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I don’t know how they can call themselves “Number 1” when they had the worst bowl of beef noodles I’ve ever had. Even when I lived in Calgary, a city where they don’t offer nearly as much satisfying authentic Asian food, had better beef noodles.

We would have been better off cooking our own beef noodles at home, and that’s saying something because none of us know how to make it. Our visit to No 1 Beef Noodle House was really disappointing, from the service, to wait times and noodles. I can’t think of a single redeeming quality of this “restaurant”. Let’s start with the review…

When the four of us got inside, we were quickly seated. They gave us tea and it took longer than usual to flag down a server for hot water instead. When we were all ready to order, again, it took us awhile to find service. Keep in mind that the restaurant was not that busy, it was probably 3/4 full.

My friend’s chicken nuggets and rice dish came first (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture, sad face). He thought that the dish was okay, it came with a few other sides too. If we ever came again, I would order that instead.
Standard beef brisket with wide noodle: When we were ordering, the server was asking us which noodles we wanted and I asked for the wide ones, like at Wang’s or Chef Hungs.

The bowl of noodles were really disappointing. The “chopped” noodles were gross extremely soggy. The soup was really bland and had no taste to it. They also give you thinner slices of beef brisket than other restaurants (More on the beef brisket below..). The portion here was also smaller than usual, so I wasn’t particularly full or satisfied.

Oh wait! It gets worse! Initially, when the two of us got our noodles & fried chicken dish, we were waiting for the other two to get their dishes before we started eating. So, we waited… and waited.. 20 minutes came by, my friend and the boyfriend still didn’t their noodles.

They ordered the same thing as me, except with different noodles so we weren’t sure why it was taking them so long. After waiting for a long time, my friend finally decided to ask a server about their food. Of course, it took her another 5 minutes to actually wave down a server. At this point, everyone was pretty hungry and getting frustrated at the restaurant.
Spicy beef brisket with noodles: After waiting another 30 minutes for the rest of us to get our food, it finally came! I don’t understand why theirs took so long when it was similar to mine, and it wasn’t even that busy. I didn’t take a picture of my friend’s because it looked the same.

With his first bite, he didn’t taste any “spicy” soup even though his bowl cost $1.50 more. He told me to try it, and I didn’t taste any spiciness at all. Soup was bland, just like mine. Luckily, we had a side of chili paste so he ended up dumping the whole thing inside to salvage it. Of course, it gets worse, again!
This piece of brisket in the boyfriend’s and my friend’s was so hard that it was impossible to chew. They both tried to eat it but gave up after awhile because it wasn’t worth it.

Of course, finding a server was hard and when we told her that we wanted to split the bill, they didn’t understand what we meant.

No 1 Beef Noodle House was disappointing in terms of their food, service, and overall experience. After reading the reviews on Urbanspoon, I noticed that people had the same experience as us. When you read the reviews from oldest to newest, they slowly get worse and worse.

-Carmen

Hi everyone,

I used to frequent this restaurant at least once a week, but I’ve stopped coming here for awhile since I’m not in the neighbourhood anymore. Over the past three years, I’ve developed a love for Taiwanese food and Wang’s does not cease to curb my cravings.

Their Taiwanese beef noodles are well-perfected and authentic, perfect for those rainy Vancouver evenings. Although they offer more than just beef noodles, the noodles (thick type, you can choose from thick/thin/vermicelli/rice noodle) are undoubtedly the star of Wang’s.

The other dishes I have tried here do not match up to the deliciousness of their noodle soup. Also, their service is agreeably quite slow even when the restaurant isn’t busy. I would recommend getting a table right by the cash counter or you will be hard pressed to get any service, from what I’ve experienced. They have a small parking section in the back which fits two cars, but there is plenty of meter parking on Cambie street. Let’s start with the food now!
We started off with Taiwanese salty and peppery chicken nuggets ($4-$6). Taiwanese nuggets are different than nuggets you’d get elsewhere! They have a distinct flavour and seasoning that my friend and I tried duplicating (and kind of failed because we didn’t have an industry deep fryer) that consists of potato starch, Taiwanese 5 spice powder, rice wine, and other ingredients.

The batter of Taiwanese nuggets is pretty light compared to regular nuggets, but it’s also really crunchy when cooked well. The batter at Wang’s is cooked and seasoned perfectly. I enjoyed these nuggets but I found that roughly 1/4 of the nuggets were not meat. Normally, I only eat actual meat as opposed to the fatty parts, tendons, and skin so that set me off. Some places also include basil so that would have been nice, but nothing too big of a deal! =)
This was the minced pork sauce with noodle (small – $6 large – $7). We didn’t know that it came with such a hefty amount of vegetables since the menu didn’t specify! It also did not come with any soup which we expected, only the remaining meat sauce juice that sunk to the bottom of the noodles.

The meat sauce was well flavoured, not too salty, which made up for the lack of soup. As for the thin noodles, it was well cooked. Overall, my friend enjoyed this dish although they wished it came with less canned vegetables and soup.
The star of the show! My mouth is watering from reading this post …. #foodblogger problems #foodieproblems :(. This is the beef brisket noodle with thick noodle. There were four of us, and three of us ordered this dish! I am a really big fan of their noodles. It’s soft and chewy, which is very comforting and satisfying.

Since the texture of the noodle itself isn’t that smooth, soup seeps into the curves of the noodles so you really get a taste of the soup with every bite you take. I really like the texture of the noodle, it’s comparable to the in-store, hand-made ones at Chef Hung’s in Richmond (My other favourite Taiwanese joint).

The brisket is also very, very tender and soft, although some pieces are pretty fatty. The cherry on top of this delicious bowl are the fresh parsley and onion. Not only is it aesthetically pleasing, it makes the dish taste a lot more fresh. The soup itself is a bit flavourful, my cousin said that there was a hint of spiciness to it which I didn’t taste.

We asked what the difference was between the rice noodle and vermicelli, but our server couldn’t tell us because she didn’t speak much English. If you’re a picky customer and want perfect and customized service, good luck! They also serve your water/tea in very small cups, and since the soup is salty, you’ll run out pretty fast which is unfortunate since their service is slow.

Thanks for reading!
-Carmen