Sha Lin Noodles: Reopened and Better Than Ever

A few months ago, there was a fire that started at Japas Bistro, which caused their unit to go up in smoke and affect the neighbouring restaurants as well. I was so sad that Sha Lin Noodles was affected and closed down because they were my go-to noodle place.

After passing by Broadway with M, we saw that they had reopened. We quickly parked the car and lined up. We really didn’t mind the line up since we wanted their noodles so badly! On the plus side, due to the fire, they had to do minor renovations and now the interior looks cleaner.

I first found out about this place when it was featured on Rachel Ray’s show – ‘$40 a Day’ a few years ago. Sha Lin Noodles was highlighted and a few days later I went. Ever since that first time, I fell in love with their food. All their noodles are hand made and their broth has no MSG at all. You can actually watch one of their chefs cooking up the noodles at his station. In this image he is making cutting noodles… thus the knife.

The best noodles to watch are the dragging noodles since they have to stretch the dough out and create an amazing display. It’s really a craft.

Tea comes in little ceramic cups. I was impressed with the service since my cup of tea was never empty.

Theres also the usual sauces where you can spice up your dish. My personal favorite is the hot chili oil. Add a good kick to your noodles.

Pan Fried Dumplings ($10.95)is a large dish. It is meant to be shared amongst a few people. Could be good enough for 4 -5 people. Its funny how it actually resembles a pan.

The dumplings have a nice firm skin with juicy pork inside. The best sauce to go with these dumplings is the black bottle of vinegar. It’s very unique and it’s one of those items to get here. This dish was so large, M and I couldn’t finish it, so we took it back home.

Large Dragging Noodle with Spicy Beef ($8.95) was really good. You can have it spicy or non-spicy. It has large slices of beef, bean sprouts with a delicious savory sauce. M loved this dish since its simple and has a good flavour.

Dragging noodles with chicken and vegetables ($6.95) comes with carrots, bok choy, chicken, noodles and the clean delicious broth. I simply adore this dish, this is my type of comfort food. It’s yet again simple and has great taste. I like to add the spicy chili oil into this dish to add more flavour.

For the longest time, I thought the chicken looked super weird, but it’s just the white meat and how they cook it.