ShiMiaoDao Yunnan Rice Noodle (十秒到云南过桥米线) — Restaurant in Merrifield

I ordered the rice noodle soup with tomato and fish. The soup was delicious! While the restaurant used to allow you to cook your own soup, they now serve it fully prepared. If you have dietary restrictions, let them know beforehand since you can’t customize while making the soup anymore.

As a pescatarian, I requested all meats be removed. The fish portion was generous, but I felt it could have used more vegetables, as it was too much noodle and protein for my liking. I’ve heard this dish traditionally comes with fewer vegetables, so I’ll likely order extra on the side next time. Others in the restaurant seemed to enjoy the standard portions.

The soup, rice noodles, and pricing were all great. The restaurant was clean, though I didn’t check the restroom. The tables are slightly crowded—despite being a party of two at a four-person table, I still felt a bit cramped and could hear nearby conversations.

Overall, it was a positive experience, and I’ll definitely...

I ordered the original beef brisket rice noodles and an extra side of beef tendon to go, and it was fantastic.

The noodles are pretty authentic: they are soft and "al dente" at the same time, just as yunnan noodles are supposed to be.

The (pork bone) soup is mild in taste: it does not have a lot of sodium but I would definitely not say it is tasteless. I like the mild taste of soup a lot actually, and I appreciate the fact that it doesn't steal the thunder from the rice noodles which are the star of this dish.

The noodles come with a quail egg, some ham, black fungus, cabbage, and the beef. The beef is a little fatty which I don't mind, but if fatty beef is not your thing you might want to go for the "beef tendon" (which really is beef brisket plus a bit of tendon).

Overall, it was a very nice and hard-to-find authentic soup...

Normally my excitement for unseen Asian noodle shops is hard to contain and can render my reviews to resemble a sixth grader's book report absolutely giddy with uncontrolled excitement. Google translates ShiMiaoDao as "10-second done". So the gimmick here is that all the ingredients come in separate cute little bowls where you just toss into a hot cauldron to cook for 10 seconds. It seems like an individual hot stone pot where you are only allowed to put couple tablespoons of ingredients into the pot - and that's it.

The flavors were flat and it was just too gimicky. Tastes a little like poor homecooking. It wasn't memorable and didn't compete well to other Chinese noodle places in the local area.

Review is about the food of course. The staff is really nice and attentive as most...