Qin West Noodle — Restaurant in San Diego

Qin West Noodle is located on the east side of the UTC Mall in La Jolla. Parking at UTC is free for the first two hours. There are two options to order: place your order at a kiosk or at the register if you are paying cash. By paying cash, you get a 3% discount. This restaurant doesn’t want customers to pay tip or the 4% service charge that some restaurants are now imposing on patrons. Their menu stated: Self Service. No tips. Enjoy. Patrons have to find their own tables after placing the orders. Since there are no waitstaff, patron has to clean their own table, if needed. Inside the restaurant, each table has a tub of disposable disinfectant wipes, chopsticks and napkins for customers perusal. They have a free purified water station next to the cash register. We like the concept of 100% self-service and didn’t mind cleaning our table and taking our trash to the designated area after our meal. This restaurant has open kitchen. There is plenty of indoor and outdoor seatings with umbrellas. Also, there is outdoor mall seating just right outside the restaurant. We ordered the traditional beef noodle soup with round rice noodles and extra gai lan; spicy won ton noodle soup with ramen noodle, pan fried dumplings and cold thick cut beef tendons. Wait time for our food was about 20 minutes. The last item to come out was the pan fried dumplings which was brought to our table by the kitchen staff. The hot noodle soup bowls were hot and delicious, good portions with generous amounts of won tons and tender beef chunks. The noodles were cooked perfectly. The broth was clear, flavorful, not greasy and not salty. We loved the cold beef tendons, chewy texture and full of collagen and marinated in a delight sauce. Pan fried dumplings were crispy outside with a tasty filling inside. We couldn’t finish the noodle bowls and ended up with some leftovers to take home. Overall, Qin West Noodle offers authentic casual Chinese comfort food, friendly kitchen staff and the food was very well priced given that is located at the UTC Mall. You can get desserts, made by others, here such as Koconut Coconut Pudding. We will definitely come back to try...

Ordering experience: Confusing menu in English & Chinese. No descriptions of what you're eating other hoping to find the dishes on a TO GO menu on the wall with pictured on it. Customers are generally gathered around the To-Go menu to view the pics to determine what they want to eat.

The tablets where you place your order, have minimal descriptions and do not clearly align with the large menu hanging on the wall.

In addition,when you pay...quickly enter the correct phone number (to text receipt) or email (to email receipt). You have to quickly remember the order number when payment is confirmed because the second you click SEND, the screen returns to the order screen.

Very stressful experience for non-tech savvy individuals because menu items do not sufficient describe the food. You don't really know you're receiving a cold dish until you receive it.

Experience: Was ok. I ordered the Liang Pi Noodles with Beef (medium spicy). You must thoroughly mix the noodles in the serving dish in order to truly enjoy it. Initially, I wasn't fond of the wide noodles, but as I mixed & ate; the dish got better. I would order it again.

My mother had the Saozi dry noodles (0 spice- mild). It was good too, although she didn't enjoy because it mostly tasted like Ginger. This is another dish you need to mix thoroughly and it tasted like Spaghetti with ginger and small pork pieces.

I honestly would have enjoyed the experience better if the ordering experience was better.

I didn't enjoy the Steamed dumplings; they were...

I saw this place on a weekend so I filed it away in my memory bank for a weekday. Came here on a Tuesday, they have QR codes to self-order for to-go or for dine in. They automatically charge a % for credit card fee, but that's pretty common nowadays.

The food. My goodness. The braised pork rice was so plentiful and had that good authentic braise flavor. I think I'll just buy it from them instead of making it myself when I'm feeling lazy. The Zhajiangmein didn't look like a lot compared to the braised pork rice but heck, I had to force myself to finish it. And, the drink choice is a no-brainer: Thai tea all the way, baby! It was so good. The cucumbers could have marinated a bit longer and I felt it was environmentally unfriendly that they packed the cucumbers in plastic containers with lids even if you were dining in.

The rest is almost self serve. They have a water/ice machine with cups and you help yourself. The table has disinfectant wipes for you to clean your own table. I joked that if tw table isn't clean, it's because you didn't do a good enough job. 😂 If you finish all your food, there is a dropoff window at the back of the store to leave your tray and any trash. If you don't finish, you can ask for a lid at the window. The chopsticks and napkins are all available on the table.

I found it amusing how self serve the business model is, but it works! Ordered more to bring home for dinner. Would totally be...