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

The service here is solid. The lady is friendly, gave me a pitcher of lemon water right way as well as some tea which really hit the spot on a cold day.

I ordered the Braised beef noodle soup. A standard that I would order any 1st visit to a noodle restaurant. It's not what I expected, as it ended up being fairly lean beef and the spiciness had some sichuan peppercorn because I felt some numbness on my tongue. I ordered mild spiciness and it's pretty good. Maybe a little spicier than you might expect. If you're like me and prefer the taiwanese style 红烧牛肉面, don't come here. But I guess it's not what they were going for here so it's fine. Sichuan peppercorn is pretty popular these days so I don't blame them at all. Cilantro quantity is generous. Noodle quantity is just right.

The cook of the noodle is where I got lost. The noodles are overcooked by about 5 minutes I would say. Not al dente like you would expect to showcase the springiness of a la mian but instead they cook it way too long and you end up with a bit of mushiness. Very unfortunate.

Price is around what you expect for a non-chinatown area.

I did not like the atmosphere because they're blasting their music in there. It was way too loud, almost to the point that I wanted to ask them to turn it down. I had to turn my earphones almost full blast to drown out...

Were we absolutely stuffed with food? Yes. Were we running late for our flight? Yes. Was this the best beef noodle soup I've ever had? Yes.

We got the braised beef noodle soup with level 3 spice (the highest level, which I think translates to lots of chili oil), and it was amazing! The broth was intensely savory and beefy with great spice from the chili oil, and the beef was fall apart tender and flavorful. The classic hand-pulled noodles were chewy and went perfectly with the soup. In my experience, it's rare to find a beef noodle soup that has great noodles, soup, and beef -- usually at least one thing is lacking. But Mogouyan hit a home run on each aspect.

I usually don't comment on service, but the waitress was noticeably unfriendly when we ordered. But if the tradeoff is amazing food, I'll take it. I would...

I absolutely love the noodles here! As a huge hand-pulled noodles fan, I find myself coming back at least twice a week. The food is always amazing, and the noodle soups are just perfect. However, recently, I’ve had a less-than-pleasant experience with one of the female waitresses. There are two waitresses I’ve noticed, but one of them seems quite unfriendly when customers walk in. She often rolls her eyes and serves with an uninterested attitude, which really takes away from the otherwise great atmosphere. It’s a shame because the food and the other staff are wonderful, but I hope the service can improve to match the quality of the meals. In the meantime I have stopped going to this location, but real bummer since this place is a three minute walk from my...