**** Sunny Noodle is now Spicy Noodle
Of course one of the first stops we made after returning from Hawaii was to Sizzling Pot King for takeout. While in the parking lot waiting, I noticed a newish restaurant in the strip mall named Sunny Noodle. I was a bit curious so I headed on over during a slow weekday to check the place out.
The place is spartan, though clean.
I noticed that ordering here is done strictly with QR codes, something that I've gotten used to in my travels.
Looking over the menu and the condiments, I made this out to be more Northern style Chinese. Though the menu had a bunch of liang cai, sort of Sichuan cold dishes, and items like yang rou chuanr, lamb skewers, even xiao long bao, which made things confusing. The young lady was very friendly, but when I asked about the region of China where the owners/chef was from she acted a bit coy and said, "it's North, Northern China." I tried to get some clarification, but that's basically all the info I got out of her.
I had basically seen variations of noodle soup and a couple of items that interested me. So, I went with the "House" Beef Noodle Soup($14.99).
The broth was clear and lacking in beefiness, was overly salty, and pretty "plain". The beef while a bit on the chewy side, had good flavor.
The noodle were hard rather than "springy".
Not quite what I enjoy in Beef Noodle Soup.
I had seen "Beef Wheat Cake" on the menu, which I took to be Xian Bing. When I asked if it was, the young lady seemed quite surprised. So, I ordered 2 at $1.50/piece.
You can tell one was pan fried a bit longer than the other. The crusts were hard and chewy; like a good amount of rice flour was used. The beef filling was very tasty though and a good dash of block vinegar helped things along. These were pretty small overall.
A couple of days after my meal, I heard that Candice had dropped by, so I sent her a text asking if she knew what region the owners were from. And to my surprise, it was Dōngběi! Well, maybe the lamb skewers…..but no suan cai, we still make several batches a year, and rice noodles for the soups, and what about the XLB? On the positive side, Candice identified two items she had eaten at Sunny Noodle and thought were decent. So I returned armed with that information.
Unfortunately, they were out of one of the recommended items, the Mixed Smoked Meat. They did however have the Spicy Beef Tripe ($8.99) which I would have never thought to have ordered in a Dongbei Cai restaurant.
This was by far the best item I had from Sunny Noodle. The tripe was light and crunchy, while it wasn't overly spicy. there was a nice refreshing component to the dish, along with all the wonderful cilantro that worked in perfect harmony.
In need of another dish, I went with the Leek-Pork-Shrimp Jiaozi. It's kind of funny, 12 dumplings for $14.99…..welcome to todays pricing where each dumpling costs almost a buck-and-a-quarter.
Actually, these were not bad, even though I got the Beef-onion instead of what I ordered.. The wrappers were a bit on the brittle side, in need of a bit more "pull". A couple of them had burst during the cooking process. This caused the fillings of the dumplings to become "waterlogged" during the boiling process.
The fillings, while a bit on the salty side were tender, juicy, and full of flavor if a bit on the salty side. The black vinegar helped balance everything out. Not bad.
My meals at Sunny Noodle were interesting; it's basically a hands-off business, you order via QR code, your food is dropped off along with the check, and then you pay. Actually, in these "days" of Covid, I don't mind that at all. I was the only customer in the shop during both of my visits, though there was a steady stream of takeout orders heading out the door.
I'm not sure if I'll return anytime soon, but it was nice trying someplace new for a change.
Sunny Noodle
8046 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Currrent Hours:
Daily 11am – 830pm
The noodles were the same as the NRM. The duck was much better this time around; you can tell by the color, there as much more five spice flavor and the meat, while on the tough side had taste. The skin was still a bit rubbery for my taste, but the fat had been rendered nicely. This was a definite improvement.
This was a not so good bowl, the best item was probably the boiled eggs which had been decently marinated, nicely cooked, and not overly salty. The broth was mediocre, the beefiness was achieved using the "wave" method….that would be that it tasted like a piece of beef was waved over the bowl to give it flavor. It needed more anise tones and complexity. There was a light spice and a hint of Sichuan Peppercorns, but was super salty.
The "knife cut noodles" seemed of the mass produced variety. It was too brittle, lacking in any doughy "pull" and stretch.
There were two things I noticed right off; look at that puddle of oil the beef roll is lying in. Also, check out all that cucumber…..I thought that this was a beef roll, not a cucumber roll. I really think they're going for something massive here instead of thinking about proportion. The beef was basically the same cut as what's used for the NRM, but with the addition of the fatty parts which are chopped. There was a ton of hoisin sauce. The bread was thin, short on green onions, but fairly crisp…at least what wasn't a greasy mess was.
