Restaurant Review: Niu Noodle House

I must start this review by saying how frustrated I am at the unfortunate service situation at Niu Noodle House. However, the food was delicious. It's always the worst when you want to love a place and recommend it to all of your friends, but really my experience was just one thing wrong after another. 

It all started at the bar, where I was waiting for Jeremy to meet me. I was given a drink menu and asked for the bartender's opinion between the mojito and and jasmine-agave vodka gimlet. After he explained that the mojito is made with sake, I opted for the gimlet. Meanwhile, two people sat down to the left of me and one guy to the right of me. All three people were served in between other orders from the tables, and I'm still sitting waiting. I catch the bartender's attention 10 minutes later and he says my drink will be the next one after the next one. Um..ok. So 20 minutes later I get my drink:

Apparently they make the jasmine agave on site, and I could definitely taste it, along with a shit ton of vodka. Ok, so not the best drink I've ever had but fine. Jeremy finally arrives and we get seated. We get two drink menus and one dim sum menu. A few minutes later, a table of three is seated next to us and gets full menus, waters, and a waiter asking if they have any questions. We wait 10 minutes and finally grab the manager who happened to be walking by and ask for menus, water, and mention that no one ever came back to help us. He apologizes and brings over one full menu, so I have to ask for another one so we can both look-what a concept. So, we settle on what we are going to order and end up having to grab the manager again to place the order because still no one came over to check on us. We order a round of dim sum: steamed pork soup dumplings, steamed pork, shrimp, and chive dumplings, steamed chicken dumplings, and steamed pork buns. We also order Niu beef trifecta soup noodle. He specifically asked if we wanted everything to come out together and we said no, please bring the dim sum first.

Now we are chatting and waiting for our meal, and I see large drops of water fall from the ceiling onto Jeremy's plate...gross. It's from the AC or vent or something. So, we grab the manager AGAIN and he seemed to be prepared for this complaint and moved us to a nearby table right away. Meanwhile, I'd like to note that they sat another couple there immediately after we moved, and we watched them sit there for five minutes and then ask to switch tables. Then another couple sat down, and we watch the girl ask the guy to switch seats, but I guess he managed to brave the AC drip because they did not ask to move. I'm just sitting there wondering why they would sit ANYONE there knowing the issue? 

ANYWAY, we get our dim sum, but what do you know? It's the wrong order. Well, they got the pork buns right, but brought out some other type of dumpling that we did not order. They took it back and came out a few minutes later with the correct order. 

I will take a break in my complaining to talk about how good the food was. The dumplings came with three different dipping sauces, but I have no idea what they were to say much about them. The pork soup dumplings were my favorite - made with minced pork infused with pork broth. They sort of pop open when you bite into them and release the yummy broth. The pork, shrimp, and chive dumplings and the chicken dumplings are pretty self explanatory, and the pork buns were typical, which is always fine by me. Overall, the dumplings were all large, stuffed full with the various ingredients, and really just delicious.

Left: Pork, Shrimp, and Chive Dumplings
Right: Pork Soup Dumplings
Not Pictured: Chicken Dumplings

Steamed Pork Buns

So, while we digging into the dim sum, the waiter comes around with our beef trifecta. The table is full of dishes and we specifically asked to wait to bring that out until after. So, we remind him of what we requested and he went away with the dish and came back after they cleared the dim sum.

Now, let's talk about this beef trifecta soup noodle because it was awesome. It comes with a beef broth and we opted for ho fun noodles (wide, flat noodles) instead of ramen. The broth was rich and tasty, the noodles were kind of mushy but in a good way, and the beef (flank steak, short ribs, and beef shank) was so tender and seasoned by the broth. The soup also came with baby bok choy, a hardboiled tea egg, scallions, fried seaweed tempura, and a little sweet corn on the side. Great combination and great dish all around. I think I might have to look past our unfortunate service experience just to have this dish again - that's how much I liked it. 

Beef Trifecta Soup Noodle

Also worth mentioning - great West Village location, very reasonably priced, and has fun, modern decor appealing to a young (ish) crowd. I'm sure the people next to us had a GREAT meal as it seemed they had excellent service and I'm sure they enjoyed their food as much as we did. Perhaps we'll meet again Niu Noodle House, but if only for your beef trifecta...