Noodle’s Invitation(嘉陵江畔重庆小面） — Restaurant in Ottawa

I have ordered from this place 3 times now and I can confidently say that it is the best, most authentic Chinese noodle place in Ottawa. Fresh ingredients, super friendly service, reasonable price. A lot of things are made from scratch and I can tell the lady takes pride in her food.

Re: Fresh ingredients When I went in August, the lady told me she had made a fresh batch of 扁豆焖面 (biandou menmian - braised noodles with flat beans) from the beans she had just harvested from her patch of community garden behind the building! This was the first time I encountered a farm-to-table Chinese takeout… and farm-to-table that’s not $$$$ in North America. It was delicious and I almost cried because it was so fresh and so homey. Meat was tender and well-braised too. This item is not on the English menu but I highly recommend it (show the lady this review and point to the characters above). The next time I ordered, it wasn’t fresh off the plant anymore but it was still delicious.

Re: Taking pride in her food Today she didn’t want to give me 豆腐脑 (doufunao - literally “tofu brains” lol but means super silky tofu pudding) because she made it yesterday. “It’s not super fresh,” she said. I was like “it’s just one day, it’s OK, give it to me.” They don’t always have it so I had to seize the opportunity. I crave it all the time and can’t find it in Ottawa. It was so good.

She also makes 凉粉 (liangfen - mung bean curds) from scratch, which is kind of amazing, because it takes hours. Today was my lucky day because she had just made a fresh batch. It was so good. Usually you have to pre-order.

If you want the latest menu, download WeChat and ask them for the QR code.

They used to have one table for dining in but since the pandemic, it’s just a window; takeout and delivery only.

10/10 would highly recommend this takeout place...

Absolutely amazing. Fair warning, the restaurant is take-out mostly with 12 seats for those wanting to dine in or wait for their takeout order and parking is shared with the other residents of the industrial park. With that being said, Holy Honolulu! The food was absolutely amazing! We had the braised beef with noodle soup, the DanDan noodles with ground pork, and the Dumplings with sweet soya sauce. Each dish was perfect. The dumplings were big, juicy, and took on the sauce flavours perfectly. Our server/The owner asked us both what heat level we wanted and we went with the medium and mild. The braised beef was fall apart delicious and along with the noodles soaking in its deep red oily, spicy, peppery, soup. So good! This was the first time my dining partner ever had DanDan noodles and their description was:Pure comfort food, perfect mouth feel, rich flavour and not too spicy & perfect spice level,(they asked for medium heat and were not disappointed). I did not get offered a spoon, but they were right behind me on the counter, and I would not call that a major detractor considering how delicious the food was, and to be completely honest, if I had any room left to eat more. I would have held the bowl with two hand and drank it down with greedy gusto. There are a lot of items I would say aren’t on your typical Ottawa menu, Braised pork intestines with soup, and Pickled peppers with chicken giblets & noodles soup, but I am eager to return to sample both of them and the other items the menu has to offer. Great meal. Highly...

Nothing to rave about. Walked in, no greeting. Staff was more interested in talking to one another. Sat ourselves to a table to find out it was not cleaned. Menu was confusing. Items that were available in one menu but was not available on another menu provided. Menus were different from one another. Never asked if we wanted drinks. Had to ask but only gave us 1 half glass of water to share between the two. We gave up and went and got a second water ourselves. If it was self serve they did not mention it. Food was OK, nothing special. We ordered two mild noodle soups. It was so so. Noodles were chewy and ok. Way to much chili oil in one noodle soup. Was lacking flavour other than only tasting chili oil and salt. We find there are more noodles than toppings. Not many options left on the menu because a lot were scratched out or just not available after ordering. Don't think we will go...