Frank’s Noodle House, Portland, OR

What do you do when you’re missing the hand pulled noodles from Xi’an Famous Foods in NYC? You hop on Google to search for the next best thing. Frank’s Noodle House in NE Portland was the first result to pop up, and next thing you knew, we were heading there for our hand pulled noods fix.

Turns out this place is appropriately named as it is literally a house. The dining room is on the first floor, and my guess is Frank lives upstairs. It’s charming and very Portland. We decided to grab a table on the porch as the dining room was filling up with the lunch crowd, and honestly, the ambiance is far better outside.

Frank’s got some lunch specials at a good price, and if you visit during lunch hours, they also throw in a few complimentary items: a cup of soup, pickled daikon, kimchi. The hot and sour soup is actually vegetarian. We got a couple beers too because $6.50 for a large bottle of Sapporo is pretty great. Or maybe this is normal for Portland, and I’ve still got NYC pricing on the mind.

I got the hand pulled noodles with black bean sauce ($10.95), which is only on the dinner menu. The noodles are thick, chewy, and enjoyable. They’ve nailed that part, but the rest fell short. Unfortunately, if you order the vegetarian version with no pork, it’s just a big pile of chopped onions. Wish there were some mushrooms mixed in there. The sauce wasn’t bad, but milder in flavor than other black bean sauces I’ve had. Overall, not too greasy, and the cucumbers are a nice touch.

John got the hand pulled noodles with tofu ($7.95) off the lunch menu. You can specify how spicy you want your noodles to be, and if you enjoy some heat, I recommend going up on the scale. These noodles were slightly thinner, but still had a great bouncy texture. Overall, a much more flavorful dish than mine.

Since #liftingnoodles are all the rage these days, here’s a lifting shot to wrap up this post. I always try to go for the mega lift, but it’s hard when you’ve got metal chopsticks and such slippery noodles!

Save

Previous Post Next Post

Sofia

oh yum, I would love to eat there. Regarding slippery noodles on chopsticks, when I make ramen style noodles at home, I still haven’t managed to find a way to make them not too slippery. Or maybe my problem are my chopsticks!

Reply
wazwu
at
I find metal chopsticks are always the most slippery. I really need to get a good set of wooden chopsticks for eating noodles at home. It just doesn’t seem right to eat them with a fork!