Melbourne's Chinatown has no shortage of Cantonese and Shanghai style restaurants, but the Noodle Queen offers some heat from Central China's Sichuan style cooking. There is no menu posted on the window, and when we walked past it the first time, there was a young woman standing at the door holding the menu, but we ended up somewhere else that evening. The next night, my wife suggested we take a peek at the menu that the young woman was holding, and when we made eye contact, she was eager to show me the menu. On the first page is their signature dish called "Burning Noodle". I was sold. We were seated promptly and they explained that once you have decided what you want from the menu, you place the order and pay for it at the cashier. They bring the food out pretty quickly and although the routine of placing your order with the cashier seems so fast-food like, the place is actually nice with a quiet, comfortable and slightly upscale feel.
The food was quite good. We ordered Burning Noodles and Chung King styled noodle soup. The Burning Noodles are a dry noodle dish with a savory sauce, pickled vegetables, minced spicy pork, and other goodies including chopped peanuts with a hint of sweet to counteract the heat in the red chili slices. These must be Thai chilis because they are 5 alarm hot, and we ended up picking them out and setting them aside. Just the heat from their initial contact was enough to satisfy most American 4 star heat levels. The noodles were perfectly prepared and the dish was delicious. Dry noodles means not immersed in soup but served with a savory and spicy sauce. These were not oily like a lot of places end up serving. The Chung King styled spicy noodle soup was rated 2 chili peppers on the menu, and it was an American 3-1/2 star power on the heat scale. Very tasty and the noodles were perfectly done. The underlying broth was deliciously complex, and there were plenty of goodies including baby bok choy, pickled vegetables, and minced pork on top that created a very satisfying bowl of soup.
As an American tourist trying not to have to exchange US currency for local dollars, we appreciated that they accepted VISA, but with a $20 AUD minimum purchase and 3% credit surcharge. However, in Melbourne, it is not really customary to tip and their GST was only 2%, so the credit surcharge is easy live with. Many places in Chinatown only accept cash or require a $30 AUD minimum purchase with 3% surcharge for credit. Our meals came to a total of $23.27 AUD with all the surcharges and taxes. That's $17.48 US for a pretty good meal for two. read more
