don’t tell my nainai

 

Shang Artisan Noodle | Las Vegas, NV

I’ve been influenced by no other than Mikey Chen. If you don’t know who is he, check him out. He has a couple different Youtube channels exploring the world of travel and mainly food. This man can eat 10 different dishes in a day and still be hungry for more.

Right before my trip to Vegas, I saw that he uploaded a new video on his Strictly Dumpling channel about the Best Noodles in Las Vegas. What perfect timing. *edit: I posted this really late. my bad my bad*

While watching his video, I can feel my mouth watering. I couldn’t wait to try these hand-pulled noodles, spicy wontons, and freshly made dumplings. Since he highly recommended the first place in the video, expectations were high.

No bs, I’m a noodle expert. You got to know your strengths and weaknesses.

Weaknesses include:

• Asthma
• Spelling
• Directions

Strengths include:

• Board games
• Yikin’
• Noodles

I’ve been eating noodles since I was a little noodle. My Nainai (grandma) makes the best beef noodle. Hands down. She is straight of the motherland, you can’t argue with that type of authenticity.  Nainai’s beef noodle is one of my favorite dishes. No matter how much I’ve tried, I could never find anything that came close. Restaurants would try but there was no competition at the end of the day. Bag secured by my Nainai.

Until now perhaps?

Shang Artisan Noodle, you delicious son of a bitch. Their noodles are absolutely out of this world. When you get a chance, watch the first restaurant featured on Mikey Chen’s video. I dare you to come back and tell me that isn’t art. Just thinking about that video is making me feel some type of way. To answer your question, yes, it tastes as good as it looks.

Upon arrival, there was a line. We waited for about 30 minutes before getting a seat. It’s limited seating but completely worth it. Just wait. Trust me. I ordered spicy wontons, dumplings and beef noodles, baby.  Our wontons and dumplings came out first pretty quickly and the beef noodles followed shortly after.

The wontons got me really wonton-ing more. I know I used this joke before but I could not resist. The wonton skin was thin but it helps the insides perfectly fine. It soaked in beautifully the spiciness of the chili sauce. If you don’t like spicy, suck it up. The wontons didn’t burn your mouth, just added a little kick. Shang Artisan Noodle prides itself on the fact that they make everything fresh and inhouse. It really shows through the wontons and the dumplings. The ‘skin’ really shines in the dumplings and the wontons. If I were to choose between the dumplings and wontons, wontons win. Easy money. Don’t get me wrong, the dumplings were delicious but I can not stress enough how good these wontons more. They really had me wonton-ing more. Ok, I’m done.

Aah. It’s finally showtime, beef noodle has arrived at our table. I would never tell my Nainai this but DAMN. Shang Artisan Noodle’s dish gives my Nainai’s a run for her money. Where do I even begin? Everything about this dish was fresh, ratios were on point, and just ugh. Let’s just start with the broth… Straight flavorful. If your broth is trash and tastes watered down, then you can excuse yourself. This was everything but bland. Best believed there was nothing left in my bowl. Let’s talk meat. Granted, I’ve never prepared beef noodle before, but I know the meat takes a considerable amount of time to get to that right spot. They must’ve used some ancient secret because the meat absolutely just fell apart perfectly. It wasn’t tough or chewy at all. Every bite of that juicy meat just exploded flavor.

So the question remains… Whose dish was better, my Nainai’s or Shang Artisan Noodle? At the end of the day, I am LOYAL to my family and nothing beats her food. This doesn’t mean I wake up at night and think about these noodles. Sometimes when I’m going through old photos and I see it, my heart skips a beat. I’m suddenly brought back to a simpler happier time. Ugh, truly the noodles that got away.

All jokes aside, I hope I shined some light on this amazing place. I love how fresh and homemade everything is. It really reminded me of my Nainai and home.