Noodle Bowl

Delicious food and fast service.
One thing that I Don’t like is the kitchen fan seems like out of work. when it is busy time, smoke from kitchen is everywhere so I get headache when I finish my meal.

Food came really quickly, and prices are fair.
The food was just mediocre. Flavours were very one-​dimensional. The portions are quite large, one order would be more than enough for lunch.
This is a nice spot if you’re in a rush for lunch and need a quick fix.

I am with the other 4 star reviewers. It is definitely not a fancy place by any long shot of the imagination, but it is perfect when you are looking for cheap, decent taste, accessible location and good portions.
My partner and I have been going there mostly for take out for about 6 — 7 years at least once a month. Our orders don’t change much: both the regular and the curry Pad Thai are –perhaps surprisingly– pretty yummy, the fried rice with vegetables is a personal favourite (although I usually order extra veggies), and my partner loves the mushroom chicken. Location is great, service is usually good, (the ladies who work there are usually sweet with a few exceptions here and there).

Forget other negative reviews. As another 4-​star reviewer wrote, if you’re not on a date and not looking for a 5-​star place, then this place is great for the following reasons:
–reasonable taste
–quite reasonable menu
–quite reasonable prices
–very reasonable portion sizes
Slightly better than takeout and with a lot of choice, portion size and location, it’s great place to go to if you’re hungry and cheap. Sure, it’s not the cleanest for a sit down place, but the benefits make up for its drawbacks. I’ve come here many times and intend to return many more.

If I could give this place 0 stars I would. I’ve been there 3 times and each time, the servers are always rude and inattentive. The food, REPULSIVE. I don’t know why I keep going back because I always leave hungry, since I can’t even finish my food.

So I came in for a quick dinner after a Long drive. First thing I did was use the washroom, which was so disgusting. Completely filthy, floor to bottom and the not one but two soap dispensers were totally empty and no paper towel. Clearly the washroom hadn’t been tended to in quite some time. At this point I’m thinking to myself, «if this is what the bathroom looks like, they clearly don’t give a shit about cleanliness, I can only imagine what the kitchen is like anyway, against better judgement, I decided to stay. I didn’t have a lot of time and was hungry. I figured I would give it a shot. Next thing I notice when I sit down is how dirty the surroundings is looks like no one cleaned the windowsills in months and tables are place right next to them.
Customer service… pretty poor. Server doesnt give any greetings or any verbal communication besides just taking my order. Nice. A smile and a friendly welcome would have gone a long way at this point. But clearly the staff don’t really give a shit either.
Ordered a Tom yum vegetable noodle soup $ 10 which came out quickly but unfortunately tasted off and I couldn’t eat it. I’ve had many Tom yum soups but it tasted awful. Very little spice, WAY too sour. Looking at other reviewers now, I see I am not the first to say the food tastes bad. So quite disappointing in all regards. The portions size was good but ended up being a total waste since I couldnt eat it anyways.
Left hungry (of course no one greets you when leaving) and irritated.
Definitely wouldn’t go back. This place just looks like a place that’s given up. I would NOT recommend. Take a few minutes and head down to china town instead.

So against my better judgement, I rejected the many bad reviews this place received, and went to take a go at it myself.
As you can probably tell already, I genuinely wished I hadn’t. I’m sitting here — well, laying now, feeling sluggish and greasy and sick to my stomach after just one meal here. Here’s my take on it.
I read that one cockroach review. Got me freaked out, not gonna lie, but man — noodles were cheap. I’m cheap. Match made. Didn’t care if there were bugs in the floor, so long as my food was good and cheap, all was well with the world. But no. You take one sip of your soup, there’s a fly in your noodles. You eat your noodles, there’s a suspicious looking insect now in your tea. You drink the tea, eat the noodles, and sip the soup — keeping an eye on everything — now there’s a spider crawling up your goddamn leg. This place can’t be stopped. I swear I was almost impressed.
The pad thai was store-​bought noodles slathered in sesame oil and peanut sauce. I would know because I made the same thing a week ago. College kid troubles.
Wonton soup was nice, until I came upon the 4 – 5 large lumps of «dumplings» that tasted like chewed and spit out liver (I was told later on it was chicken).
Only thing I would really suggest here are the shrimp rolls, in which they give you 4 – 5 thin little coconut-​shrimp-​like rolls of heaven.
That got one star, along with the fast service, so this place is a genuine «probably never again.» But hey! You might find a new kind of bug you haven’t seen before.

Came here randomly because I was in the area and hadn’t had anything to eat all day. I can honestly say this has probably been the worst restaurant I’ve eaten at in Toronto. I ordered Thai chicken red curry — the portion was good but the food lacked any kind of flavor. I may as well have gone and got a timmies plain bagel. Food was so extremely disappointing, NOT worth $ 9.99 let alone $ 5 or $ 3. No one should ever be served food that poorly made.
The service was also terrible. Both waitresses were both completely uneducated about the food on the menu. When asked if the curry comes with rice she went and asked if my boyfriend’s vermicelli dish comes with rice instead (???). Asked for a can of coke and she asks if we want diet or regular, we said regular. She came back with diet.
Walked out extremely dissatisfied. Didn’t leave a tip either.

I have been going here since it opened. I really like the food and the owner is a very nice guy. Hat said, the last two years things have really gone downhill in terms of cleanliness. A while back I had a cockroach crawl across my table. I told the girls working and they said sorry and I had to pay the full meal. It took me a while to get my courage up to go back but I really like the food and figured it was a one off. I’m sure most restaurants in Toronto have cockroaches. Another time I went I saw one on the floor. Today, after not going for 3 months, I went back. The table of 7 beside me got a cockroach in their food. They were all repulsed. When I went to leave another one crawled out from under a table. Today is my last day ever going here again.
Food good. Extra protein not needed!

