Lan Noodle

Thick round or thin round? Wide flat? Triangle? These are some of the many shapes to choose from at Lan Noodle, a casual Chinese noodle shop in a Weho shopping complex. This Lanzhou-style restaurant—originally from the SGV—is a bubble of peace at the not-so-peaceful corner of Santa Monica and La Brea, a place where you can slurp hand-pulled noodles with a good podcast in your ear.

LAN has a long menu of soups and stir-fries, but we gravitate toward the signature beef noodle soup. The broth is just salty enough, and you get wafts of star anise and scallion each time the AC blows soup fumes at you. The thinly sliced beef is so light it floats at the surface, so we like to even things out by picking a heftier noodle, like the wide flat ones. They’re dense, chewy, and taste like toasted flour (which we assume means they’re fresh?). You might notice the constant barrage of takeout orders at the counter, but we like coming to Lan for a sit-down meal as the food comes out hot and fast. Take a seat, zone out over some noodles, and off you go.