The Handpulled Noodle | Central Harlem — Restaurant in New York

Requested a full refund after noticing they do not wear gloves when preparing food. Literally saw the preparer grab wet rice noodles with his bare hands and put them in the pot. When I advised the staff of what he was doing, his colleague became very enraged that I would suggest that they wear gloves and his response was that gloves are not required which is false. “New York State law requires that ready-to-eat food be prepared and served without bare hands. Disposable gloves are one way to comply with this law.”

Dear Owner, In response to your message, maybe you found a loop hole in justifying not enforcing your staff to wear gloves or serving tools when preparing food, but just because it is not “required” by the law, doesn’t mean that it’s sanitary. In order to justify your reasoning, I would need to ensure that the food was cooked at the right temperature to kill any bacteria or viruses the noodle might have been exposed to by the bare hands, and that had not been done. No I will not take my comment down. Your staff should wear gloves or use tools to pick up the foods such as tongs forks, spoons, etc whether it is food to be cooked or not, given we are just coming out of a pandemic of coronavirus, monkeypox, cholera, and listeria to name a few.

The law states the below. Do with it as you wish. I will not be dining at your establishment ever!

New York State law prohibits bare hand contact with ready-to-eat foods, unless they will be reheated or cooked to a minimum temperature. This includes foods that are served raw, like salads, cold cuts, and sandwiches. To comply with this law, you can use utensils like tongs, forks, and spoons, or disposable gloves. You can also use napkins or waxed paper to prevent bare hand contact. If you do use gloves, you should change them after touching raw food or non-food items, and before touching ready-to-eat food. You should also wash your hands thoroughly before putting on new gloves. If you touch ready-to-eat food with bare hands, you can either throw it away or heat it to the required temperature. The prohibition against bare hand contact does not apply to raw agricultural products, like fruits and vegetables, that are not cut or combined with other ingredients.

Dear Owner, Very unprofessional with your derogatory racial name calling to a college educated African American woman. Maybe you should take your business outside of Harlem instead of staying and making my community sick with your unsanitary habits. Have a good day! I’m done replying to your ignorance. Buy some gloves!

Dear Owner, Sorry if suggesting your workers wear gloves is a trigger for you. Mistakes can happen as we are all human. All I’m saying is that you should have your staff wear gloves even if not required if you want to avoid negative comments about the poor sanitary conditions at your place of business. Just by scrolling through the Google and Yelp Reviews one can clearly observe some very disturbing images of microorganisms found on top of the food your business has served to customers, accidental broken rubber bands mixed in with the noodles, and reviews from a number of people that have expressed concern about seeing your staff use their bare hands to scoop noodles after touching garbage (See below screenshot from previous customers). I was hoping you would consider practicing better sanitary measures rather than belittling, harassing, stalking, and attacking me on Google for my personal experience, but I guess you’re right and I am wrong. It really doesn’t look good for you as an Owner when you respond to customers in such an unprofessional manner, but like you said, maybe my reading comprehension on all these horrific reviews about your place of business is not my strong suit. Sorry for suggesting your staff wears gloves, tongs, spoons, or forks when preparing the noodles for boil. I now have to leave this with the professionals to handle and have been advised not to respond to you any further. I wish you and my community well in the near future. Take care and good luck! -...

I’ve been walking past this restaurant for years. They opened right before COVID, and honestly, I’m not a big fan of noodles—but a friend told me they had the best chicken wings. So, I decided to give it a try.

From the moment I walked in, the young lady who introduced me to the menu and took my order was amazing. She made some great suggestions and provided excellent service.

For my first visit, I ordered the lemon pepper curry chicken wings and a noodle dish with ginger and scallions (or something similar—I’m not completely sure). The chicken wings were incredible—crispy, fresh, flavorful. I was genuinely excited because it's rare to find good wings these days.

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy the noodles as much. They were doughy and extremely salty. I spent around $34–$35 on that meal.

The wings were so good that I went back the next day and asked my son if he wanted some too. He placed his own order, and I got more wings: Thai chili and lemon pepper curry again. This time, though, the Thai chili wings were not the same as before—they weren’t spicy and just didn’t taste the same. The lemon pepper curry wings were overcooked, and some were red or pink inside. I was very disappointed.

Still chasing that great first experience, I returned the next day, going around the same time as my original visit. Unfortunately, this time they messed up my order—not once, not twice, but three times. I had to walk back and forth to the restaurant three times just to get my order corrected. When I finally sat down to eat, I was completely let down. The chicken wings were not edible. They were overcooked and some were still pink or red inside. I ended up throwing most of them away.

What really frustrated me was when they gave me only three wings and insisted I had ordered that, even though the menu clearly states you can only order 4, 6, or 12 wings. I wasn’t lying, and I felt completely dismissed.

After three visits and over $90 spent in total, I’ve decided I will not be returning. My first experience was amazing, but the inconsistency and lack of quality in the following visits were unacceptable.

To be fair, the service from the young lady at the front was great—I'd give four stars for her alone. But the kitchen was not up to par. It seemed like there was a language barrier, and while I understand some Spanish, the tone and language being used didn’t come off as polite.

You can look at the video in my reviews yourself to see exactly what I received.

This was my honest experience. You can try it for yourself, but I personally won’t be visiting this...

The traditional noodle with chicken is my fave and I always order from this place and have never had an issue until today. I always order takeout but today my partner and I decided to eat there. Both our orders were extremely salty, I tried to eat it anyway but just could not. The noodles were ok but the chicken was extremely salty and inedible to the point that it would be considered a health hazard. We asked the staff if we can have our orders replaced, they immediately called their manager Rodrigo and his response was that they always season the same and they would only offer ONE replacement order for the both us. We asked that they call Rodrigo their manager back because his response was unacceptable, the food was inedible. I even asked the staff in the back to try it themselves and they would not. They called him again, and his response was the same, we were even able to hear the conversation because he was being so loud with the staff, we even asked to speak to him directly and they would not connect us to him (I assume his choice). We asked for a refund on both orders which he refused to do and told us to write a complaint for a refund. Unacceptable. One of the staff was nice enough and told us the chef would redo both orders. It was already 10 pm and they close at 10:30pm. I asked if they could package replacement to take home. I’m home and all they did was give us back our same orders after we even tipped for them being what I thought was kind after their manager’s inexcusable way of handling the situation. I’m extremely disappointed at this place as I’ve boasted about their establishment before and have enjoyed their food many times in the past. Manager Rodrigo is rude and should not be handling a restaurant this way. This food is inedible and I want a full refund on...