Nudi Noodle Place — Restaurant in Portland

We’ve been coming to this place since they opened. We went there through the pandemic, and honestly had never really had a bad meal. We’ve truly appreciated the thoughtful menu items, creative cocktails, unique flavors, and funky ambiance…It would take a lot for us to quit this place. Well last night we got some of the rudest, most careless, worst service ever, and we will NEVER be going back for any reason. When we were seated we were told the special was “fried lobster with pineapple curry on a bed of rice” what comes out was something totally and ENTIRELY different. All kinds of mussles, calamari, shrimp, fish eggplant etc (looked decent, but was def not what I wanted) and served on noodles not rice. We had to flag the server down to double check that it was actually what we ordered (we had just witness the table behind us get their order royally botched up) and the server admitted that she didn’t even know what the food in front of me was it was and that it was “fair” that we were confused and thought we got a wrong order. She told me she would go back and inquire about what “that thing” in my bowl was. Even after telling her flatly that we would not have ordered the meal had she described it even close to accurately. They (thankfully) entirely forgot another item we ordered (coincidentally we overheard that they forgot to deliver the exact same item to two other tables seated near us🤔) I don’t understand how your servers can be so unaware of the ONE food special you have on the menu at the end of the evening... Had not one person ordered the special all night? Lol

ZERO apology, ZERO attempt to make amends. When the bill came, there were no adjustments made for the mixup on the $34 DOLLAR special that was grossly misrepresented and I was too angry to eat. When the situation was brought up, the servers attitude was borderline abusive, saying “well what do you want me to do about it now?”, and when the owner came into the convo her reply was what sealed the deal. “We change the specials often” was her reason the server not knowing what it was! Lol WRITE IT DOWN, it’s not that hard! It’s like I’ve never been to, or god forbid, have never worked in a restaurant before. Totally appaling service, clueless tactless waitstaff, and shameful response from owner. I understand mistakes happen, but you gotta own it instead of trying to pretend nothing is wrong. If “being busy” or “changing specials often” is enough to derail a dinner service, then pdx would have no places to eat… now that I’ll not be wasting time at Nudi. I get to go spend more time at some of those other places. I really regret not standing my ground and refusing to pay. Lesson learned. Shame on you Nudi.

Beware of nudi, where the food is usually decent, but the customer is...

Note, this is NOT a review of the food as we didn't get to try any. I do not take writing negative reviews lightly, you can view my history to see this - but I had the most awkward experience last night.

I was meeting a friend, and went in to wait for her as she was running late. This was at 7:30pm (the site says they close at 9pm). They gave a table and settings for two. She was 10 minutes late.

After I was there for 5 min the server came over (after standing there staring at me behind the counter) and demanded to know if I knew what we're going to order. This was strange because it's customary to wait for the other party before ordering the meal, so this seemed very rude. I said she should be here shortly. Then he informed that they were closing the kitchen at 8pm.

I hate being those people that order a ton of food when folks are trying to close up (been in the service industry myself) so I said no problem, I'll just get us tea to share, which he brought over.

My friend arrived and I told her they were closing soon, so we were going to head somewhere else after tea.

Now multiple people were showing up within 2 or 3 min of 8pm.

I don't know if A. the new arrivals were NOT told that they were closing, or B. they were told but just didn't care, but they ended up ordering, getting meals while we sat there hungry.

(The server came over to my friend at one point and I think was trying to tell us it was ok to order after all? He spoke very softly and it was starting to get loud in there) but he was so rude previously when I sat down I said no thank you.

Being treated differently than other customers is really an uncomfortable experience and you can't help but wonder why.

TL;Dr

It's cool if you need to close early, but please tell people right when they first come in, especially if they are waiting for another party. At least post something on...

Decided to try Nudi Noodle Place as we are new to the Woodstock area and it looked like a nice Asian fusion spot.

After waiting 20 minutes to have someone come and talk to us, we finally were able to order by flagging a waiter down. We started with the crab rangoons, spicy wings, and calamari. The calamari seemed to be fresh… out of the freezer/microwave. What little sauce there was was drizzled haphazardly over the cookie cutter rings like a Jackson Pollock imitation piece gone wrong. The crab rangoons tasted… wrong. A lot of savory with too little sweet. The “super spicy” wings that come in a paper bag were tasteless, mild, and overcooked. Ok, just the starters…

We went for the beef Pad Se Eew which arrived in a fancy bowl that looked like it was about to fall over. Once again, a disappointment. The noodles were undercooked and doughy, the sauce was tangy in the wrong way, and there were just a few pieces of broccoli or Chinese broccoli to accompany the noodles with small specs of egg.

I have to say this might be the only time that I’ve gone to a semi-expensive restaurant and hated everything that I ate. Please keep in mind when planning to go here- the dishes will not taste anything like you expect them to. In my opinion, Nudi has not put a pleasant twist on these global dishes, just left a bad taste...