Noodle Factory: Fast-paced Chinese eatery & takeout in Chinatown

Restaurant: Noodle Factory
Restaurant type: Chinese, quick-eats, takeout, dumplings, handmade noodles
Prices: $3-$8.95 entrées, $7.50-$14.95 mains
Date: Wednesday August 29th 2018
Table of: 2
My favorite dish: chow mein

One of the things I miss most about working downtown, is all the choices you have for lunch (especially when you have 1 hour lunch and a car; the sky is the limit). So anytime I’m actually downtown for lunch, or just anywhere far from Anjou really (where I work), I have to take advantage of it through lunch. Since Alex works downtown, pretty close to Chinatown, we opted to go there for lunch (and also, its always a cheap option).

Alex mentioned a place called Noodle Factory, that he had always wanted to try, so we went there. Upon arrival, it looked a little run down and sketch, so I knew it was a good pick. The place is quite small, with 25 seats tops and the whole place was full; there was even people waiting on the steps just outside.

Noodle Factory is a good place if you’re looking for a very casual Chinese meal or for takeout; we saw a lot of people come in and out for their takeout orders.

After browsing through the menu, we ended up ordering 5 dishes:

Pork wonton soup
Hot and sour soup
Shrimp dumplings (har gow)
Noodles, pork and vegetables
Chow mein

Overall the food was good, but nothing special and definitely not the best Chinese in Chinatown (I much prefer Fung Shing’s food). The pork wontons were good and they had some nice flavours and seasoning to them, but I much prefer shrimp wontons. The hot and sour soup was good, but lacked in seasoning and was too thick; it reminded me of what they serve in buffets. The shrimp dumplings didn’t even taste like shrimp and overall just lacked in flavour. The noodles, pork and vegetables was like a Chinese spaghetti which I found a tad weird, but the taste was good. Alex really enjoyed it. The chow mein was pretty good, huge portion, no complaints here.

I have my own criteria when it comes to reviewing restaurants, which I also use on my Instagram account (@elisebgravel). It’s very simple, there are only three points: the quality of the food (on 10), the price (from $ to $$$$$) and the following question: would I go back?

So, here is my review of Noodle Factory:
Food: 7.5/10
Price: $
Would I go back?: Nah, there are better Chinese places in Chinatown.