LDNReview
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
Noodle & Beer
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Noodle & Beer in Spitalfields, like Happy Nightmares (a wryly named bed shop in Bethnal Green) and Vapey Cakes (an inexplicable bubble tea and vape café in Surrey Quays), is one of London’s many excellently titled businesses. The appeal of this Chongqing noodle and Sichuan restaurant isn’t limited to the irresistible combination of its name though. No, it’s strongest appeal comes in all shapes and sizes: crinkle-cut chips, deep bowls of handmade noodles and broth, and perfectly spherical red bean-filled taro balls.
Location-wise, the space, in the quiet respite off Spitalfields Market, makes for an excellent low-key lunch or dinner. And you can just as easily swing by here for a solitary bowl of noodle soup as you can for a multi-plate, many-stomachs extravaganza. But know the menu at Noodle & Beer is an annoying one. In that you’ll want to order and eat almost everything off of it, and yet you only have one measly stomach to try and fit it all into. This will likely lead to over-ordering. You’ll go small plates, like the fat and chewy tian-shui mian with a side of choo-shou, and then you’ll go noodles, maybe niu-rou mian, and then you’ll also be unable to resist a bowl of tangy gong-bao ji ding, for the table.
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
Of all the many excellent combinations at Noodle & Beer, it’s the lang-ya tu dou and our mouths that we like best. What can we say? There’s just something about a plate of handmade crinkle-cut and wok-fried chips bathing in Sichuan chilli oil that greedy snapping chopsticks and our gaping gob really get on with. In fact a majority of the small plates here have that insatiable group deliciousness that makes you think that you could, in theory, keep eating a piece or two of crispy su-rou with a plump choo-shou chaser for the rest of time. This thought would of course come while eyeing up another round of fat udon in a sweet sesame sauce. But not before you pinch one more chip en route.
Food Rundown
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
Tian-Shui Mian
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
Niu-Rou Mian
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
Lang-Ya Tu Dou
Choo-Shou
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli
Gong-Bao Ji Ding
photo credit: Giulia Verdinelli