mr. noodle drama

a quick note on a westwood staple. i'd been in love with noodle planet forever when i was advised by a fellow asian sista that mr. noodle was even yummier. while their dishes tend to be somewhat smaller, i must admit that the flavor combinations are quite good.

to start, i can't say much for the little bowl of pathetic noodle cracker things that they give you at the beginning of your meal. (those should get dumped ASAP.) but none of the meals i've ever had there have been remotely under par. while their menu options are significantly fewer compared to noodle planet, isn't it better to do fewer dishes well than more dishes mediocre-ly?

during my most recent visit, i had the chinese sausage fried rice (which i ordered primarily for the yummy chinese sausage since i really don't like rice -- and yes, i'm still asian) and my dinner date (who shall remain nameless for reasons indicated below) had the beef pad see ew (which bears a strong likeness to the beef ho fun that our people know and love -- thick noodles covered in shiny grease -- mmm....).

as a sidebar, i must comment on mr. noodle being located at the center of the world, particularly since it's situated right next to the infamous diddy reese. as soon as we walked in, we spotted a mutual friend and her roomie sitting right near the door. as we sat down, i had to look twice b/c the girl at the next table looked uber familiar. ah yes, the gym girl that'd ended up in my friend's play reading. and as i was waiting for the bathroom (where someone was obviously giving birth since i was waiting for what seemed like an infinite number of minutes), i noticed our friend yakking it up with her former TA and his friends who'd just come in from the cold. it's nice to know that you can always bump into familiar faces even in a super bloated college town like westwood village.

as a follow-up to the sidebar, i absolutely must elaborate on the second reason for mr. noodle being located at the center of the world. here it is: because apparently my dinner date (a friend who oozes fun AND sarcasm) is apparently the sun and her smile brightens up the room -- at least for our server!!! OMG. i swear i couldn't stop laughing. not b/c the comment was untrue or anything (b/c it so isn't!), but let's just say the scenario in which the comment came out was totally laughable. the one bad thing about mr. noodle is that the waitstaff can barely speak english. not that this is heinous, but when the communication sucks, it sucks.

so this pathetic little waiter comes up to our table and starts going on and on about how his friend (who was our server) is pretty much enraptured by my friend, her smile, her voice, and whatever else that he couldn't find the words for. b/c unfortunately, this waiter could barely string two syllables together and the whole thing was just a scene from a really bad romantic comedy. plus, i'm not quite sure how good of a friend this guy was, especially when he asked my friend to say a few nice words to our server when he came back. to be sure, we had no idea WHAT words she was supposed to utter, but i suppose her melodic voice was enough. does anyone think our server had any role in this madness?! was he seriously in love w/my friend? or just an innocent pawn in this bizarre mr. noodle play?!

b/c he didn't seem to have much of an expression on his face when he dropped off our food in a paper bag and walked away. but perhaps he would've fainted if he'd lingered much longer? my attitude: if he wanted a date, he should've just asked for it. why play these games?! especially when he AND his friend ended up looking way foolish.

at any rate, my poor friend was heinously embarrassed and glared at me for busting out at the table. i mean, i tried to hold it in, but no one could seriously expect me NOT to react. it was just...so bad...so so bad.... needless to say, neither of us are going back there anytime soon. regardless of the fact that the food itself was quite yummy. but then again, you have to have a minimum of $15 to charge, so that put a damper on things too. isn't having a minimum illegal btw?!

i love mr. noodle, but i could definitely do w/o the drama. fo sho.

Mr. Noodle
936 Broxton Ave
Los Angeles CA 90024
310.208.7808

http://www.misternoodle.com/fmain.htm