Taiwan Noodle — Restaurant in City of Albany

First let’s get on the same page about what Taiwan Noodle is not. It is not a fancy, trendy spot. There is no bar, no alcohol. It’s not fancy and it’s not trying to be fancy. But Taiwan Noodle most definitely does not need to try to be anything that it’s not. Because it is PURE DELICIOUSNESS.

OMG.

Seriously.

Taiwan Noodle is not huge, but plenty of seating and can accommodate larger parties or a single diner, like me. Nice, simple, bright space. Also! Off street parking lot. Which, if you know Central Ave in Albany is a pretty cool thing.

I had looked at the menu and food pics online and when I saw ROWS OF DUMPLINGS I knew I was going. I am always going to give Dim Sum a try. I don’t eat beef, pork or poultry, which usually isn’t a problem at Chinese restaurants because there are plenty of vegetable and seafood options. Taiwan Noodle doesn’t really have much in the way of seafood. But! There were some very authentic meat type ingredients and when I see that on a menu I want to try the food.

Full Disclosure: I did not make it past the appetizer menu. I mean I ordered a decent sampling of appetizers. But once I bit into the steamed vegetable dumplings I knew I needed a whole, second order of those…

Here’s the thing, whenever I try a new spot and I see vegetable dumplings I order them. And, you know, they’re bland. They’re always bland. But I gotta try. The steamed vegetable dumplings at Taiwan Noodle are NOT bland. So. Much. Flavor!! So Delicious. Amazing. I was thrown by the fact that there’s just not that much “detail” on the menu. Every section contains a “mixed vegetable” version. But there is no indication of what those vegetables are. So I made the HIGHLY INCORRECT assumption that they were not putting much effort into their vegetable items.

I bit into that first vegetable dumpling and it was The Most Delicious Chinese Food I have ever eaten. And I have eaten a lot a lot of Chinese Food. The dumplings have carrots and wood ear mushrooms and glass noodles etc. They are a mouth explosion of flavor and umami. I ate my 4 and ordered another 4 and ate those too…

My “first round” also included shrimp rolls, shrimp dumplings and fried white fish (which is featured as a “speciality”). The shrimp rolls look like spring rolls, but are packed with shrimp like you would get in shrimp Dim Sum - which you DO get in the shrimp dumplings. So I had double shrimp!. Again: DELICIOUS. And the fried white fish? I think my order contained 8 of what I’d describe as a fritter?? Thin white fish fillets folded together, breaded and deep fried. So when you bite in (you must WAIT for everything to cool down enough to bite into. Because this food arrives to your table PIPING hot) to each one you are getting a lot of perfectly fried fish. They were served with Kewpie Mayonnaise as a dipping sauce. I had my doubts. But then I dipped. Amazing. So good.

Since my first 3 items were just Off The Charts good I decided to order the scallion pancake. I find Chinese scallion pancakes mainly disappointing. Not these. They were PERFECTLY cooked. So the outside is flaky and crisp and the “inside” is moist and flavorful. Kind of like the most perfectly flaky, savory, thin pie crust you’ve ever had.

I don’t eat leftovers. I don’t even keep them from a restaurant. I kept the scallion pancake and fried white fish I couldn’t finish (BECAUSE I ATE 8 VEGETABLE DUMPLINGS!!) and ate them cold directly out of my fridge the next night. And they were still delicious.

Amazing, amazing food.

Next time I will force myself to push past the appetizers...

I had been in the capital region for at least 9 years, and had went to the restaurant multiple times before, but this time was the WORST restaurant experience I had EVER HAD in capital region area. Walked in with my husband and a friend for dinner on a Saturday night, all tables except the big round tables (that can fit up to 5) were taken. The waiter asked us to sit there and wait for a table without giving us an estimated time. Okay we waited next to the cashier. 10 minutes later I asked the waiter calmly who was standing at the cashier, "can we sit at the round table?" He responded with "no, that's for 5 people." I responded "but there is no reservation or people walking in, why can't we sit there?" The waiter stopped talking and ignored us. After 10 seconds of silence I asked again "so do you want us to wait for someone to finish their meal and take over their tabe after?" The waiter IGNORED ME AGAIN AND LITERALLY WALKED AWAY to serve other people, without answering my questions. I walked out the door with my raised voice "this is ridiculous! Empty table and we can't even sit there!" The waiter looked at us and turned his head away, while he knew he just REFUSED to give a group of customers an empty table. The manager or the owner of the restaurant was off duty, no wonder why the waiter was so ignorant and rude toward incoming customers. Would not recommend if you want an ignorant waiter serving you in the restaurant. Worst restaurant experience in the capital...

(Door dash order)

Overall, it's a decent but mixed review

I got: pork belly buns, sesame chicken, chicken soup dumplings

My husband ordered the buns for himself, and he did not enjoy them at all, sadly. He said the sauce was very bitter and just had a very strange flavor to it.

I got the soup dumplings and the sesame chicken w noodles.

The soup dumplings were AMAZING. I loved these things & I easily could have eaten a 100 (well, not literally, but I really liked them!) They were extremely good! Soft, chewy, but also warm, comforting, and great flavor!

Now, here's my mixed. The sesame chicken was very good. Perfectly good chicken, great sauce, flavor, overall very yummy! However, I was not a fan at all of the noodles it came with. It came with a type of taiwan lomein. The noodles were not my favorite texture. They almost felt overcooked and left over? The sauce on them was not a great flavor and seemed to make them even more chewy & sticky. I don't think i could try the noodles again, personally.

But the dumplings, I'd definitely get those again!

Overall, okay. Food arrived hot, fast and...