.