I don’t know why people hate this place. Not the most authentic place but it’s pretty decent.
— good portions
— the taste was pretty good (tender meat, decent flavour). It’s like takeout food but more authentic. To compare, this place tastes better than Thai express… I assume you guys are familiar with the joint.
— convenient location (5 mins from spadina station). Especially if you’re a uoft student, this place is close to the northern part of the campus
I think the other reviewers hate this place cause it looks dirty and it has a terrible atmosphere– definitely not romantic or nice to look at. This place is great if you want food and you’re not on a date but just chilling with a friend. By the way, the washroom is a little icky– it’s dingy and old looking.
I rated this higher than other people because I don’t care if the place looks dirty. I have a terrible stomach and this place didn’t give me any stomach cramps or problems. I’ve had problems at cleaner restaurants so you shouldn’t judge a place based on how it looks. I guess the rating was heavily based on the taste and portion– relative to the many places I’ve eaten at…

Trust the multiple Unilocal reviews that tell you the food is really bad because it is. I took a chance because a friend wanted to eat here but I’m still feeling the effects of a bad lunch. Greasy, oily, tough chicken. Really not good. But the staff is very sweet.

Beware of the cockroach running across your table.
Ate there for the first time in over a year with my girlfriend recently. We hadn’t been in a while because it starting feeling dirty, and the day we went they had a ‘conditional pass’ in the window for food stored improperly (I think).
We decided to go in anyways. Ordered, got our meals, then a cockroach appeared on our table and ran across it.
The waitress came over, took a napkin, killed it on our table, removed it, and walked away. She said nothing in the process.
I then noticed another cockroach on the window a few minutes later.
Somehow we ate more of our meal, then informed the woman working at the cash that there is a cockroach infestation and we wouldn’t be back. She smiled sweetly and stupidly at us, and rang us out at the full cost of our meal.
Won’t be back.
Ever.

Recently moved near the area and was always amazed how packed it is. Ordered Cantonese Chow Mei for take out last time and it’s really not impressive. Portion is ok but flavour is lacklustre. Can definitely get much better value heading Chinatown. The place also doesn’t look clean all. Definitely won’t order from here again.

I can’t say I was thrilled about the food. I ordered the chicken pad thai and it tasted flavorless. I kept having to add more and more sriracha & hoisin sauce each bite. The only great thing about this place was the quick and friendly service. Unfortunately I don’t think I will be going back there anytime soon.

I’m sorry, but this is a solid two star place. Yes it’s another restaurant that truly caters to its UoT demographic. The food portions are huge (2 meals for $ 8 is always great!) and the food is prepared quickly — and that’s where the two stars come from.
I’ve been here twice for food to go and the service has always been solidly bland with a side of sour looks. While you do get huge portions of food, it’s your essential mix of sesame seed oil (lots of oil) and soy sauce with sugar. Which is perfectly fine if you’re looking for drunk food. But if you’re looking for a decent lunch at work, you might find that the oily sauce gives your stomach a bit of flip flop fun (as my coworker unfortunately found out).
I suppose the service is to be expected considering that it’s cheaper food, but it’s curt and dismissive. Expect your basic «what do you want» service.
Quite frankly there are better choices down the road.

One word; Ew.
If you dare to eat in, service is slow (when there is service), water glasses are scuzzy, there’s almost no ventilation so it can get really smoky and you will ALWAYS leave with the delightful scent of deep fried je né sais quoi in your hair and on your jacket.
I used to order take out from Noodle Bowl to avoid smelling like the place but the last time I ordered P2 I had a cockroach leg in my soup… Yup. Just the leg. Can’t make that shit up. I’m not naïve, I know that every restaurant has some sort of bug hanging around but unfortunately part of this one was cooked up in my food, who knows where the rest of it ended up. And that was all I needed, the last straw — I am done with you Noodle Bowl.
I pretty much live beside this place and although conveniently located, I avoid it at all costs — and you should too.

Checking on past reviews it seems others have complained about cockroaches as well this past month. I don’t know why Toronto Health is so slow to investigate (assuming people actually filed a complaint).
Toronto Health aside, my family and I spotted five cockroaches tonight near we’re we were sitting. One climbed up the wall and fell on our table.
We let a server know and she just shrugged it off.
There were also small bed bug like insects in a huge mass under and on the side of our table. This place is infested, and clearly nobody has a concern about cleaning it up.
Sure tons of places in the city have pest problems, but for them to be crawling around the dining room where people eat is ultimately disgusting.

I only stopped here because I lost track of time and it was the only restaurant open past 10pm that wasn’t fast food.
I should have had a sub.
I can’t fully blame Noodle Bowl for the fact that I didn’t eat the full meal I ordered. I have a hard time with really spicy food, so it could be on me. That being said, the Tom Yum soup — which I have eaten elsewhere MANY times — was so damn hot (spicy) that I couldn’t taste anything else.
Sadly, I was still able to see how poorly the tofu was cooked and how little chicken there was in the portion.
I threw away the soup (thankfully, they were served separately because I did take out) and ate the rest plain. But 2 spoonfuls of soup burned my taste buds so badly that I didn’t enjoy anything else.
And the burning didn’t stop there. Use your imaginations, folks.

I really wanted this place to be good and it just did not come through.
It is inexpensive, but that is not enough of a reason to go. I would love to have a better noodle place in the neighbourhood.

Absolutely 2 stars
Portions were large, but flavor was lacking
Other reviews are correct. If you want good Asian go elsewhere and head to Chinatown.