LIU 成都味道面馆 Nudelhaus — Restaurant in Berlin

I pick up lunch here occasionally but my last visit this week I was disappointed. Ordered the Szechuan with Noodles dish (chili level 3) as take-away and a little bottle of Carolina Reaper oil. Since my previous visit was some months ago I could immediately notice the difference. The taste and spicyness of the dish were good but there was less Szechuan peppers used than before. That was disappointment number one. Also, the food itself was merely snippered noodles and mincemeat but no sauce/oil in the container (I was wondering why it does not spill out as it usually does) meaning the dish was quite dry. Next time please add more Szechuan peppers (it's the name of the dish after all!) and more oil, even if it's a take-away! Also, the price was up significantly from last time, making it expensive.

ADDITION AFTER OWNER RESPONSE: Dish ordered was "Shengjiao Rindfleisch Nudeln" like photo below. Photos shows clearly oil plus last time I ordered 6 months ago, same dish, take-away, included enough oil so it was not dry. This time, no sauce/oil, and dish was quite dry. Please understand quality control, especially at this price, cannot be expected of customer, but instead kitchen staff before take-away meal is handed to customer. Ridiculous to expect customer to open take-away box and dig to bottom of deep box to check if there is enough sauce/oil at bottom each time, or taste food, especially with long queue other customers waiting behind. For this high price kitchen staff should check take-away for enough oil/sauce to customer so customer not have to dig to bottom of deep take-away box to check. Cheap places would skimp on oil or expect customer to dig to bottom of box to inspect (or taste) food...

I came here with a friend during lunch time and we sat outside. After about 15 minutes a waiter told us „you can only order by phone or inside“. Okay, annoying but fine. So we both decided what we wanted to eat and I went inside to order for the two of us: only cash. So back to my friend who proceeded to order for us with her cash. Turns out they didn’t have the dish I wanted. Then, they told us to move inside because they wanted to close the outdoor area. I asked if another variation of the cold noodles with sprouts was available. The waiter told me: yes with sprouts and cucumbers, do you not want cucumbers? The cucumber dish was the one I wanted initially, so I of course said, „wait do it IS available?“. However, turns out, it was not, so I ordered the sprout one. The portion of the cold noodles was quite small especially in comparison with the warm noodle dishes. I ordered extra wheat noodles, exactly as written on the menu and the waiter looked at me very confused. You should know your own menu items. My dish tasted aromatic (though barely containing any sprouts) while my friends soup according to her was very bland. I did find two hairs in my food. Main dishes are quite expensive with around 13-15€ at lunch time… Also, when I asked for tap water, they said tap water would cost 3€?! I doubt that this is even legal. While eating a waitress came to our table and said that they would now clean the bathroom so we should either go now or we could not go....

I have to say this is the best Sichuan noodle place in Berlin. Authentic and vegan friendly. In my husband's word "I hope I won't hear your complains that here's no decent Chinese food in Berlin!"

There are some downside I'd like to point out, and give 3.5 stars actually, but let's stich with 4 now. Changes should be managed, not enough change does not sound right. Just go to any bank to get changes rather than telling the customer to go to the bank. 2.The serve is quite small, as a girl, it's just not enough. I need at least one and half serves to be contained, 2 serves to be full (€25). This means it's damn pricey for Berlin standards - €12 noodles will normally get me reeeeeeaaaaally packed in other places. Internationally, I'm from Sydney - one of the most expensive cities (raw food price is Berlin organic food price, has minimum wage ca. €12 per hr (Germany is like somewhere €8 per hr) , higher rental costs , a decent noodle would only cost me max $14 (€8.8) in the city with big serve - loads of veggies or meat that I can barely finish, basic service and no tips. For this, I won't go often, maybe just when I really want a bowl of good noodles and I'm lazy to make by myself. If under staffed, maybe can let customers take their food and bring dishes back. There will be no tips unfortunately, but not many people willingly to give tips for a noodle place based on...