Mogouyan Hand Pulled Noodle 磨沟沿老字号兰州牛肉面 — Restaurant in Toronto

Toronto is barreling towards peak hand-pulled noodle shops so how does this one stack up?

Mogouyan is a chain from China that has sought to capitalize on Toronto’s insatiable thirst for hand-pulled noodles.

We came here on a Sunday afternoon for lunch and although it was empty when we were seated, the placed had filled up by the time we go the bill.

The menu here is short and sweet. It offers 8 classic noodle dishes with options for vegetarians. I have always preferred places with smaller menus.

The menu also offers appetizers, additional topping options for your noodles, and both, alcoholic and non-alcoholic, drinks too.

We decided to try the bean jelly cold appetizer to start. The slightly spicy and savoury sauce that is mixed into the bean jelly strands gives it a lot of great flavour while you slurp it up. It’s a great veggie option to the cold squid salad which probably offers the same texture and flavour.

I opted for the beef noodles with pickled mustard and the food literally arrived on the table in under 5 minutes. The noodles were made fresh and everything else was just assembled (like the Avengers!).

So, I was in the mood for something tart and crunchy and the pickled mustards satisfied that craving. The regular portion serving is pretty generous already imho and I’m glad I didn’t go for the large serving. There was a lot of noodles, beef slices, and pickled mustard to go around.

The noodles had good chew and slurp-tactic while the pickled mustard gave the light beef broth a slightly acidic mellow flavour. I really liked it and it was better than adding a squeeze of lime.

Overall, I think this is a good addition to the pulled noodle...

Worst dining experience for 2 reasons.

Humiliated by the cashier: Meal costed around $13, I gave 0.35 as tip (please pardon my math decimal calculation...I was only thinking about the 3 dollars multiplication, completely forgot about the 10...). And the male cashier with a ponytail, grabbed the tip jar harshly, and shouted furiously and loudly in my face, "Are you kidding me? Are ypu fresh off the boat! " in Chinese.

I would NOT have ignored him if he reminded me politely that I only gave 0.35 instead of 1.35. I understand he must have been disappointed, but wasn't sure if he was treating me like this because I was speaking Chinese at the time？Fresh off the boat, seriously??

I quickly added $1 after realizing my mistake, and suggested that even if I gave only 0.35, "I thought tips are voluntary" (which is true in the U.S., where I came from...), and it wasn't necessary for him to put anybody down.

However, he shoveled the jar (again, in my face), "take your money back then, go ahead, take it back! "

Well...thank you for reading, and hope whoever is reading this doesn't have to go through what I had experienced. Tbh, don't think I'll ever come back.

The noodle dish wasn't well cooked. Was a bit raw. Ordered thick noodle, but found thin noodles mixed in my bowl...

But at least the store's interior design was...

I had a very strange experience at this restaurant. I am not sure if it was because it was late afternoon and the serving staff were tired or if they prefer group diners over single diners. I went in to try the hand-pulled noodles. First, I felt like I was not welcome because the serving staff was impatient to get my order and seemed annoyed I asked one question about the dumplings. Despite this, I requested one portion for dine-in and another for take-away. I didn't order anything else (perhaps this was the reason for the strange behaviour by the serving staff). They came back saying they cannot accommodate my request for take-away. So I opted to only have the dine-in portion. A few minutes later she just left a box of noodles on my table, no cutlery. I was surprised, because I thought they couldn't accommodate my request for one portion of takeaway. I was put off by this and just felt like I was not welcome in this space. So I paid (and tipped the server well because honestly, she looked super tired) and left with my one box of packed noodles.

The food was fine—nothing to complain about. It's a good portion. But is it the best hand-pulled noodles? No. I have had better.

I hope the other locations have better service and try to make their spaces welcoming to...