This is another downtown St. Catharines find. Niagara has some of the best restaurants anywhere. Admittedly it’s no New York City but it’s also cheaper and 20 minutes’ drive instead of 8+ hours.
Whenever we talk about going to Noodle House (288 St. Paul Street, map is here) we say it like Dean Vernon in the Mars University episode of Futurama says Robot House.
noodle hooooooooooouse
I am a creature of habit when it comes to some restaurants. I find something that I really like and stick to it. Apparently, I fear change. I have exercised this at Noodle House almost without exception. I typically order the ‘choose your own’ noodle soup. It’s very similar to Vietnamese Pho, if you’ve had that, but there are more options. One can choose from several types of broth (chicken, vegetarian and hot and sour spring to mind), several types of noodles (udon are my personal favourite but they also do rice noodles, angel hair noodles and a couple others) and then toppings, for lack of a better term. They have options like shrimp balls, shredded chicken, dumplings, and the secret, hidden mixed vegetable option (it didn’t make the menu, was mentioned the first couple times I was there and now I just know to ask for it). The servings are generous (to say the least). The soup I get is $7.95 for a smallish mixing bowl. The menu suggest pairing this with fried dough ring things (I cannot recall their right name). I’d suggest skipping it as they are kind of flavourless even when dunked in the broth.
They also have a number of curries and rice dishes. My coworkers like the Masaman (spelling uncertain) curry which is a mild, red curry with chicken and a lump of rice. It’s $9-10 as are most of the main courses. Last time I was there (Friday), I ordered the Thai green curry with rice noodles and chicken (most of the dishes have options available). It was a gigantic bowl of curry soup. It was temperature hot (burnt my tongue and ate very, very slowly) and also super spicy. I couldn’t finish it all in one sitting so I had it packed up and ate the rest on Monday. I’m pretty sure it’s responsible for whatever is going wrong with my sinuses today. Powerful stuff to say the least.
Amy and I have gone there for supper a couple of times. They’ve started offering 15% off most evenings to try to drum up some business. I prefer their stuff (nasal cavity-assaulting curries aside) to Salah Thai which is right around the corner but for straight Thai food (ie. not soup), I prefer Spicy Thai on Church St.