Friday 3 March 2017

Go Noodle House ~ da:men & Jaya One

If there's anything more noticeable at Go Noodle House besides its rows and rows of Chinese wine, it's the never ending queue outside! At da:men on a weekday, during a late 2 pm lunch, there was a short 2 group queue in front of my group of 3 pax. It's not that the restaurant lacks space, it's just full all the time. Even after the normal lunch hour. Eyeing the rather short queue, my colleagues and I decided to give the place a try. I've seen a normal queue at the 1-Utama during dinner time - it's insane.

Zoom in for a better look at the menu

The menu is actually simple - you pick a noodle, an add on of various meat and finally whether you would like it dry-style or in soup.
Superior Soup Meehoon with Pork Balls
You could smell the fragrance of chinese wine in this. The soup was tasty and definitely different from your usual clear soup noodles.
Homemade Spicy Soup Meehoon with Squid Balls
The soup is the unique part here - there isn't a Szechuan mala taste to it which relieved me greatly as I dislike it very much. It's a rather clear soup with some degrees of heat, not enough to burn you but enough to be present. I would describe it as a pleasant kind of spiciness. I loved the bouncy squid balls which had actual bits of squid in them while the meehoon was nice and smooth.


We ordered the signature bursting meat balls to share and boy were they huge!


The meatballs were filled with minced meat which had hints of sesame oil, some superior soup and fresh coriander. There was no 'porky' scent and it was tasty on its own. I was impressed!

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On separate occasions, I had meals at Go Noodle House at Jaya One. At about 1pm - there was no queue and plenty of tables available but within minutes the tables around us hit max occupancy. At 7pm for dinner, it was not full as well. Looks like Jaya One's Go Noodle House is the branch to go!


The branch at Jaya One has 2 dining areas which spreads out to about 50 tables or so. Yay for more space!

Here are other items tried during the many meals.
Homemade Spicy Soup Pan Mee with Bursting Meat Balls
Trio Special Dark Sauce Pan Mee with Homemade Fish Paste
Trio Special Dark Sauce Pan Mee with Squid Balls

I reckon that the thicker noodles is nicer than the thin noodles. The thin noodles had a nice springiness to it but tasted a lot like yellow noodles minus the alkaline scent making it rather ordinary.
 Fu Zhou Fish Ball Meehoon in Homemade Spicy Soup with Squid Ball
I was definitely too greedy when I ordered this!


The Fu Zhou fishballs had a similar filling with the bursting meat balls but was encapsulated by fish instead. I like both, they're equally good!

Trio Platter - Crispy Fu Chuk, Taiwanese Sausage & Pork Roll
The Trio Platter is usually made of Crispy Fu Chuk, Pork Roll and Pork Medallions but they may swap out items based on availability. I really wanted to try the Pork Medallion this time but they ran out and replaced it with Taiwanese Sausage.


The Pork Roll was a lot like Penang Lo Bak with minced pork and shredded carrot but without the strong Chinese 5 spice powder. It had hard bits of pork during one occasion which was not so pleasant as it was not chew-able. The Taiwanese Sausage was surprisingly good - tasty with no porky smell. The Crispy Fu Chuk was quite ordinary.


I managed to try the Pork Medallion during my next visit and they ran out of Crispy Fu Chuk! It was replaced with thick slabs of Fish Cake which was nice and fresh. The Pork Medallion was like bak kwa but not as sweet. It looks glossy with oil here but it was actually the gloss of caramelized sugar. It may be to sweet for some people. I'll order them individually next time instead of the Trio Platter unless I have at least 4 people eating. These are too much to stomach if you're also having a bowl of noodles.

There will definitely be more visits to Go Noodle House in future. The portions are large and worth the price you pay and on top of that, food is tasty and the soup noodles different from what you usually have at kopitiam(s). Now I get what the queue is about!