It seems that even though we'll eat Chinese food on our trips, one of the first thing the Missus wants when we return is…..drum roll please, Chinese. Upon returning from our last two trips, the Missus had been wanting to eat at the Noble Chef. It had been over a year since we'd last dined in, so we headed on over.
It was a Saturday just past 530pm on a when we arrived….and holy smokes, the place was humming.
We were lucky to get one of the two tables still available.
Having had the food from Noble Chef so many times, it was a regular stop for us during the pandemic and the Missus has some dishes that She enjoys. So, the basic ordering was easy and we decided to try one dish that we hadn't ordered before.
Of course we started with the Roast Duck, which was a take out favorite of ours, but we hadn't enjoyed as much during our last dine in visit.
Well, this was much more meaty than we recalled and the skin a bit more chewy. In terms of seasoning it was good. The leftovers did much better as we got more sauce and I heated it in the air fryer.
The Salt and Pepper Pork Chops here are a favorite of mine.
These were crisp, though a bit thicker than we prefer. Nicely seasoned, good salt, mild spice.
A favorite of the Missus is the Salted Fish and Chicken with Eggplant.
Nice funkiness, good sodium control, but the eggplant was on the stringy side and undercooked for our taste.
For some reason, the Missus ordered the Hunan Seafood. As I figured, this really wasn't "Hunan".
The seafood was nicely stir fried; the shrimp was especially tender and buttery. The dish was quite bland and had barely any spice and the vermicelli noodles were mushy.
Another favorite of mine is the Soy Sauce Chow Mien. Man, this was a huge portion.
This was unevenly stir fried and not all the noodles were coated well. Some of the noodles were undercooked and hard.
The Missus enjoyed the dessert as always.
Well, not a particularly stellar meal. Still, we decided to give Noble Chef another shot when returning from our last trip.
This time the Missus went with the Salted Fish and Chicken with Tofu.
This was quite good, the funky flavors of salted fish came thru clearly; the tofu was soft and velvety, the dish was quite savory, though not overly salty. I think this is what the Missus will be ordering from now on.
Of course we got the roast duck again.
This was on the bland side and the duck didn't have enough sauce. That was quickly remedied by request. The skin was on the tougher side as well. Looks like we'll have to look for other options for roast duck!
We also got the Seafood XO Sauce Fried Rice. When the dish arrived, we quickly took a look, and the question was raised; "where was the XO sauce"?
There was a good quantity of shrimp in this; though the rice wasn't evenly coated, nor was there a detectable hint of the pungent, fragrant, umami-forward XO Sauce in this dish. Pass on this….
I decided to get the Black Pepper Pork Intestine.
I really enjoyed the pungent-offaly-salty flavor and the toothsome texture of the intestine. The Missus thought this to be too sweet, but I enjoyed it.
The Salt and Pepper Pork Chops were even better this time around.
Thinner, crisper, more evenly seasoned. This is how I remembered the pork chops being in the good 'ole days.
So, what's the takeaway? Well, I guess YMMV here; though the prices were decent for this day and age; the pork chops and duck does well in our air fryer as leftovers. The service was very nice on both visits. So, I guess we will be back; unless we can find something better in the area? Let me know if you have any recommendations!
The Noble Chef
6159 Balboa Avenue
San Diego, CA 92111
was our opportunity. So, we walked to Xinyi, and got to the original DTF on Xinyi Road.
The Missus loved the rich "thickness" of the broth. Which, She brought up to Her preference in flavor with the provided lime, cilantro, onions, and the fairly picante salsas. The richness of the broth had accents of boviney-offal tones. There were various type of tripe provided; really buttery honeycomb tripe, firm book tripe, and blanket tripe.
The sauce for the mushrooms were wonderfully flavored, but very gloppy and pasty in texture. The veal sweetbread was massive, dry, tough, and very metallic.
The plate of sprouts, greens, and herbs were fresh, the bun slippery and nicely textured. For some reason, the broth seemed more spicy than usual; or perhaps I'm just getting wimpy in my old age. That combined with an assertive lemongrass flavor and singeing heat really set my lips on fire.
Man, I still really like the noodles here. It has that perfect ratio of chewiness to slippery pull and girth that I enjoy. The garlic paste went well with the tamago, which was nicely seasoned and still warm. It was a bit much for the broth; which had that nice tongue feel and savory tones I enjoyed previously. In the past it teetered on too salty, but today it was nicely balanced. The garlic paste was too bitter and messed up the balance of the broth. Man, the barrel aged shoyu does wonders for the broth adding a slightly sweet-umami "edge" to things.
I enjoyed this bowl and also the service. As things are now 