Review: Kung Fu Noodle
By Edmund TijerinaFebruary 13, 2015
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William Luther /San Antonio Express-News
The exterior of Kung Fu Noodle
There’s plenty of percussion in the kitchen at Kung Fu Noodle, echoes of slaps and thumps that reverberate through the restaurant. Those bangs are a little jarring for the uninitiated, but they soon transform into comforting reminders that this kitchen is performing something special: hand pulling Chinese noodles.
Once those noodles go into one of the flavorful broths with meats, vegetables and garnishes, they turn into dream-inspiring bowls.
The banging, by the way, isn’t for show. It helps develop the gluten in the dough. Once the dough is kneaded thoroughly and smacked onto the table, a cook grabs a segment of dough, stretches it until it reaches arm’s length, doubles it and repeats the process until that initial segment has turned into into a large handful of fresh noodles, a little thicker than spaghetti. If the noodles are made right, they should have a bit of a springy texture and readily absorb flavors.
At this restaurant, the noodles are wonderful. They’re called la mian or “stretched noodles,” a style most associated with the city of Lanzhou in north central China.
Kung Fu Noodle
★★ ½
6733 Bandera Road at Grisson Road, 210-451-5586
Quick bite: Enjoy excellent hand-pulled Chinese noodles, hand-made dumplings and well-layered broths in a minimalist setting.
Hit: Noodles with lamb, dumplings with pork and mushroom, pork and cabbage steamed bun★
Miss: Place fills up quickly.
Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday
Price range: Buns, $1 each; noodle and dumpling dishes, $6.99
★★★★Superior. Can compete nationally.
★★★Excellent. One of the best restaurants in the city.
★★ Very good. A standout restaurant of its kind.
★ Good. A restaurant that we recommend.
(no stars) We cannot recommend this restaurant at this time.
Express-News dining critics pay for all meals.
The menu at this restaurant consists almost exclusively of handmade noodles and dumplings. Two types of buns are available on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and they’re also worth carving out time for a visit.
One of the steamed dumplings combined minced pork, diced cabbage, a bit of fresh chiles and a mixture of spices. The complex flavors skillfully combined meaty, spicy and herbaceous elements. The other, which was solely a steamed bread dumpling, worked well for sopping up extra broth from the noodle dishes. At only a dollar each, these dumplings are not only good eating, but also an incredible deal.
Get a bread dumpling, because you’ll want to sop up some broth, even after filling up on noodles. The pork broth featured small pieces of meat in a light pork broth that also included bok choy, a touch of ginger and a nice mixture of other aromatics.
A well-layered beef broth anchored another noodle dish, but the noodles with lamb are a must-order. The lamb broth also included a generous helping of dried chiles, similar to chile de arbol in flavor and especially in heat. During one visit, the heat was so intense that it provoked sweating, coughing and tearing up. Despite the pain — or perhaps because of it — I didn’t want to stop. Even though the heat from chiles hurt, the broth still delivered an incredible amount of other flavors.
During another visit, the burn from the soup was much more manageable, but equally flavorful. This soup featured a noodle that was about a half-inch wide and called, appropriately enough, wide noodles.
One quibble: even though the broths had nice layers of flavor, they would have been even better with a touch more ginger, scallions and other aromatic herbs.
A mixture of stir-fried noodles with diced red and green peppers, celery, carrots and scallions with a touch of fresh chiles proved delightfully vibrant.
Just as there’s no bad choice from among noodles, all the dumplings work well, whether you’re talking about the pork and mushroom dumplings, beef dumplings or pork and chive dumplings. For an extra dimension of flavor, pour a little black vinegar into a small condiment dish and dip the unadorned dumpling into it.
Just be aware that there are only a handful of tables and the ambiance is austere, with mostly bare walls, a few pictures hanging, some red paper lanterns around the cash register and a single television showing country music videos. Hey, the noodles may be from China, but the restaurant is still in Texas.
etijerina@express-news.net
Twitter: @etij
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