Beef Noodle Soups of the San Francisco Peninsula – The Sequel

Last fall, I wrote about my quest to sample beef noodle soups as take-out lunch. I picked 10 restaurants from around me, including several of our all-time favorite dining destinations. It was the most comprehensive survey of a single type of food that I had ever done, and I was proud of myself.

Upon learning about my quest, Ken suggested that I try his go-to restaurant and compare its beef noodle soup to those on my list. It was described merely as “the place across from my home” so I thought of it as no more than a matter of convenience. However, he brought it up again a few weeks later, and it started to sound like an endorsement.

One day, I picked up the phone and ordered a beef noodle soup from Ken’s favorite restaurant. Given the endorsement, I knew they made it without bothering to look up their menu. The person on the other end agreed. Hilariously, when I arrived to pick it up, I realized that they had three varieties of beef noodle soup. Um… so which one did I order? Apparently the person over the phone had taken my order as #17, the braised beef noodle soup. However, there were two other options, one of which was also marked as recommended…

It was my fault for not having read the menu, but the restaurant’s lack of regard for the variety of their own dishes was truly strange. I went back the next day to try #18, the version with pickled mustard. By this point, I was already knee-deep in expanding my list of rankings, and might as well evolve it into the second chapter of my beef noodle soup saga.

Tasty Place 品味嘉 (braised)

My first impression with Tasty Place, Ken’s recommendation, was the rather small portion of soup. It didn’t feel right to pay an average price for 80% of the average quantity. However, I soon realized that it was just very concentrated. The soup was the most fragrant among everything I had tried. I left the empty take-out container on the kitchen counter, and it was still emitting a salivating aroma hours later. Unfortunately, the same was true for the soup’s saltiness. It tasted more like a sauce for you to dip the noodles in, as opposed to a soup to drink. Some styles of noodle soup are meant to be eaten exactly that way, but that’s not how I prefer my food. Thus while this dish may rank well for another beef noodle soup connoisseur, it doesn’t score that high on my list.

Score: 2.9 (between #6 and #7 from the first list)

Tasty Place 品味嘉 (pickled mustard)

If I had read Tasty Place’s menu before placing that order, I would have asked for this particular style in the first place. Not many restaurants sell pickled mustard beef noodle soup 老罈酸菜牛肉麵, so I consider this dish a gem. The pickled sourness provides a nice balance to the heaviness in any bowl of beef soup, and works especially well here due to Tasty Place’s liberal use of salt. The pickled mustard (suan cai 酸菜) and beef both come in large chunks, adding substantial crunch and chewiness. The orange-colored soup is thick and spicy that reminds me a little of Malaysian laksa. Although the price/quantity ratio is still not ideal, this dish stands out as one of the most memorable beef noodle soups money can buy around here.

Score: 4.1 (between #3 and #4 from the original list)

Chef Zhao Bistro 老趙川菜

Chef Zhao makes some of the most herbal beef soups I’ve ever tasted. Take a small sip and it’s like a fist full of garlic, cilantro, peppercorn, and ginger punches you in the face… in a good way, though, if you like those things. I have a deep love for peppercorn and this soup numbs my mouth like nothing else. The beef is tender and full of flavor, and the bok choy is fresh and crisp even after the long drive home. Unfortunately, the noodles suffer from a bad case of cubicle pasta syndrome and are not easy to eat.

Score: 3.7 (same score as #5 from the original list, and I’d give this one the tie breaking vote)

Earl Spicy 絕味川湘

There is a 1.2-mile stretch between Millbrae and San Bruno with five restaurants directly on El Camino Real selling beef noodle soups. Having tried the other four (Tasty Place being #4), I was compelled to complete the list. We used to be big fans of Earl Spicy’s former life, but after it went downhill, changed management, and got this weird name, we just hadn’t visited it in years. To reunite us was an average bowl of beef noodle soup – with fairly weak noodles and off-the-chart spicy soup. Would I be happy to eat it on an average day? Sure! Does it stand out among the fierce competition on the SF Peninsula? Well not very much.

Score: 3.4 (between #5 and #6 from the original list)

The Noodle Shop 正宗毛家菜

The Noodle Shop has an awkward English name. In Chinese it literally says Mao’s (referring to the Chairman) Hometown (which is Hunan) Cuisine, and its menu items reflect exactly that, mostly heavy and spicy dishes to be eaten with white rice. While it does have an excellent bowl of beef noodle soup plus maybe a couple other noodle dishes, it’s really not a shop specializing in noodles by any measure. Regardless, this dish is solid. What makes it special are the chili bits in the spicy soup and the udon-like rigid texture of the noodles. The rectangular cuts of flat beef slices are the weakest link, but they don’t overly distract from the overall package.

Score: 3.7 (same score as #5 from the original list and Chef Zhao Bistro from above)

Spicy Empire 麻辣帝國

Spicy Empire’s liberal application of cilantro creates a unique flavor profile, which I applaud. Unfortunately, it’s overpowering in a soup that otherwise lacks thickness and complexity. The yellow noodles appear to be the Cantonese-styled egg noodles, which are not bad but seemingly out of place in a bowl of beef soup. There is a single piece of very thinly sliced bok choy, which is a hilarious attempt at dodging the “failed to include vegetables” penalty.

Score: 3.2 (between #5 and #6 from the original list)

Final Ranking & Thoughts

There you have it, sixteen beef noodle soup options on the SF Peninsula, ranked and mapped below.

I was deliberate to cram the first part of the saga into 2.5 weeks so the scoring would be as consistent as possible. The sequel, unfortunately, started 10 weeks later and was spread out over another 7 weeks. As such, the precision of the relative scores should be taken with a grain of salt. As with the ranking of any subjective matter, your experience may vary. I would love to hear, though, if you have a different point of view on any part of this list.

This is a ranking of beef noodle soups only and should not be extrapolated to imply the relative quality of the restaurants as a whole. In fact, some of the lowest-rated places here have been feasting destinations for my family and our guests… they just aren’t necessarily the best at this particular dish.

The competition is fierce among great Chinese restaurants in the Bay Area, an important perspective to take into account. Thinking back to my younger self in Virginia or New Jersey, even the lowest ranked dish on this list would have been ambrosia worth taking a road trip for. As a huge fan of beef noodle soups, the incredible access I have on the SF Peninsula is truly a dream come true.