Lan Zhou Handmade Noodle
“I know the food stall almost right across called Xian famous food is really famous because of all the food network people.”
“At first I was hesitant going inside the mall once I found it because it was mega crowded and small in a basement.”
“Throw some pickled veggies in your heaping hot bowl and of course some of that radioactive hot chili oil and you'll be ready to take on a snow storm.”
Lan Zhou Handmade Noodle
Take-out: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Price range.
$ Price range Under $10
8 reviews
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I remember the first time my friend took me here. I was repulsed by the overall appearance and location of the place, downstairs, tucked away along with some other small eats, in a shady looking basement underneath some shops in a tiny strip mall. I recall saying, "Bro, if I contract bird flu down here, I'm gonna kill you."
I remember sitting down in a rickety old chair amongst a group of people, and this woman comes up to us and asks what we're ordering. My friend says in Chinese, "2 bowls of daoxiaomian please!" At first, I was like.. daoxao? (knife-sliced) O_o Never heard of it. Then I see this brolic Chinese guy with a round piece of dough in his hand and using a sharp blade, actually, for lack of a better word, slice thin strips of dough into the pot of boiling water. Hmm…Interesting. There's also another variation, where they knead, twist and pull the noodles..but I've never tried that; I've always had the knife-sliced noodles.
A few mins later, 2 bowls of piping hot daoxiao noodles with slices of beef, were set in front of the 2 of us. I started eating..and holy sh!t.. It was love at first bite.. $5 for an amazing bowl of noodles and generous slices of tender beef.. Wow. I was so impressed with the food that I forgot how appalled I was at the appearance! Loll That was 2 years ago. Nowadays, I come here pretty much once a week for my fix..or whenever I'm in the Flushing area. Especially on a cold winter day, a nice hot bowl of beef noodles and soup is amazing.
Another stop in our food trip to Flushing for the day, we got the beef noodle soup and split it between the three of us. The hand pulled noodles were awesome to see right there, and they were delicious. The food court is nothing fancy and doesn't LOOK nice, but the food was great and worth it! The guy at the shop was also extremely nice.
Oh, add the chili oil to the noodles. It's in a metal tin on the tables and it added so much flavor. But it's very spicy so don't add too much!
Begin your culinary adventure to the Golden Shopping Mall and head down to the basement. Heads up, the stairs to the basement are located outside the mall; enter from the sidewalk.
At Lanzhou Handmade Noodle, you'll watch them pull, stretch, and pound out the noodles right in front of you! Then feast on some delicious dishes.
Listen: you can hear the loud smack of the noodles slamming against the wall! Warning: don't come here if you're going to be sketched out by health code violations.
We got the lamb noodle soup. The broth was very tasty. If I went back, I'd consider bringing my own spoon (or secretly scour one from another food stall..shh! don't tell) because theirs is too small and can't capture enough of the delicious broth.
Also, the meat was served on the bone, so it was difficult to eat and a bit messy. Make sure you have napkins handy!
The noodles were excellent! They were very springy and had the perfect amount of chew. You can definitely tell they are freshly made.
Let me tell you. The smell of Golden Mall hit my senses and I knew that it was on.
It was a freezing, rainy night and all I cared about was the fact that I was eating hot noodle soup in a dungy basement with people yelling at each other in Mandarin. I know this review is irrelevant because… Anthony Bourdain… so I don't feel bad that I couldn't tell you a damn thing about whether the food was good or not, because all I cared about was that it felt like home. I think that's all you need to know.
….oh, yeah. and, you guys, it is SO cheap. Houston prices in NYC? Yes please.
Great consistency of noodles. Tastes authentic and the price is absolutely amazing for a bow of lamb noodles. Very quick service, and its always cool to watch them make the noodles. They also have many noodle combinations to choose from. If you want sliced noodles which I requested, you have to make sure you let them know otherwise it is the standard noodles. Many people behind the counter as well, which is a plus. Their friendliness level was okay. Would recommend if you're visiting Flushing.
Came here for a quick late dinner, anything would've done the trick for my stomach, which has been growling crazily. This was better than I expected but was a bit pricey for the amount of noodles I got. I ordered the beef tendon pulled noodles. Upon paying she asked if I wanted a soy sauce marinated hard boiled egg or a fried egg. Thinking it came with the order, I said fried egg, then when I got the receipt it said noodles ($7.50) and fried egg (+$1). And the egg wasn't all that appetizing looking. The act of doing that was just not cool, could've just said an extra dollar and you get to pick your choice of egg. I still would've gotten one but this made me feel like I was cheated.
Anyways, there were a lot of beef tendons but they were all cut in thin small slices/pieces. A lot of cilantro and scallion over the little amount of noodles in that bowl of soup. It was a good snack in my opinion, but wasn't a dinner/meal. I went to get a bubble tea right after.
Definitely a one time thing, as there are plenty of other choices in that food court. Just going to try something else next time.
Not great.
I wasn't expecting greatness but I was expecting better.
I ordered the beef noodles. There are 3 variations of this and I chose the cheapest priced one just as a test eat. I should have went with braised beef or the beef stew.
The beef noodles ($5.00) is pretty much noodles in beef broth was hard blocks of beef. The kind of beef that you need to chew through like Italian bread. The noodles was the best part of the meal as is in their storefront name.
Good thing because if it didn't taste well, I would have definitely not returned.
The spiciness was light but can be adjusted by using their hot oil/ grounded chili pot that is next to the cashier/ order pick up side.
I will return to try their other beef options and if they don't wow, I probably woudn't not thrice the visit.
I had been looking for a new place to get Chinese noodle soup after finding a cigarette butt in the soup at my usual place in Manhattan, read my reviews of the Cottage.
After reading all the reviews on Yelp for Lan Zhou Handmade Noodle my wife an I decided to give it a try. We found the address easily enough and only after reading one of the Yelp reviews did we realize it was located in the basement through a separate entrance. We ventured down stairs into a maze of little stalls until we found Lan Zhou. I was happy to discover that their menu was in English, that they had an "A" rating from the board of health and the person taking the orders also spoke pretty good English. My wife ordered duck with noodles soup and I had the beef. We were told to take a stool at a long low stainless steel counter and a few minutes later our bowls of soup arrived.
Big steaming hot bowls of noodles in a delicious broth chock full of beef, bok choy, cilantro and of course those perfect handmade noodles. My wife told me her duck was perfect. I can't wait to go back to try some of the other things on the menu. I noticed that they also have a sushi bar and the sushi chef was also having a bowl of noodles for his lunch.
So if you find yourself on Main Street in Flushing's Chinatown go check out Lan Zhou for a tasty bowl of noodle soup.