Doodle Noodle Bar — Restaurant in Citrus Park

The place is okay. Definitely not worth the prices. The appetizers were nothing out of this world. Seemed like they were purchased frozen and then reheated. The egg rolls were better than the dumplings. Flavor-wise and quality for both, we've had way better. The sauces they came with carried the items. The drinks were good but not worth almost $7. Again, nothing out of this world. Cookies & Cream just tasted like chocolate milk. There were no cookies involved. It should have just been a chocolate milk tea. The brown sugar was good to me; however, my partner thought it was too sweet and was unable to finish it. I think it's just a taste preference there. That being said, as someone that has a dairy allergy, I was happy to have options! Even dairy-free whipped cream which tasted and looked like real whipped cream. Yum! The soups were pretty good, honestly. We came to the conclusion that if we returned, we would only get the soup as they were the best items they had. I got the Chicky Chicky. Super yummy. Dairy-free which was nice. I added one poached egg for $2. This was the only downside of the soup. The egg white was very undercooked and the yoke was actually cold, which led me to be believe it was maybe cooked in a batch earlier in the day, put in the fridge, and then added to the soup later. I've never had an undercooked poached egg with a cold yoke before. It was off putting. My partner got the Pork Belly Heaven. It was good. His only downside is that the pork belly wasn't what he was expecting based on previous experiences with other restaurants that serve similar soups. The pork belly was more so treated like chicharrones. That being said, it wasn't bad, just not what he was expecting. That would be a preferences thing as well. The ramen noodles had a good texture. The wait staff were very kind and accommodating. They took my dairy allergy seriously which I genuinely appreciated. They were also very knowledgeable of the ingredients used in foods and drinks, and if they weren't sure, they double-checked. I loved that. They seemed to disappear often into the back of the restaurant. It took a little bit to be seated even though there was no line and the restaurant was not busy at all. Once we sat down, the staff was very attentive and checked on us often. After we got our soups, I believe they checked on us once to see how it was and then...nothing. It was almost a tad bit too much in the beginning and then not at all in the end. We waited so long that we eventually just called a staff member over to asked for to-go cups for the soups and our check. No one offered to help us put the soups in the cups like other similar restaurants do. That's no big deal but it would be a great option to offer as some of us are not trained in doing something like that well. It resulted in us spilling some of our soup. Again, no big deal, but would be something they should consider offering. I did find 5 of the same short hairs, likely male, on my soup bowl and the to-go cup. I don't have hair like that and neither does my partner, so I would suggest hair nets moving forward. Luckily, I caught the one that was about to fall into my soup in the bowl that was served to me before it fell in. I did not find any in the soup itself. The floor needed to be cleaned as there was food under our table when we arrived and there was also food on my chair. Overall, not a place we would likely go out of our way for again, but...

DO NOT PRE-TIP WHEN YOU PLACE YOUR ORDER AT THE FRONT DOOR. YOU FEEL CHEATED when you realize this is a cafeteria with no wait service staff.

They make everyone order in line right when they enter the door. There was a line of people behind me that stretched out of the front entry door onto the sidewalk, so I felt pressured, and eventually decided what the heck I'll randomly point to something on the menu and order. Immediately thereafter, I was prompted to tip, and gave 15% while under duress with a line of people behind me... people being pushed out the door because there was only 1 cashier.

Note that all of the above happened at the entrance, when you first stepped into the restaurant. I felt cheated, because I hadn't been served, I had no way of knowing how the service would turn out, yet I was forced to tip. I was under pressure because of all the people behind me and I couldn't think clearly.

I wish I hadn't tipped. I wouldn't be surprised if the owner kept all the tip, because there was no dinning room staff to distribute to.

What is the point of tipping when there's no service? No servers were there to take my order, and there was no wait staff running the floor. I didn't even get seated. They just told me to go find a seat, and good luck. There were teenagers who intermittently brought food from the kitchen, but they weren't wait staff. I asked one of them for chopsticks, and she told me to go to the condiment bar to get it myself. This is not a restaurant. This is an every-man-for-himself cafeteria.

It took at least 35 minutes for them to bring out 2 bowls of noodle. The mushrooms were those canned mushrooms that sell for 99 cents per can at the Dollar Store. The basil leaves were rotten, with large black spots. Some basil leaves were black in their entirety, indicative of advanced stages of decomposition. The bean sprouts were soggy, limp, and decomposing. Please see the last two pictures.

I'm here for lunch on a Sunday, which is prime time for any restaurant, and they were completely out of ramen. Think about it, a Ramen place being out of ramen is like a Chinese restaurant being out of rice, or an Italian restaurant being out of pasta.

Although the design of the white floor looks cool in pictures, it's disgusting when you see it in person because it's so filthy. There were dried broth and sauce spills that hadn't been cleaned for days. I don't think they sweep and mop nightly when they close. They make a tremendous amount of money from all the customers. They need to spend some of that money to properly staff and clean the facility.

On top of it all, the owner responded with one of those canned responses that say "if you have any questions, email us at _." Like, wth, why would I have any questions? My review speaks for itself? What questions could you possibly answer outside of the questions already posed...

We’ve been going here for 2.5 years and love some of the food. My son loves the meatball pho. The fiery noodles are to die for. The ramen is just okay. The beef jerky is delicious. They use to have you order from the front and then get your own drinks and service wasn’t something we expected to be amazing from the servers but had great experiences. They now seat you like a normal restaurant and serve you the drinks and all.

Today I took my son there and our server (I think she’s the owner or manager) wasn’t very “friendly”. She wasn’t mean, just not very customer service oriented. I ordered a kids bowl of pho for my son and said “no greens”, not seeing that on the menu it says “no greens added to kids bowl”. It’s a force of habit when going to noodle places for us. Her response was very “smart aleck-y” in saying “we already don’t add greens to kids bowl” and pointed at the menu where it says it. Just a note, last time we were here we ordered a regular bowl and said no greens and there were greens added.m and the kids didn’t want to eat it.

We only had one napkin at the table and couldn’t get the servers attention for another until we moved tables because there were gnats flying around us in the back left corner. She saw us moving and came over and I told her we had to move because of the gnats flying around and her response was “oh”. That’s when I was able to ask for more napkins.

Time for the check. I asked the second server for the check and gave her cash for it and waited for the change. We waited for like 10 mins and that’s when our original server came out to clean our table and asked if the other server was getting everything for us. I told her I was waiting for my change and she responded with a statement of “so the other server is getting everything for you then.” Ummm, no. I’ve been waiting for my change and the other server is running around serving the other tables. I just said “I don’t know”. She went to get me my change and we left.

Yes, the food is great. They do charge extra for every little thing like $1 for the beef jerky SAUCE if you just want it with your fiery noodles. I asked for a side of that sauce and server/owner said it’s extra but didn’t know how much extra and that she’ll check. I asked for a small ramekin for the hoisin and siracha sauce and she responded with “oh, that’s free”. Like...