Magic Noodle - Woodside Mall — Restaurant in Toronto

Date visited : Wednesday April 20, 2022 Overall Rating for experience : 3.5/5

Comments : First time dining at the Woodside location. Friendly staff.

Service : 4/5 Good & fast service, we came around 8pm on Wed for our order. Place was relatively clean.

Food : 3.5/5 During this visit we order the Triple B noodle soup with Classic style noodles and the Magic Chicken noodle soup with Ribbon style noodles. Along with skewered Tofu Manch and Sizzling tentacles. I would like to make those aware, the product images are more accurate to presentation on their website vs the dine-in menu. Dine in menu product shots don't look close to what you are presented with. With an exception to the Signature Soup noodles perhaps. The product shots on the website match the dine-in menu. I ordered the Magic Chicken for myself and the breaded chicken thigh came on the side not as presented on the product shot. Along with the Tofu being drenched in hoisin sauce, the hoisin sauce was overpowering. Would have preferred the hoisin on the side as a dip. As for the Sizzling tentacles, for near $3.00 CAD, sorry this isn't worth the money you only get 1 piece on the skewer, my wife and I enjoy squid, and this was a disappointment for us. I enjoyed the Magic Chicken broth with the Ribbon type noodles, very filling. Wish there was more protein, but I digress, I think the noodles are meant to the the star of the show at this resto and the rest are supporting cast. Wifey enjoyed the Triple Beef w/Classic noodles. However, for both of us tho, we were unable to finish the broth of our soups. After we consumed the noodles and the other ingredients in our respective bowls, the remaining broth was too salty for our tastes.

NOTE : for those that are managing GOUT. There are not as many Gout friendly options to choose from on the menu. Lots of beef, some pork, lamb and there is also Innards. Also be careful with the Savory Wonton noodle soup, the wontons have pork. Not as many Chicken options that I would like to see.

Drinks : Pitcher of water with a 2nd pitcher requested.

Portion Size Value for Money Spent : 3.5/5 Portion size for the noodle soups we ordered was fine for the price of $11.99 each. However the Sizzling tentacles we were underwhelmed with what we received for $2.89 CAD the skewered tofu with 4 pieces was fair for $2.89.

Worth a repeat visit : Most definitely. Due to not that many good fresh hand pulled noodle spots around where we live within 10-15 min drive from our home. This is closer to us than the location in Milliken, north of Finch...

My ex wife makes fun of me and my choices for Chinese cuisine (being that she’s native of China) because Magic Noodle is always in my favourite list of places. In my rotation of restaurants I frequent there is room for magic noodle because it’s like comfort food for me. Simple, yummy and affordable. I like magic noodle, so why am I giving them 1 star?

At the end of my meal I politely asked for a container to take the rest of my soup home. You see, my daughter (a toddler who doesn’t eat much) and I were sharing the food. The waitress surprised me with a notice that there was a $0.25 surcharge per container!

I included a screenshot of the order (not the final bill) for reference.

Now now, let’s be rational. Twenty five cents is not the end of the world BUT this surcharge offended me deeply because of the implications of it. I’m sure we all do it, we order more than we can eat so that we can take some food home right? Well this tariff on taking home leftovers insulted my sense of logic and reason because the owner is going to go out of business if he doesn’t understand how his customers use his/her business.

Refer to my bill, I was just going to order the soup BUT ordered the Beijing wrap thinking that I would take home whatever we don’t finish. That’s an extra $6 to the bill. Matter of fact notice how I even ordered the soy milk with dates because I was considerate that my order was “small” since I know how much my daughter eats and I was not very hungry.

I don’t want to write a whole economic dissertation but business people reading this will understand. It’s way better to increase your soup price by 25 cents than to tariff and modify the eating habits of your customers. The entire Toronto food culture is a food culture of take home leftovers!

The service was nonexistent. I had to get up off my seat to go and grab napkins because the waitress was absent or simply not focused. To me service is important part of the atmosphere so there goes...

Heard of this restaurant for years, but finally got a chance to try. Unfortunately, quite a disappointment. Good things first: easy to order online. I can order online directly from the restaurant without using any food delivery app (which might add fees to the order). It's a big plus. I just wish they had some sort of notification to let me know the order is ready. Only saying "It will be ready in about 20 minutes" is too vague. I went to pick up my order around the 15 mins mark, but the order was already sitting there, and for some reason it was stone cold when we're home. (For reference, the drive home was less than 5 mins, and we started eating as soon as we got home.)

Bad things: The food was tasteless and bland. This was the first time so I ordered all the essential sticky items for a test. 羊肉串 and 豆腐串 were very very dry. 老北京炸酱拉面 was completely cold and hard, like just coming out of a fridge. I didn't expect it to be boiling hot of course, coz it's dry noodles, but shouldn't it at least be at room temperature? 羊杂拉面 had no taste at all. I mean, my mom always laughs at me because I love my food to be super light in taste. But even to me, the soup and the lamb organs in 羊杂拉面 have no taste. JUST ZERO TASTE. I don't know what went wrong there. 香香炸肥肠 was ok. 猪肉夹馍 was THE BEST item among all. The bun was fresh with just about the right amount of crunchiness. The filling had enough taste to match with the bun. My mom and I were fighting for it, lol, because we both didn't want to touch other items.

Anyways, there's way too many restaurants in Scarborough and Markham that offer the same Northern Chinese cuisine, also with lower price. I'm pretty sure we won't be ordering from Magic...