Noodle Bar — Restaurant in Charnwood

Firstly I should state that I would rate the food as merely okay or mediocre, neither the worst nor the best. I have experienced the noodle bar many times and always to great delight. The last and most recent time was an exception. Yet so bad I will not be returning. The portion sizes always used to be huge, and they have decreased dramatically in size, which would not concern me but does my partner, either way it would not have been a problem, if the quality of the food was maintained. As it was the rice was dry and hard as though it had been reheated. One of the old benefits of the Noodle bar was that every table came with a bottle of sweet and sour dipping sauce. This time however all in the party noted that is had a vinegar quality to it, as though it had been watered down.

There was a group of 10 of us and all but 2 had issue with the food.

The service, though the staff were apologetic, continuously, was not upto parr. I sent a good 20 minutes trying to attract the attention of staff, and in the end opted to go and request service. I perhaps would not have been so rude if it wasn't for the fact that all of the tables around us were being served (one got checked to see if they were enjoying their meal twice) while the 10 of us waited. I cannot fathom our poor service throughout the meal without thinking it was based on our age, and therefore the appreciation of our custom.

in all fairness i enjoy the decor, the dinning hall style benches make it easy to have a large group without drawing much attention (as can happen in other restaurants) though i know this is not to...

This was my first visit to this place. I was excited to try it but unfortunately my experience was by far the worst. The service was super unprofessional by the family that runs/owns the restaurant: slamming plates on the table, bad looks, and long wait time till service. We came to the restaurant as a group of 7 people and we were starving. When asked by the waitress if we’d like to have starters first then main courses, I asked for all food to come together. Instead, they managed to serve main courses first and bring the appetizers +25 minutes later. They even forgot orders that we had to remind them about. We asked for vinegar: not available, chopsticks: in the dishwasher. Tab water came with unpleasant taste that was undrinkable. The duck was over crispy to the extent that it lost its taste. The prawn toast was super oily and heavy. We had to ask for everything specifically: serving ware, plates, small soy plates, utensils…. The only order that I tried and was cooked to perfection and tasted amazing was the Japanese prawn gyoza. The only thing that made my experience better is the nice waitress Maddie who was so helpful, polite, and smiling despite all. If this place didn’t work hard on their social skills, they’d definitely lose...

The service was highly accommodating and flexible, being able to seat the two of us without an appointment.

We ordered a mixed starter which was prepared for us quite quickly. It's good for the value and can comfortably serve two people.

We waited far too long for our main, I ordered the beef noodle soup, whereas my friend ordered the chicken noodle soup. I'd suffered a flu most of the day so I was really looking forward to it.

Unfortunately, I can't say I got the best value out of the meal that time. It seemed that the base ingredients were cooked using 'Nissin'-style Instant Ramen and the flavouring was similar to the packets supplied with the instant ramen. I was really hoping that for a noodle bar, that they would cook something of greater value for the noodles - like thick noodles or something that seemed to have obviously been made in the kitchen - instead of supplying pre-made base ingredients, with extra diced toppings and then mark it up on the menu - it was not reflective of the long wait.

Because the hospitality was accommodating and were able to allow us to take some of our food back home, I'm rating this...