Duan Chun Zhen Noodle House — Restaurant in Cupertino

Tips: Use their 'Waitlist' tablet to check in and walk over to Marina Food while you wait (the market has lots of snacks to browse). During lunch time, I noticed customers are ordering to go; they were quoted 45 minutes pick up time.

Service: Being the restaurant just opened, we understand there are more work needs to be done. It was our server's first day on the job. It did took 3 attempts to repeat our 4 bowls of noodles + three appetizers to get it into the handheld POS the server was using. Although an item was missing from our appetizers, every staff we encountered were very nice and friendly ⭐. Please anticipate this if you are dining here soon. BTW the handheld POS made getting the check easy and efficient. We pay at the table and sign at the POS.

Food: I'd like to break this down for you...

(1) Food portion: The noodles bowl is not your typical Pho size bowl with lots of food. Tho, it was just right with a few appetizers added to our main entree. We found the Braised Dish Platter smaller than the picture advertised on the menu. Each item (tofu, seaweed, egg (one egg cut into half), beef trip, and tendon) is about 3-4 bites. We did ended up ordering two plates of the Braised Dish Platter for party of 4. Steamed vegetables plate is considered a single portion in my opinion. For a palm size steamed cabbage with braised sauce $5, we probably will skip this dish next time. PS: You can combo any of the noodles (price difference) and choose a small side dishes (size of a soy sauce ramekin) + a beverage.

(2) Taste: Our party ordered Beef Noodle in Braised flavor and Mala Garlic flavor. They are all very good. We all agreed the broth is where the magic is! The beef shanks were bit firmer than expected but it was cooked evenly. The beef tendons were in large pieces as well. There are three types of noodles to choose from (thin, flat, and handmade) and we each got different kind. Note: the handmade noodle is like a sheet of lasagna noodles cut into large pieces. Chewy and floppy.

Least favorite food: Wontons with Chili Oil sauce. The wontons were over cooked which caused the skin to fall apart. The chili oil was just right but salt was missing. It was just chili oil without seasoning.

Our total bill was $100 with 4 noodles + 2 braised platter + chili wontons. Overall, the food was decent as there aren't many decent beef noodle soup in the area. Most of the dishes are seasoned well though some felt their food overly salted (based on individual...

I'm updating my review because I actually really enjoyed the noodle especially the mixed beef spicy noodles with hand-pulled noodles. I think the soup is extremely flavorful and I love the noodles. It's not a lot of noodles so if you are hungry you may need to order extra noodles. Occasionally they run out of hand-pulled noodles which is a bummer but the other noodles are not bad either. So why not the 5 stars? It's because I really don't like how they hawk over you when you pay and that the default choices for tips is ridiculously high at 20% post tax. Even the other choices of 18% and 25% are ridiculous. Tip should be pre tax and probably 10%-15% for this kind of eatery. Don't even use inflation as example as tip is % based so not subject to inflation.

Here is my previous review:

I think the actual rating I'd give is 3.5 as it's alright but nothing special enough for me because it could be better. Although the restaurant came from Taiwan, the food is originally from Sichuan because the person who started it was from Sichuan who migrated to Taiwan. On the wall, there is an inscription detailing the history of the place, which I thought is pretty cool. The food of course is extremely Taiwanized as it's not very spicy like what I'd get in a proper Sichuan place and the 13 spices (the signature flavor) is definitely missing half of what I'd normally associate with 13 spices. The noodle is alright but can be more chewy. The soup base is also alright but lack the authenticity. However, we must realize that Sichuan food in Taiwan really is so-so and my guess is that either Taiwan lacked the proper peppers or that the local people just can't take authentic Sichuan food. Therefore, I'd recommend that you go in with the expectation that it's Taiwanese noodle rather than Sichuan noodles. The reason why I chose to give it 3 stars instead of 4 is that they mess up simple dishes such as mixed tofu with thousand year eggs. It's such as a classic dish and there is absolutely no reason to mess it up with those drizzles. Service is good enough and courteous. The place is bright and clean. If you read my reviews you know I put a bigger emphasis on food than other non-essential stuff such as service or atmosphere, so I chose to give it 3 stars instead of 4. But if I could, I'd give...

Braised Beef Noodle Soup

The holy grail for many in the Bay Area is Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup

Unlike SoCal and despite the large number of Taiwanese Americans in the immediate Bay Area, a strong recommendation for Beef Noodle Soup is still hard to find much less get a strong consensus

Pop-ups like takeout only @chiangbeefnoodlesoup have helped, but a true sit-down restaurant with high-quality beef shank and tendon, slurp-worthy noodles and a long simmered broth remains a pipe dream (with multiple weaker or pricey restaurant (Liang’s, Mama Liu, Chef Hung) renditions closing throughout the pandemic)

Enter Duan Chun Zhen from Taiwan with their family recipe from Sichuan. With an aesthetic that is more reminiscent of Din Tai Fung than a casual Taiwanese noodle shop, Duan Chun Zhen emphasizes high-quality braised beef, three noodle types and a 23 spices long-simmering broth, all at an elevated price point to boot

I opted for their signature “three-treasure” braised beef noodle soup with beef shank, tendon and tripe and chose hand pulled noodles. The entree only is $17 and a combo with a sweet drink and small side dish is $23

The broth is actually very good and the quality of the meat is high too, except there isn’t much of it. The tripe had three tiny slices and I only had one small tendon. The shank was more generous but not sliced as I like (available in another version)

The noodles, while hand pulled are too wide and I prefer my fresh noodles like Pho Ha Noi; not too wide, not too thin, but just right

Overall, it was a solid bowl but the price point is higher than expected, especially the combo price

Next time, I’ll opt for the thin noodles, skip the tripe and tendon, and choose sliced braised shank (which I sampled because I was still hungry after my main bowl)

I’d also skip the combo and just get pickled cucumbers at Marina at a fraction of the cost and a Vitasoy drink that would probably taste similar to the overly sweet winter melon tea

📷 Braised Beef Noodle Soup (Shank, Tripe, Tendon), Hand-Pulled Wide Noodles Combo $23 / Pickled Cucumber $5 / Winter Melon Lemon Tea / Braised Beef Shank $5.99

📍Duan Chun Zhen Noodle House...