Shi MiaoDao Yunnan Rice Noodle (Downtown)十秒到云南过桥米线 — Restaurant in Toronto

Rice noodles have been a huge trend in Toronto, especially during these past couple of cold, winter months! Settling into a great ambiance with a nice, hot, boiling bowl of soup and noodles is always the way to go. At Shi Miaodao Yunnan Rice Noodle, you can get the best of both delicious noodles and also some great Asian vibes.

Shi Miaodao was extremely crowded, which made sense because it was peak dinner time, and one of the colder days in Toronto. Everyone was sitting in a great dining space and chatting over some bubbling soup and a colourful array of sides that were to be added to the soup. You can choose from different flavours of soup, depending on whether you want to have spicy soup, savoury soup, or the original. Essentially the base of the soup is customizable, but generally the sides are the same for all the rice noodles at Shi Miaodao.

Despite the crowdedness of the restaurant, we were served quite quickly that evening. My partner got himself the Spicy Malay Noodles while I went with the classic Crossing Bridge Rice Noodle at the very top of the menu. Note: whenever I go out to new places, I always want to try out the most popular, original and classic choices, before I go back and try out all the other types of items they have!

The sides were served first, which seemed to have a variety of different things but really made the dish very colourful and attractive to the eyes. There were seaweed varieties, corn, quail egg, shrimp, beef brisket, fish cake, and other garnishes. Once this was on our table, our soups came in bubbling and super hot! The waitresses were kind to let their customers know that the pot is extremely hot, and gave a quick tutorial on how to eat the dish. Make sure you’re cooking your meat in the boiling hot soup, while it’s at its peak obviously! Then throw in all the side and enjoy.

The Spicy Malay I could tell lived up to its name because the moment the waitress passed the soup to my partner across from me, I got hit with the sheer spiciness of the dish and had a slight cough from the smell. You could see it was not only boiling hot, but also extremely and intensely spicy. My partner, who enjoys spicy food, took his first few bites and said that the soup was serving its purpose, but the spice level of this dish was way over the top. It wasn’t that he couldn’t finish, but he could tell that whoever had prepared the dish that they were primarily focused on getting to the spice level they did, as oppose to the actual taste of the broth. He was slightly disheartened by the dish.

On the other hand, I must say that I was personally really satisfied with my Crossing Bridge Rice Noodle soup that I received that night during my dinner. It was a perfect compilation of savoury flavors, hot broth, and delicious taste. In combination with all the sides that were giving to me as well, this made for a killer meal. We were both given the rice noodles separately in order to control our noodle portions and we ate eagerly, regardless!

Lastly, to pair up with our hot soups, we were given probably the freshest fruit teas that I’ve received. In fact, this was my very first time getting a drink like this! Usually on the Asian beverage end, I tend to lean towards iced coffee or avocado shakes from Vietnamese restaurants, or just the standard hot tea. These two drinks were a nice treat to end our visit at Shi Miaodao Yunnan Rice Noodles.

One of the teas were the Passionfruit Tea with a mix of different fruits such as lime, oranges and apples in a cold iced green tea, and the other was a Matcha Green Tea chilled with lime, apple and ice. These drinks were very refreshing and added a beautiful, light taste to the end...

Overall, we liked it!! The style is a little different from what we are used to in LA but it’s a pretty good combination. The variety of broth is the key differentiator,: which 15 flavors to choose from (R1 to R15 in the front side of the menu), each with different degrees of spicy levels.

We ordered R1 (original crossing bridge rice noodle soup) and R7 (Szechwan pepper fish rice noodle soup), both serviced with soup and noodles separately. We’d put rice noodles into the soup which is what you’re supposed to do with these Yunnan style ‘crossing bridge’ rice noodles. (Originating story blow)

R1/original: had a few slices of beef with flavorful broth that’s on the lighter side. R7/a little spicy: had fish and the broth had Szechuan peppers so it had more punch but it was not too spicy.

According to the waitress, both are served with the following items: Crab steak, Shrimp, Quail egg, Fish tofu, Mushrooms, Corns, Bean sprouts , Broccoli, and Ham.

If you’d like more, many items can be added as optionals. We weren’t too hungry so we didn’t add anything, the amount was just right. For people with a larger appetite, I’d recommend ordering some cold dish or snacks on the backside of the menu, or add one or two optional items.

Also, Price (as of 8/23) seemed very reasonable!

Restroom: downstairs no handicap access, 4/5.

Parking: Streets parking with the Green-P app. We were able to get a space right in front on a Saturday evening.

Yunnan Crossing Bridge Rice Noodles, originating story: we were told, in Yunnan Province in China, while the husband worked in the field, the wive prepared the rice noodle lunch with two sides, one side with the rice noodles, the others side with soup and all other ingredients. Once the wife gets there, husband would put noodles into the soup, this way, the noodles won’t be overcooked or soak up all the soup. The husband enjoys a delicious hot lunch with all the healthy...

Spontaneous find turned into a good dinner. We were actually going to get pho because it was very cold (plus the big snow the day before)and we were craving something warm and comforting. On the way we found this restaurant and decided to give it a try.

I don’t know if they were understaffed, the service was slow and sporadic but the server was nice. They could accommodate vegan/vegetarian and change the soup base. I was given two soup choices for vegan version; tomato basil rice noodle soup and fresh assorted mushroom rice noodle soup. I chose the mushroom soup since the picture in the menu looked really nice.

I was disappointed that my husband’s dish came first then mine was brought out very late. Maybe my soup was served very late because they had to make the vegan version soup from the scratch?! 🤷🏼‍♀️ I told him not to wait for me because his soup was getting cold and the raw meat needed to be cooked in the soup. When my soup was brought out later it was super hot so I had to cool it down a little. By the time I was able to eat the noodle soup my husband already finished his 😭

We also ordered shredded potato and scallion pancake to start. I don’t know if they forgot one of the appetizers we ordered because when I asked about it the server said “oh?”. So the scallion pancake came lastly.

The food was overall really good. The mushroom soup didn’t look like the picture though. I don’t expect it to be exactly the same but the two fresh shiitake mushrooms in the picture were nowhere to be seen in my bowl.

My favourite was the shredded potato!! I have to say it was the best one I’ve ever tried :D

I would go back to try other...