"The San Gabriel Valley’s prodigious noodle scene has such a dizzying array of specialists that it would take a lifetime to experience it all. Noodle Art, located in a crowded strip mall in Monterey Park, comes from chef Xibao Wen, who has been cooking Shaanxi cuisine in X’ian since the mid-’80s before opening in Los Angeles in September 2021. Highlights from the enormous menu include the “three-topping” spicy wide noodles with a combination of tomato and egg, cumin pork belly, and cubed potato bound together with a dry chile mix. Hand-pulled stir-fried noodles offer the same satisfying bounce of well-made Italian pasta but with heady cumin spices and the tinge of wok-fried aromatics. Chinese “burgers” of minced pork or cumin lamb are always popular, and the tangy-spicy-sweet shredded pork with garlic sauce and julienned wood-ear mushrooms tastes like something from New York’s Chinatown taken to a flavor level of 11. In February 2024, Noodle Art took its talents westward to the Original Farmer’s Market with a slightly truncated but still excellent menu. — Matthew Kang, lead editor" - Eater Staff
