DongTing Noodle — Restaurant in Los Angeles

There wasn't a Chinese noodle soup restaurant in West LA other than Mr Rice. It's a good restaurant but it comes with hefty parking fees (finding parking near UCLA can be a nightmare, I ended up paying over $20 for parking). Then DongTing Noodle 🍜 came to save the day! I love coming back here when I need a light meal that's healthy and delicious! I have to say though, if you like noodle soup with a mild taste, then this restaurant is definitely worth a try! This place is cozy and clean 🫧! Customer service is great, too 👍🏼! You would order your food by scanning the QR code located on your table!

The food:

House Special Beef Rice Noodle Soup (10/10): This is by far my number 1 dish in the restaurant! The beef was juicy and mildly chewy! The soup smelled good and tasted really healthy! The rice noodles are neither soggy nor hard to chew! The portion was generous! It was mildly spicy, which adds to the flavor! Loved it 🤤😋!

Soy sauce braised Pork Ribs Rice Noodle Soup (9/10): I loved this too. The pork was really savory. I didn't give this 10/10 just cos the soup could do with a little more salt!

Red Braised Pork Noodle Soup (10/10): This is my number 2 recommended dish from the restaurant! The meat was my favorite part of the dish🐷🍖! The fatty part was maybe 1/3 of the meat on every chop of the meat, which I thought was a great balance (too much fats on the pork can be a little heavy on the after taste)!

Soy Braised Beef Slices w/ Cilantro (10/10): THIS IS A COLD DISH I enjoyed this, the spice wasn't so overwhelming that you couldn't taste the beef slices! This is a good appetizer to consider!

Crispy Chicken (10/10): Wow! There are literally so many restaurants selling popcorn chicken in Sawtelle, I would say this is perhaps one of the better ones because the chicken 🐔 were juicy and crispy! Seasoning was also on point! Thus, making this also a good appetizer to start your meal!

Mini Pumpkin Pie (10/10): If you want something sweet and chewy, let this dish satisfy your cravings! I have come here thrice and never once have I gone without ordering this dish!

Overall, I really enjoy this noodle soup restaurant and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to take a break from Japanese ramen 🍜, it'll be worth it!

TIPS: if you like spice 🌶️ and would love more flavor on your food, then add the chopped chili provided on your table (I added the picture on this post...

5-star is probably too much, but definitely worth more than 4.5. Service is great. Place looks pretty clean and the tables are not crowding each other. Food is very fast. I had pork belly noodles. It’s tasty. The presentation is great. A deep bowl (good for having lots of soup), white porcelain bowl and spoon looks really clean. I loved everything in the dish: noodles, green vegetables, pork belly stews，sour veggies, the soup. Definitely finished every bite and piece and soup. Delicious. Xiao Long Bao on the menu looks good and I was tempted to order—but I was almost going to skip dinner. This tells you how much I enjoyed my noodles. And I am very picky! (There’s only 2-3 Chinese restaurants I regard highly). The dish was slightly on the salty side—but I am an ultra low salt person in my family. The noodles seemed from dry noodles not hand made—not as chewy as the world best noodles I had in LA. But the texture was still good 👍 Highly recommended—would ask if my child would like to come tomorrow (just visiting LA—leaving tomorrow night).

Follow up: I ended up going there 3 times in two days (yes I am a very boring person), trying 3 different noodles. Still recommend all. I love a noodle bowl that came out boiling hot—it’s a Must for me. The taste and presentation were consistent 👍There are some complaints though (not worth knocking off a star ⭐️ though): Second time, it was 2 times more salty than I liked. Third time I noted “1/3 salt “ on my order, then it came out same salty level as first time (ie more salty than I prefer). I did ask for an extra half bowl of noodle water, and always finished every bite and drip of my noodle bowl 🥣. Third time, the veggies stems were cold, which I don’t like.

Of the three, I highly recommend the more expensive beef noodles: the extra beef and different kinds of it makes it well worth the...

The food was decent, but we were really displeased with the service. It’s a new restaurant, I’m sure it’s been hectic and everyone is a new worker. That’s understandable but it felt like the workers didn’t even want to be there. They didn’t greet with energy, and when they checked in on us, it felt half hearted and monotone. They served us food without giving us the utensils. They brought us a tray of things we asked for and instead of unloading the tray, they left the tray half on the table and half off the table and immediately turned around to tend to the table next to us. There was a spillage with the tray where utensils were knocked to the floor, and the waiter paid no attention to it. He was right beside us.

Then, when it was time to do the bills; we had to repeat ourselves three times. They took their time training their employee in front of us on how to use the billing system, and they did not give us any acknowledgement such as “thank you for waiting” or “sorry for the wait”.

Honestly I feel like this shouldn’t even be something involved in training.. I see this as basic human manners. The place wasn’t too busy, there were not that many customers at the time...