San Antonio | Hidden Gem Chinese Eatery | Shifu Noodle

It's time for another workday food adventure! Today we visited this authentic Chinese spot near the office. Last year, a friend celebrated their birthday here with a special off-menu feast — and it was absolutely incredible! 🎉🍜 Almost all the dishes were "secret" creations, each one amazingly delicious. If you want to try something similar, you might want to reach out to the owner in advance. Today, we tried some regular menu items, and they were also tasty! Here’s what we ordered: ✨ Dan Dan Noodles – Made with sesame paste, pickled mustard greens, crushed peanuts, scallions, chili, and minced pork. Really flavorful but quite spicy! 🔥 If you can't handle heat, better skip this one. ✨ Stir-Fried Noodles – A bit on the bland side, using the same type of flat, slightly wider noodles as the dan dan noodles. ✨ Dry-Fried String Beans – Pretty good! Lightly cooked, so they stayed crisp, with a mild and not-too-salty seasoning. My colleague’s favorite dish — she ordered it especially for us to try! 😋 ✨ Yu Xiang Rou Si (Fish-Fragrant Shredded Pork) – Decent but not outstanding. The portion wasn’t huge, and it leaned sweet and sour rather than spicy — kind of Americanized, but still went well with rice. ✨ Spring Rolls – Fried nice and crispy, but they’re vegetarian with fillings like cabbage and carrots 🥕. Check the photo if you’re curious — unless you really love American-Chinese food, I wouldn’t recommend them. I don’t often share authentic Chinese meals with non-Chinese friends here, since Chinese dining is usually about sharing several dishes family-style, while many American friends prefer individual plates. So today… I ended up eating almost the entire plate of Yu Xiang Rou Si by myself 😅. The string beans and spring rolls were treated more like appetizers, so those were shared. After the meal, we wanted to grab boba at Yuan Tea, but it was closed. A coworker said it wasn’t open last Monday either. There was a note on the door saying “back on the 26th,” but it’s already the 28th and still closed 🚪. Next time, maybe! Instead, we tried a sweet Mexican-style drink 🇲🇽 — all these places are in the same shopping center, so you can easily do a food + drink combo in one trip! 📝 Update: Just to clarify — the birthday menu isn’t like a Starbucks secret menu. It’s a customized dining experience that needs to be arranged in advance with the owner and chef 🧑🍳. You can’t just walk in and order it. Only the regular menu items are available daily. 📍 Shifu Noodle 3850 S New Braunfels Ave #109, San Antonio, TX 78223 #LocalFoodFavorites #SanAntonioChineseFood #SanAntonioEats #SanAntonio