Classic Guilin Rice Noodles

As someone who isn’t a huge fan of rice noodles I was pleasantly surprised. The flavors were good and my girlfriend who has eaten authentic guilin noodles in China gave this place a 4.5. The large bowl wasn’t as big as I expected but that’s more me being a fatty than an indictment on the size of the bowl. The crispy pork has great texture but is a bit bland, the meat portions are a bit small but the fact that you can get a good sized side dish of meat for 3 bucks is pretty good. Overall solid food at a good price

If you know me, you’ll know that I love noodles of all kinds. These rice noodles are unlike phở in that they’re thicker. Come with an open mind. You’ll love all the toppings. #16 with the crispy pork was better than the tripe bowl (#15). You can request to have both. We didn’t pour the broth in because that would dilute the flavors. The broth is light in consistency and flavor. I did had to heap on the chili oil. As I’m writing this, I am craving another bowl.
They serve longan tea which is made from dried fruit similar to lychee, imparting a sweet flavor. The tea is supposed to be full of nutrients.
If you see the dining room filled and start to calculate the wait time in your head, don’t fret… there’s a secret room in the back, which is more spacious and less raucous.

As a Guilinese, everytime go to Oakland I will come here and eat a bowl of noodle. The noodle is really the flavor of my hometown.

As a white man in Oakland, I often remark how terrible other white people’s reviews of Chinese places are. That is, they say it’s good, but the place is terrible. I’ll never trust whitey again! Well, this place is actually delicious. Chinese food with flavor… imagine that.

Honestly, I have to say it was the worst spicy snail noodle soup I’ve ever had in my life. I was so excited before I went there, b/​cuz I saw high reviews of this store and many people recommended me this place. Last night I went there with my friends, and we were really disappointed after we tried it. I can’t image that a store could do this famous Chinese gourmet as this way. This soup base was so tasteless, and the noodle was so so bad. I only got one bit even I was really hungry. Unfortunately, we won’t come back anymore after this experience.

I’ve been to different guilin noodle restaurants, but this is the best and most authentic. They use high quality of meat, bones, herbs, and spices for their soup base. Because I remember the taste of guilin rice noodles from my hometown, I would like torate them five stars.

3.5 Stars! My friend and I originally wanted to get some handmade noodles at Shan Dong down the street, but there was a 30-​minute wait so we decided to try this place. It looked bright and appealing from the outside.
This resto features cuisine from Guilin, China. It’s been open for about 3 years and to me seems off-​the-​beaten Oakland Chinatown path. There were so many interesting noodle dishes with pictures on the laminated menus! The server explained the most popular dishes and encouraged us to try their signature dry noodle dish. We ordered #6 with thinly sliced beef and pork. This dish was great! It had a plethora of textures – bits of pickled veggies, peanuts, dry-​ish beef, CRUNCHY pork skin, and baby soft rice noodles. It came with a light salty sauce and some extra broth on the side. I would def order this dish again! I could eat it all by myself.
We also ordered a spicy beef noodle soup dish. The broth was quite herbal tasting. I’m not a fan of flowery-​tasting savory items, so I would not recommend this dish unless you are a fan of flowery-​tasting savory items! LOL. The beef was so dry – kinda like beef jerky. I picked it out and laid it in an unsightly manner on the table since we did not have enough napkins.
They serve a light, brown tea, which had a delicate citrus and herbal flavor. My guess is that it had dates in it.
They have very clean bathrooms by Chinatown standards! There is also an abundance of seating and tables in the front AND back of the resto. If you ever need a place to hold a large, casual party. This would be a good option.
For two noodle dishes, free tea, and a side of free pickled cabbage, we paid only $ 19.00. What a deal! Next time the wait is too long at Shan Dong, saunter down a couple of blocks to this joint and try the famous Guilin Rice Noodle!

I just traveled to Guilin in September and ate the classic Guilin rice noodles 3 times at 3 different places. I love it. This restaurant we stumbled upon when we googled Guilin rice noodles for a recipe. The flavor is authentic, and of course the portions are much bigger here in the US, and the ones we had in China had very little meat. Now I don’t have to travel there to get my new favorite Chinese noodle.
Please be advised that as of September, 2015, this restaurant is opened at 10, not 8:30 as stated online.

