Special Noodle

A special noodle review, in haiku form:Damn special noodle!Straight up murdered my taste buds!You know I'll be back!

Authentic Chinese restaurant specializing in dumplings and noodles. Came for an early dinner on a Sunday. Overall I had a positive dining experience here, with a few small gripes.Great:Pork belly and Jalapeño noodle - a bed of QQ noodles served under a flavorful stir fry of jalapeños and pork belly. I think the dish came out looking more appetizing than the menu picture! The pork was nice and tender and there were plenty of jalapeño pieces to add flavor. It was a little bit spicy, for those sensitive.Ok:Beef wrap - this is my favorite thing to get at Taiwanese restaurants and I heard this one is good. The green onion pancake was delicious and cooked well, but this one was definitely short on beef. The inside was mostly lettuce! If there were more beef this would have definitely been a solid item.I think there are other gems on the menu that I didn't get to try. I tried my friend's red hot oil wontons and those were REALLY good.Service was quick and polite!

We came at around 7 PM on a Saturday night, and we came minutes before the last table was seated and it was a packed restaurant. The tables are pretty well spaced out, but in a medium sized restaurant, it makes it really hard to hear yourself talk when it's busy. For the food, there was around 15 minutes between each dish that was delivered, forcing us to make the decision on whether to let the dish get cold or eat each dish one by one. I wasn't a fan of the lukewarm/cold food, but I'll happily talk about each dish when it was at its hottest. Soup Pan Fried Pork Buns (10/10): I loved the crispiness at the bottom of the pork bun. It was my first time ever trying something like this, and I really enjoyed the different textures. Please be careful- very hot soup inside!Spicy Beef Noodle Soup (8/10): The soup had an insane amount of chili oil in it, which is probably where the taste comes from, but it made it a little hard to sip on as you ate the noodles (are you supposed to drink the soup?) The meat was very tender and the small pieces of pickled cabbage in the soup really elevated the taste from okay to great. Marinated Pork Ribs (9/10): The meat was insanely tender (it basically fell off the bone) and seemed to be braised for a long time to get that soy sauce-umami flavor infused in each bite.Stir fry Chinese Lettuce (9/10): Very basic, very simple. Cooked with some garlic and a pinch of other seasonings, this vegetable dish was the perfect balance to the chili oil in the soup and the fatty meat on the pork ribs. I would definitely come again in a larger group so I can try more dishes. I would recommend any of these dishes in this review, but I totally understand the hype around the pork buns- it's a must!!

This place was my favorite but now it has new ownership. I hate writing this because its Lunar NY. The menu is smaller, and the dishes they show on the monitors were not on the menu!Quality of the food is lacking and by the decline in number of customers in there, it shows. The dishes took a lot longer to get to us and there were only 3 tables.

My favorites are the pan fried dumplings and xlb soup dumplings, although everything was good! The spicy wonton are slightly sweet. The cucumbers were good, but could use a little more salt. The cucumbers were so expensive at $12!

There's a grand opening sign. I'm guessing this place might have had some remodel done and changed of ownership! We tried this place again and it was better than the old restaurant we had. The beef dish was delicious! A little bit too much cilantro but the dish was tender and not chewy with a little kick. Xiao Long Bao was big and juicy! Not dried. I liked the flavors in spicy beef noodle soup. The beef was too fatty for me but the noodles were al Dante! Delicious. Fast service. Place is Family friendly and casual.

Special Noodle is THE home for incredible pan fried dumplings. In the past, I never cared for this style of dumplings and always opted for steamed or potstickers, but their pan fried style changes everything. These hefty mounds of pork filling are literally bursting with piping hot soup and the most satisfying crusted bottom of the dumpling dough. These also have way more soup than any other soup dumpling I've tried. The texture of the wrapper is a cross of a bao bun and bouncy dumpling wrapper, all without being overly thick. These are delicious on their own or with their chili oil crisp. Ordering in the restaurant is easy and done by scanning a QR code. Our order of two types of dumplings and one appetizer came out within ten minutes of placing the order. I believe dumplings are made to order and they have a window to the dumpling making station.

Quick service, great food. We got the cheesy fried shrimp balls, beef wrap, egg pudding with shitake, and chicken XLB. Flavors really hit the spot for my hometown food craving. I'd definitely comeback again.

Yummy food! We love their XLB soup dumplings and pan fried dumplings. I recommend this place for any one looking for good dumplings and noodles.

Service is very good and prompt and food is not bad. We had soup pan fries pork bun, it's a must coming here. Freshly made every time we came here.