Flower Pepper Restaurant - Authentic Chinese Home Cooking — Restaurant in Boulder

Flower Pepper is an incredible little restaurant offering authentic Taiwanese and Chinese food. Anything that make that involves broth or noodles is next level. I first found out about them from a friend who had lived in Taiwan for several years, raving about how he couldn't believe there was a truly authentic bowl of dandan noodles to be had in Boulder.

Flower Pepper has become mine and my wife's go to place to recover from a hike. Rich broth, yummy noodles, wonderful aromatic flavor, quality ingredients. This is not an Americanized orange chicken serving establishment, so you'll need to head elsewhere if that's what your after. But if you want Dandan noodles or Zhazhiang noodles, this is your spot.

They run a tight, frugal operation as well. Limited seating in a galley arrangement, maybe 10 people could eat in the restaurant max, packed tight. Running with only a couple staff at any given time. But what that means, is you can get incredible value off their menu, with some of the dishes like the Dandan noodles at $8 priced at roughly half of what most restaurants in the Boulder area would price it at ($15-16 is more typical for noodles, bone broth, meat, and veg in a single dish...

DH and I enjoyed our food at Flower Pepper on our two visits there, although they made a pretty major mistake on one of our entrees. On our first visit, we said that we were vegetarian and the person taking orders suggested a dish, which DH ordered. I ordered the Vegetarian Ma Po Tofu because it's a favorite of mine. DH's dish (not sure of the name) was great, but after eating about half of it we discovered meaty bits in the sauce. My tofu dish was good but not outstanding. We ordered the Tiger Food appetizer and it was excellent. We recognized it as the same dish a Chinese friend of ours has served us in the past and it tasted almost exactly like hers. On our second visit, we noticed that a menu taped to the counter included a vegetarian section. (We weren't shown this menu on our first visit.) We had a little more confidence this time when ordering since we could specifically point to the items we wanted and they were specified as being vegetarian. DH ordered the Sour and Spicy Sweet Potato Noodles, and I ordered the Vegetarian Dan Dan Noodles. Both were excellent and had a unique spice combination that we hadn't tasted before. The location is a bit out of the way for us, but...

Bad experience. Tasted bland and worse than cheap street food in Asia. Tiny portions for the money. Left hungry after spending $30. My Taiwanese wife and I both were extremely disappointed. Authentic? Bull! Like I said, my wife is Taiwanese and I lived in Taiwan for 9 years. This was totally unappetizing and not at all authentic. Table was sticky and dirty. Obviously many of the people giving good reviews don't know anything about authentic Chinese food. If one tried to sell this "Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup" in Taiwan they'd be out of business quickly. 5 tiny cubes of low grade beef in noodles and hardly enough broth, served in a plastic take away box (everything is served in plastic) for $12? Never going back. Don't waste your money. I wouldn't eat it again if it was free. To the owners, sorry if this review stings, but it's our honest opinion of our experience. We drove over an hour to reach you and had high hopes despite your restaurant being empty at dinner time on a Saturday being a big red flag (no...