Restaurant Review

Friday, June 29, 2001

No noodling needed,

Good prices and good food equal great dining at D. Noodles House

Good news
   Although you can find Vietnamese dishes in several Corpus Christi restaurants, it's nice to finally have one that specializes in it.
   Bad news
   I can't say I cared much for either the décor or the ambiance. The inside looked more like an office building than a restaurant, and the walls were sparsely decorated with pictures of Dallas Cowboys linebacker Dat Nguyen, the owner's little brother.

At a glance 4701 Ayers Street, Suite 101 in Pharaoh Plaza Phone: 855-6096 Entrees: $4.95 to $7.95 Credit cards: yes Checks: yes Spirits: Full Bar Wheelchair access: yes Hours: Mon.-Thurs. 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Food: 2 ½ stars Service: 1 star Atmosphere: 2 stars

   Food for thought
   My companion and I ordered too much food at D. Noodles House. That's what the proprietor, Lyly Nguyen told us during one of her visits to our table. The restaurant, patterned after another restaurant owned by her parents and operated by an uncle in Rockport, has been open less than a month and already is drawing a large lunch crowd.
   We started with two appetizers: spring rolls and Vietnamese egg rolls.
   I can safely say the spring rolls at D. Noodles House are the largest I've ever seen. We're talking burrito-sized and filled with boiled shrimp, pork, vermicelli noodles and vegetables rolled in rice paper. They're also priced lower than any I can recall - $2.95 for two.
   How did they taste? The rice papers used to wrap the spring rolls seemed a little tough, as though they hadn't been soaked in water long enough, and the peanut sauce seemed a little bland. Otherwise they were fine, and considering the size and price ... I'll definitely return for more.
   I'm not nearly as knowledgeable when it comes to Vietnamese egg rolls. These were deep-fried to a dark brown and were so fresh they were too hot to eat at first. They come three to an order and they're shorter and thinner than the spring rolls.
   I'm not much of a soup fan, but decided I should sample the Famous Vietnamese Noodles Soup featured on the front of the menu. The soup contains thinly sliced rare beef and rice noodles in a special broth containing secret ingredients.
   The broth tasted spicy and a bit hot (we added hoison and hot sauce) and the ingredients were as fresh as one could want. But the beef lacked the kick that I had already grown fond of and I soon concentrated on the other entrees we had ordered.
   One thing you'll notice is that the menu is heavy with beef, although you can find chicken and shrimp if you look hard enough.
   My companion ordered marinated char-grilled beef with vermicelli noodles and vegetables, while I opted for the special marinated char-grilled beef and shrimp with rice.
   I can't say enough about how good the beef tasted. It was marinated in another secret concoction and grilled to a dark, almost crunch consistency on the outside, yet tender on the inside.
   I ate all my grilled shrimp and beef and left a little of the moist, brown rice. The rice tasted best when mixed with beef and fish sauce that we poured over both our entrees.
   Service
   D. Noodles House is one of those places where you order at the counter and they bring the food to your table. It's hard to go wrong with that formula. They took our order just fine and delivered everything in a timely manner.
   Lyly Nguyen checked on us two or three times, answered our questions and explained the proper way to eat things.
     

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Restaurant reviews are written by a team of freelance writers. The Caller-Times pays for the meals. From time-to-time the writers visit previously reviewed restaurants to update the information.

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