Your Highness met the King - Noodle King

Note: This place is shutdown. So this review will not help you.

Outlet: Pallavaram

Address: 101, GST Road, Pallavaram, Chennai (Walkable from Pallavaram Bus Stand)

Cuisine: Chinese

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

Dishes to Taste: Honey Chilli Cauliflower, Fried Ice Cream, Dim Sums

Indians have started quoting themselves to be masters in Chinese food as fried rice and noodles have become the staple food in every corner of Chennai. You can find them priced from 10’s to 100’s in Indian Rupees. And Noodle King is yet another fine dining venture to serve Chinese food. With all the Chinese cooking at home I really couldn't find reason to dine at a place that serves fried rice or noodle. I was invited for ‘on-the-house’ lunch by Noodle King. A bunch of us were invited for the food tasting at Noodle King, Pallavaram.

Noodle King - Pallavaram

Located at Pallavaram, a whole different planet from where I reside did put me at dilemma to visit the place. My commitment towards food was the only reason I ended up reaching the place. From the Pallavaram railway station, it would take you 15-20 mins of walk. It is pretty tough to find the place at the first go and the Zomato maps would give you hard time (hope Zomato fixes the map); google maps might come handy.  From Pallavaram bus stop walk towards Tirusulam station, you can spot the Noodle King hoarding (focus is a virtue to find the place). Being an invitee of Noodle King, I really couldn’t comment on the Service and Pricing. 

Noodle King - Pallavaram

The ambience looked ‘Ok’ nothing to ‘wow’ but maintained well. Coming to the food, we were served with a predefined menu of both veg & non-veg dishes. Being a weird vegetarian, I just taste non-veg dishes to know the flavour. And here’s my take on each dish:

Cooler

Lemon Mint Cooler: It’s always chocolate for me and I never dare to order anything with Mint for drink. But the soaring sun and hectic hunt for the resto made the drink taste ‘Awesome’. The cooler was good with all the elements mixed in right balance and wasn’t overpowering.

Exotic Vegetable Dim Sum: I am not a huge fan of Dim Sum until they are provided with some spicy sauce. The vegetable dumplings tasted good with the tangy garlic sauce; while eating I presumed the filling to be just cabbage and carrot until I grabbed a second look at the menu. The balance in proportion of all the veggies could be improved. Couldn't really taste the broccoli. 

Sauces for Dim Sum

And the counterpart ‘Fortune Chicken Suimai’ looked great and the non-vegetarians enjoyed them.

Fortune Chicken Suimai

Exotic Vegetable Dim Sum

Honey Chilli Cauliflower

Honey Chilli Cauliflower: They were the show-stopper. For cauliflower fan (that’s me), it was more than a delight. The spice of the chilli and sweetness of the honey blended well with those tiny crispy cauliflowers. The plates were swiped off soon and rounds continued.

Mushroom Soup

Mushroom Soup: Mushroom isn’t my forte and neither is soup. But pushing away the mushrooms, the soup tasted average. The soup needed a lavish throw of pepper to get some punch.

Stir Fried Exotic Vegetable: I haven’t yet found the real difference between Salad and Stir fried veggies. Yes, they were sautéed with some sauces / spices but that wasn’t enough to make the difference. Hope there were more flavour added to the dish as a whole. I would never prefer these as a Main Course. I just liked the Broccoli as it was Cauliflower family.

Cottage Cheese in Malak Sauce: This dish was a complete let-down. The Cottage Cheese (Paneer) was rubbery, due to too-much cooking. The Malak sauce and paneer weren’t an ideal couple. Might be Potato or Cauliflower would have been a better option.

Cottage Cheese - Malak Sauce

Corn Spinach Mushroom Rice

Corn, Spinach and Mushroom Fried Rice: This was spot-on. Though I alienated the mushrooms, the flavour of the rice with corn and spinach was YUM to taste. I hate to taste fried rice without some sides, whereas the solo-performance by the rice impressed me well-enough to taste them alone.

Char Kway Teow - Vegetable: The flat noodles was a new dish to my palate. Though the Chef explained that the noodle was cooked with soya and chilli black bean and acquires a kind of blunt taste, I was not compromised. The dish definitely needed some flavour, besides the noodle even the taste was flat. Hope, they figure out a way to make the noodle taste better.

 

Flat Noodles

Chicken Rice, Chicken & Fish Sides

Kwai lam Fish, Pao Chicken, Pan Fried Noodle & Hunan Fried Rice Chicken: These non-veg delicacies weren’t on my plate. But I made sure to taste the sauce and the cook on the meat/fish so I could give in suggestions. Both the fish and chicken dishes were cooked to near perfection; the sauces made a good pair to the fish and chicken. The pan fried noodle along with chicken and prawn tasted delicious; though I only tasted the noodle, the sauce and noodle taste was bang-on! Besides the menu card, I couldn’t find the flavour of schezwan pepper anywhere in the fried rice; it lacked the chilli's kick and Chinese flavour.

 

Pan Fried Noodles

Fried Ice Cream: Anything Sweet and I would go along well. After trying these at Benjarong, I have been a fan of the dish. The tiny crispy rounds would bring so much of happiness. I loved the ice-cream consistency (neither rock solid nor liquid) with the crispy honey-coconut dusted granules.

 

Fried Ice Cream

As said, I really couldn’t complain much about Service and Pricing. But I felt the serving of dishes took time when we started asking for a second round. That made me wonder in two ways (a) weren't they really prepared for the service (b) guess they are cooking the food to order. Neither way without good company, the pace of serving would seem slow. The effort on presenting the dishes with so much care about the detailing’s on the plate were great.

Breaking Down Points

Location & Parking (3/5): Average. Not a likely place for me to visit considering the distance I should travel. But would be a positive thing for residents of Pallavaram. Sufficient parking space.

Ambience (3.5/5): Good. Isn’t unique but holds the Indo-Chinese look with Bollywood’s BGM ringing through the ears.

Food Variety (3.5/5): Positive. With fixed menu for tasting, it sounded good. But I felt the need for more vegetarian dishes. With a quick look at their menu card, they do serve some ample variety of food.

Taste (3.5/5): Good. The taste of the dishes were either ‘Bang-on’ or ‘let-down’. With consistency and right balance in the type of meat/veggie used for rice and sauce the food would taste much better. 

Quality (3.5/5): Positive. It was definitely a big positive. There was no compromise in the quality of the food served.

Quantity, Pricing & Service: Should drop-by sometime to really comment on these. As far as the service experience goes I would say ‘Good’. By scanning the price at menu card, the quantity and price were decent.

As far as the love for Chinese food continues they could conquer swimming in the high tide. Location would be the biggest enemy for anyone away from Pallavaram. More vibrancy in food’s flavour would bring on more fans. With some killer dishes, it seems like a Value for Money meal.