Jewel's Noodle Kitchen — Restaurant in Tucson

Updated 11/1/24: Apparently under new ownership and with it, more consistent business hours. So having returned with that in mind, while the decor and aesthetics of the business have not improved, the food was a 4.5/5 star experience. The broth of their noodle soups stands above and beyond that of other chinese noodle places in Tucson. All of their food comes out piping hot, made from scratch. You may get things out of order, entrees before appetizers, but you can rest assured you are getting quality and flavor to make up for it. Nothing was dry, everything was juicy and just the perfect texture it needed to be. Besides the soup broth and superior dim sum compared to other chinese restaurants here, they have one very unique offering done to absolute perfection and that is their "pies". These crispy, chewy, flavorful pockets are perfect from the outside in. Its one of those hand food items you order at a restaurant that you would willingly pay for a bag of by the dozen. My only complaint which is eclipsed by all the positives, is that their Special Sauce Beef was a bit overpriced for what it was. Its on the menu as a cold dish but it was almost cooked to temp, and really didnt pull its weight again, for the price. Tender thin slices of beef in fish sauce and five spice with a single pinch of coriander. For $11.99 i would have added a pinch of coriander for each slice of beef and a small bowl of rice proportional to. Had i not ordered and received this first, today would have been a 5/5 experience. Everything else though was well worth its price!

Original Review: Skip Brother's Noodles across the shopping center and come to Jewel's. Its traditional and simple...

Food/Taste/Flavor: 4/5 - for a ”noodle kitchen”, the noodles was the worst dish and they’re actually known for their pies 20) Beef Noodles Soup 2/5 - had noodles with good texture but tasted heavily of 5 spice. The beef was quite dry but they did give a good portion of bok choy. The soup was not the typical tomato/bean paste based and was actually light in color and tasted again of just 5 spice and oil

27. Pan-Fried Bun with Pork (6 pcs) 4/5 - nice fluffy buns with a bit of pork inside. It was steamed on the outside and pan fried on the bottom without getting crispy. Fairly mild in flavor, the dipping sauce (diluted soy sauce?) they provided helped give it a heavier taste

28. Pork with Scallion Pie 5/5 - we would not have ordered if the waitress did not highly recommend one of the pies as their signatures. It was fried and crispy on the outside with a slight chew on the wrapping and soft and juicy on the inside. It is definitely on the heavier side but much enjoyed and appreciated

Ambience: 3/5 - simple shop with minimal decorations. No music, slightly flickering lights, and it does feel older overall. Sturdy wooden tables with scratch marks and the middle of the shop is fairly empty.

Service: 5/5 - male cook in the kitchen and female waitress. Friendly but did immediately ask what type of Asian we were and teased my SO when we asked for a fork since he was struggling with chopsticks on the heavier pie

Value for price: 4/5 - for the amount of food given, the dishes greatly varied in value. The pie was definitely worth it but the buns were fairly small for the price. If we stop by again, it’ll only be...

I read Jamie Donnelly’s review of Jewel’s Noodle Kitchen (祝寶麵食) a couple days ago and so made a point of stopping by for lunch. Boy, was glad I did. Having lived nine years between Taipei and Beijing, I found the food at this restaurant some of the most authentic Chinese food I’ve ever had in Tucson. As the name suggests, the restaurant’s specialty is noodles 麵，dumplings 餃子, buns 包子 filled with meat or vegetables, and other Chinese street food favorites like onion cake 蔥油餅.

As other reviewers have noted, this restaurant is not your typical heavily decorated Chinese restaurant catering to a suburban American palate so don’t go expecting tons of ambience, egg rolls, orange chicken, and fortune cookies. If you do want just good rib-sticking northern Chinese style every day food at a reasonable price then I recommend Jewel’s to you.

The woman who was running the establishment the day I went seemed to have minimal English but once I engaged her in Chinese she was friendly and solicitous. I’m not sure if she was the owner but what she shared of her origin in China’s Hebei province 河北省 seemed to be reflected in the menu’s decidedly northern style flavor profile. Ordering for the non-Chinese speaker is not a problem with an English and Chinese menu as well as photos of the individual dishes.

In short, Jewel’s Noodle Kitchen fills a valuable niche in Tucson’s Asian food culture and as such is to be treasured. ...