Cleo G.
Yelp
I have been looking for a place with hand-pulled noodles in the Nashville-ish area and I have FOUND them!!! It's located in a strip mall, and as we walked in we were greeted with the BIGGEST smiles and friendliest greetings from the servers and staff. They were beyond sweet, encouraged us to sit where we wanted, were accommodating for my non meat-eating friend, and told us to take pictures of the chefs at work.
The reason you come here is for the noodles, let's be real. So you get their Golden Lanzhou Bowl. You can choose what noodle type you want, and I will ALWAYS recommend the thin wide flat noodles (similar in size to what you get in a pad see ew, per say) and the wide flat noodles (absolutely HUGE) as these are the BEST way to really get the experience of the hand-pulled noodle mouthfeel, but the chive leave flat noodles look great too. **Make sure to go up to the front and look at the pictures of all the different noodle types up on the wall before ordering, so you know what you're getting!**
Here's everything we had:
-Smashed Cucumber: 10/10 - SO good!! So garlicky, with a bit of heat, and a deliciously flavorful oil. Just get it, the flavors are classic but so excellently executed.
-Chicken Dumplings: 5.5/10 - Honestly a bit disappointed with these. They are steamed so you don't get much texture, but the casing of the dumplings are also thick and the chicken inside is pretty flavorless. The dipping sauce was the saving grace for this dish, though, as it added the taste we needed.
-Xiao Long Bao: 7.5/10 - These were PIPING hot, but the filling was warm , gooey, and meaty. It's not the same sort of sweet, tangy BBQ flavor that you get in a lot of baos; it's more subtle and muted. The bao bun itself was thinner and less sweet than I've had elsewhere but still really delicious, and dipped in the broth from my bowl, I was a happy girl.
-Golden Lanzhou Bowl: 9/10 - It comes with a hot broth, your choice of spice (it's chili oil, so I recommend getting a good amount, but if you're afraid you can always go mild and then add the chili oil yourself from the bowl on the table), your choice of noodle, a few vegetables/herbs, and beef pieces. The beef pieces were super good in terms of flavor (though there wasn't a ton of meat in my bowl). My friend doesn't eat beef so she asked for no beef in hers, but you cannot substitute out the beef broth. The noodles have the PERFECT chew to them. When you go hand-pulled, you just CAN'T go back. These were just like those I've had elsewhere: delicious. I will say, I got mild, and in order to be fully satisfied with the flavor of my bowl, I added more chili oil and soy sauce. The broth isn't the most flavorful, but the point of this bowl really is the noodles, more than anything.