Doodles Noodles, North Sydney (13th December 2011)
Less than 2 weeks till Christmas! :)
Work seems to have slowed down though I find myself spending my days writing up documentation to no end. I don't mind the writing (obviously, if I already spend my non-working hours blogging which itself is a form of writing) but with days getting closer the Christmas, it just seems that my system (and everyone else's in the office) is slowing down for the holiday season. One by one, people on our floor have 'disappeared' to go on their well-deserved year end holidays. I however, have to hold out till mid-January and work through the holiday period in order to be able to take time off when the rest of the Woolleys are here. Jono and I won't be heading back to NZ to celebrate Christmas in Palmy this year so we'll have to do the family celebrations when the rest turn up - looking forward to their arrival and our trip to Melbourne!
Taking a break from work, I headed over to Doodles Noodles, a small Chinese eatery located on the lower ground floor of 90 Mount Street. I discovered this place one day when I was heading back to the office from the gym - crowds tend to get my attention and I couldn't help but noticed a fully-seated restaurant with a small crowd standing at the entrance. Not well visible from street level, you would need to walk down the stairs to find this brightly lit (yellow-hued and 'glowing') restaurant. I was probably the first eat-in customer for lunch arriving around 11.45am and ordered myself their highly popular wonton noodle soup (cost $8.50 and paid on order) with my choice of egg noodles (they have 4 noodle types to choose from). With only one chef and one waitress-cashier (I suspect they are a husband-and-wife team originally from Hong Kong), they serve mostly cooked dishes on order but also have a smorgasbord of food to chose from. I have tried some of their other dishes such as the laksa which was passable but oh, don't bother ordering their Char Keow Teow (that was how they spelt Char Kway Teow aka stir-fried broad rice noodles) - I had it once and it was nothing like what I have ever had before, too oily and tinted yellow from curry powder. Since when did Char Kway Teow have curry powder in it??! Though my Char Kway Teow experience was not great, I do have to give the chef credit for attempting it. With over 25 cooked dishes on the menu, you can't expect the chef to be an expert in every dish.
"Wonton noodle soup ready!" yelled the lady behind the counter in an obvious Chinese accent and high-pitched voice that hurts the ears. Ah yes, that's something you'll have to deal with eating here. Friendly as she may be, the lady boss has this habit of yelling out the dishes so customer would promptly pick them up from the counter (and to stop her persistent yelling). I went to collect my meal and found a seat indoors at one of the bar tables. Perhaps a business strategy for not keeping customers lingering around long after they have finished their meals so they can seat more incoming customers, these high chairs and bar tables are highly uncomfortable, especially for short-legged me :/
With a side serving of cut chillies in soy sauce and a few sprinkles of ground white pepper on my soup, lunch was ready! I can't say this is the best wonton noodle soup I've had but it's good enough for me - this is where I would go when I crave this dish. And they are pretty generous with the wontons too with a whole prawn in each of them (most places just mix bits of prawn into the mince pork filling).
Work seems to have slowed down though I find myself spending my days writing up documentation to no end. I don't mind the writing (obviously, if I already spend my non-working hours blogging which itself is a form of writing) but with days getting closer the Christmas, it just seems that my system (and everyone else's in the office) is slowing down for the holiday season. One by one, people on our floor have 'disappeared' to go on their well-deserved year end holidays. I however, have to hold out till mid-January and work through the holiday period in order to be able to take time off when the rest of the Woolleys are here. Jono and I won't be heading back to NZ to celebrate Christmas in Palmy this year so we'll have to do the family celebrations when the rest turn up - looking forward to their arrival and our trip to Melbourne!
Taking a break from work, I headed over to Doodles Noodles, a small Chinese eatery located on the lower ground floor of 90 Mount Street. I discovered this place one day when I was heading back to the office from the gym - crowds tend to get my attention and I couldn't help but noticed a fully-seated restaurant with a small crowd standing at the entrance. Not well visible from street level, you would need to walk down the stairs to find this brightly lit (yellow-hued and 'glowing') restaurant. I was probably the first eat-in customer for lunch arriving around 11.45am and ordered myself their highly popular wonton noodle soup (cost $8.50 and paid on order) with my choice of egg noodles (they have 4 noodle types to choose from). With only one chef and one waitress-cashier (I suspect they are a husband-and-wife team originally from Hong Kong), they serve mostly cooked dishes on order but also have a smorgasbord of food to chose from. I have tried some of their other dishes such as the laksa which was passable but oh, don't bother ordering their Char Keow Teow (that was how they spelt Char Kway Teow aka stir-fried broad rice noodles) - I had it once and it was nothing like what I have ever had before, too oily and tinted yellow from curry powder. Since when did Char Kway Teow have curry powder in it??! Though my Char Kway Teow experience was not great, I do have to give the chef credit for attempting it. With over 25 cooked dishes on the menu, you can't expect the chef to be an expert in every dish.
"Wonton noodle soup ready!" yelled the lady behind the counter in an obvious Chinese accent and high-pitched voice that hurts the ears. Ah yes, that's something you'll have to deal with eating here. Friendly as she may be, the lady boss has this habit of yelling out the dishes so customer would promptly pick them up from the counter (and to stop her persistent yelling). I went to collect my meal and found a seat indoors at one of the bar tables. Perhaps a business strategy for not keeping customers lingering around long after they have finished their meals so they can seat more incoming customers, these high chairs and bar tables are highly uncomfortable, especially for short-legged me :/
With a side serving of cut chillies in soy sauce and a few sprinkles of ground white pepper on my soup, lunch was ready! I can't say this is the best wonton noodle soup I've had but it's good enough for me - this is where I would go when I crave this dish. And they are pretty generous with the wontons too with a whole prawn in each of them (most places just mix bits of prawn into the mince pork filling).
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| Doodles Noodles restaurant on Mount St (somehow all the Ds have been ripped off...) |
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| View of the counter and smorgasbord from my seat (and the huge Fortune Cat beckoning 'give me your money') |
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| Wonton noodle soup ($8.50) |
have you been back to try anything else. i've been recommended to try their laksa
ReplyDeleteI've had the laksa before, it's pretty average. Malacca Straits and May's Laksa House serve more authentic laksa. Don't bother with the char kuey tiaw - I didn't get why they put curry powder in it which it not what the dish is supposed to be. One thing I'm keen to try but still haven't got around is their chicken and salted fish fried rice - seen a couple of Asians order this whenever I'm there so probably quite good.
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