Oodle Noodle — Restaurant in Clareview

Was craving some Asian food and had never tried this place before. First thing that bothered me was they have no menu that you can't sit down and peruse, you are relegated to having to stand up and look at the menu on the wall. When I was there a couple was sitting right beside this sign and I was forced to stand next to them, squint at sign way up on the wall and decide what I was going to eat. Very bad planning on Oodle Noodles part in my opinion, why not a normal menu I have no idea. There were 3 people that had ordered prior to me, and I assumed it wouldn't take long for me to get my order, wrong I ended up waiting a good 20 minutes for them to prepare my order. It's obvious that the traditional Asian cooking process that's part of the draw to this place. For those that haven't been here, there's a row of woks lined up with high powered gas burners allotted to each one. Very impressive, and who doesn't enjoy watching an Asian cook prepare your food in the traditional Asian fashion? The thing is it took an inordinately long time to cook each order, when using such high heat each order should be done in a very short time, I know this as I've cooked Asian food numerous times for many years and the more heat you have at your disposal the quicker it is. Not here, the "cook" had that pan smoking and the fire must have been at times shooting 3 feet past the wok itself but quick it was not, lots of flipping and tossing but he just kept on going. Since the ingredients were already pre- mixed and the beef was being deep fried separately, (ginger beef and rice) this was taking forever for him to cook. As mentioned I had ordered Ginger beef, but since I was hungry I also added Spring Rolls as well. Total for order was $24.77 I overlooked the price as I was famished. When I finally received my order the first thing I noticed was I was given the wrong Spring Rolls, I ordered vegetable rolls but got Pork instead. I personally don't eat pork at all so I was not impressed. I made one of the staff aware of this and he proceeded to cook another batch. I dug into the Ginger beef and was totally unimpressed, beef was tough and chewy (not tenderized and little taste) and the rice was burnt and clumped together. Proper technique is to cook on high heat but constantly have the ingredients moving and rice being separated by utilizing ladle to push down and separate. Not here, just high heat and a little tossing and voila. Very unimpressed and have made way better at home. Finally got my veggie spring rolls and they tasted horrible, like the oil was rancid or something. Asked for money back on rolls and paid for the Ginger Beef, totally unimpressed and will never come to another Oodle...

The only thing good about the 137th location is the young man on the phone mediating for his uncle. I got skip the dishes, a combo and a laksa. I didn't complain when I saw two shrimp in my meal, I didnt complain when the only veggies I saw were carrots and onions and one lonely brocolli floret, I didn't complain when my noodles seemed a bit overcooked but edible... But when my chicken was so chewy I couldn't bite through it and had to swallow it whole I decided to inform the proprietor of the error in using microwaves to heat things. When I attempted to describe my order and that the chicken was chewy to the older gentleman he proceeded to pretend he couldn't understand me and passed the phone to his nephew. The poor kid had to sit there and mediate the conversation as he proceeded to audibly denounce any responsibility, saying "what can i do that's how it comes". The nephew then asked what he should say and got told I can come in in person and get 25% off my next meal. A total of $28.50 something for the meal after skip the dishes and a tip... And this guy wants me to come in and personally order another subpar meal in order to get the value of my current meal back??? I politely told the young man on the phone I do not need to leave a name to come in at a later date and to have a good evening. Will not be returning. Would...

I haven't had Oddle Noodle in probably a little over one year. I am a Celiac and I have only really one option, the Pad Thai as I don't care for curry. Today's meal had a weird flavour to it, almost as if I took a deep breath with my mouth open while I applied perfume. So started to try and pinpoint the odd flavoured ingredient(s) and that is when I noticed the chicken pieces were perfectly and uniformly sliced and looked stringy. They reminded me of the turkey dinners from decades ago. Then I tasted a slice of this chicken product and yup that was the weird tasting stuff. It was dry and yet slimy at the smar time and stringy. I don't remember this being the case tje last time I visited I remember chunks of chicken that looked like they were freshly prepped. Look at my photo taken tonight vs the one I just downloaded from their website....