Warming Rice Noodle — Restaurant in District of Canberra Central

This is a newly-opened noodle place on the ground floor of an apartment complex opposite the Canberra centre. The decor is fairly bright with shades of bright red and white. The seating feels a bit cramped when the restaurant is filled.

We visited during the soft-opening, with restricted menu. Whatever that's on offer, when we eventually got the order, were tasty.

Being new, there were a few teething problems. When it came to our turn to order at the counter, we ordered and paid. The second AFTER we tapped our card to pay, the staff informed us "we apologise that there will be a 30-minute wait, but we will try to serve your order as soon as possible". The staff was polite, but we would have appreciated it if this information came BEFORE we ordered and paid so we could consider whether we would like to wait for 30 minutes. Seeing there was a long queue behind us and not wishing to hold up the busy and cramped space with refunds, we decided to sit down and wait. It was close to an hour before we were served.

During the time that we waited aimlessly and hungry, we could see the kitchen was tiny, probably fitting just one or two persons comfortably with all the counter space, cooking equipment, and shopping bags of items crammed into the space, and required much more dexterity when more staff were trying to churn out the orders. The ordering/cashier counter was set up just off of the kitchen entry/exit, so the queue of patrons waiting to order at the counter and the flow of orders being delivered were...

The dining experience was DISAPPOINTING compared to what I expected. The snail noodle soup I had at the restaurant was not visually appealing, as it was oily and served in a small, flimsy plastic bowl that could easily spill. It is similar in taste to the packaged snail noodles you can easily buy from the supermarket, and with tiny pieces of additional meat.

I was so disappointed from having the feeling like someone cooked the packaged food for you, after seeing the fantastic advertisement.

I've also been told that I could not order many of the dishes I was expecting, because they don't have them. They've just opened on that day. It means they were not properly prepared or did not have the necessary ingredients on hand.

Another thing that disappoints me is that the owner's response to the customer's review was inappropriate and unprofessional. The customer had complained about the restaurant not providing tap water, and the owner replied, 'we never object customer bringing their own drinks'.

It sounds like they're saying it was the customer's responsibility to bring their own drinks. Doesn't that sounds funny and ridiculous? As a customer they gave respect by not bringing in food and drinks from other restaurants but the owner’s reply is just disrespectful.

Customers should be able to expect basic amenities like tap water to be available. Additionally, this shows that the owner does not interested in taking customer feedback into...

Great to see regional mainland food in Canberra vs the usual Chinese (aka Cantonese) food. Probably the better franchise vs the others. Serving size is good, albeit lot more noodles so if you’re not a fan of carbs, take note. The rice cake was chewy and indulging. I loved the rice noodles, it was heavy with oil and flavouring but else relatively strong flavour profile is consistent to what you expect from regional mainland food.

I think the only miss of a star is the fact that it’s not so tidy (chairs all over the place not tucked in well, lack of tidiness on the cutlery, some tables had some others did not - also the left over cutlery were dirty, it’s got oil slick).

The other point to mention is the smell of preserved bamboo overpowering as you enter the restaurant and acquired odour. But the smell is due to the amount of the snail noodles they sell which must mean it’s very likely it’s authentic. I didn’t try it though,...