Allston Ten Second Noodles 十秒到云南米线 — Restaurant in Boston

Mediocre noodles, diluted flavors.

I’m generally not picky when it comes to noodles. As long as there’s decent flavor and fresh toppings, I’m usually satisfied. But Ten Second Noodles was one of the rare spots where I’d pass—even if the meal were free.

Every noodle dish I tried was overwhelmingly bland. The base broths lacked depth, and the toppings—especially the vegetables—only watered things down further. They offer plenty of add-ons, but the extra charges felt unjustified. For the price, I’d rather go to a hot pot spot with better ingredients and stronger flavors.

The Kimchi Beef Rice Noodles and Beef Triple Hot Pot Noodles were especially disappointing. On paper, the combination of kimchi, tomato broth, and beef sounds great—I’ve had this trio in fried rice and loved it. But here, the tomato broth was so mild it completely neutralized the sharpness of the kimchi and the umami of the beef. The beef portions were also small, and while you can pay to add more proteins, it just didn’t seem worth the upgrade.

The only things I enjoyed were the chicken fingers and BBQ pork feet. The chicken was just a solid, no-frills fried snack. The pig feet, surprisingly, were well-executed: tender, seasoned right, though definitely on the...

This is a great Yunnan noodle soup restaurant. Simple menu, but everything is just perfect. I went back 3 times in one week after discovering this restaurant, because it was so good and I wanted to try more choices.

The soup comes out boiling hot in a stone bowl, and then you add your noodles at the table. Aside from the fun aspect, this means that even if you eat slowly, your meal stays nice and hot the whole time.

The original broth is a lovely rich bone broth, and the tomato broth smelled so good, from across the room, that I had to go back the next day just to try it. The spicy option is also good with numbing Szechuan wild peppercorns.

The price is very good for the size of the meal and this area. Definitely in the "everyday" value category in my mind.

I am excited to have a new go-to mainland Chinese restaurant in my...

Got the teriyaki chicken bowl, fried bun with condensed milk, and brown sugar chinese mochi.

For the teriyaki chicken bowl, the pieces of fried chicken looked like they had a few tiny squirts of sauce, but the pieces of chicken were surprisingly flavorful. There's also lettuce and tomato on top of the bowl that "lightens" the meal and a tea egg that's alright.

The fried buns with condensed milk were meh.

The brown sugar chinese mochi was solid, but could use a tiny bit more of the sauce.

Overall, this surpassed my...