I enjoyed #6. The portion was good. You can choose regular or large size but regular was enough for me. They served a different type of hot tea than the regular black or green tea. Service is not bad. –1 star because 2 out of four fried chicken wings was a drumette. Normally, restaurants only serve the wing part.

This place is really special and features unique healthy flavors at low prices in a fast food way!
Another Oakland miracle and you can park out front at 8PM on a Friday evening.

Tried the sampler of five different kind of noodle bowls. Very good. Also tried the spicy noodle soup. It was good, but not as good as the sampler. The best dish was the chicken feet. Very tasty. A great experience trying something new.

A small place with simple decoration, but serving great Guilin rice noodle. It’s definitely beat in the area (we don’t have much choices anyway). Still a good place for a quick lunch.

BEST GUILIN NOODLE I have
a little bit spicy, but really yummy

This place is definitely unique for bringing the flavors of Guilin to the Bay. They have another location in San Jose that gets VERY busy. I came here on a week night and there was plenty of space to spare.
They serve a tea that is really sweet. I’m not sure of the translation, but my mom makes soups out of it for me when I have bad coughs. We ordered the sampler noodle, which had five different kinds of noodles with the broth in the middle. I really like this one because I could taste how they were all so different. I thought the flavors wouldn’t be prominent enough to notice a change, but it definitely was. Each bowl was slightly different, my favorite was the stewed beef. My mother is a native to a village right by Guilin and she prefers her noodles more dry. She barely added any of the broth to the noodles, so I did the same. I like it that way because the flavors weren’t diluted. The other bowl we got was the spicy snail rice noodles. The name is a little frightening but it was so good. I grew up with flavors like these and really enjoyed it. It’s slightly tangy but still savory. The noodles are all cooked to perfection.
I really like this place and hope to come back. My favorite part is just being able to share a part of my mom’s culture with her.

Let me start by saying that I am not native to Guilin or nearby and never had this type of noodle before, but being a native Chinese, the food here definitely carries a taste of home for me! This place reminds me of the street side restaurants in China where you sit down, order your food, drink some hot, cheap tea, eat and go. You can stick around and chat too, but also makes for a good one person meal.
While the menu selection is extensive, I usually stick with the Guilin noodles. Crispy pork and braised pork are two of my favorites. I usually add a little soup half way through to help dilute the saltiness at the bottom (the soup is just straight bone broth, no flavor). Each serving is huge and none of it keeps well as left overs, so be careful what you ask for.

Clean, comfortable place that’s differentiated from the mainly Cantonese establishments in Oakland’s Chinatown. As the name clearly states, the noodles here are Guilin-​style, referring to a city in Guangxi province, which borders Guangdong province (where Cantonese food comes from) to the west. Because China is such a big country, there are many regional variations in cuisine and culture, with Guilin at the center of one of these surprisingly distinct regions.
If you’re used to Cantonese or Vietnamese noodle soup bowls, you’ll be in for a bit of a surprise. Instead of receiving a heap of noodles submerged completely inside a huge bowl of soup, you’ll get a plate of noodles that you’ll mix with as much sauce as you like, and then, if necessary, you’ll draw from a separate, small bowl of rather thick soup. The menus here have all the instructions and background you’ll need to appreciate and understand the whole experience a bit more.
All in all, a perfectly decent venue if you happen to be in Oakland’s Chinatown or downtown areas, especially for lunch, and are willing to try one of the many different regional variations in Chinese cuisine.

As a Guilin/​Nanning local I’ll say this is the taste of home. You can’t ask for too much when you’re tens of thousands of miles from China.
I shared a large Guilin rice noodle and a regular Laoyou rice noodle with a friend. We were super satisfied in terms of both the taste and the portion.
Not everybody will be able to enjoy how it tastes. However, people who understand its goodness won’t be disappointed. I’ll definitely go back soon to try other menu items.

Food quality: 3.5÷5
Food serving: 4.5÷5
Service: ³⁄₅
Clean: ³⁄₅
The food size was very reasonable and fills your stomach. Average noodle is $ 7 and the food tastes most based on sesame oil/​spice oil and not overall good taste with the soup. We found some of the spoons to be oily and seemed like it wasn’t cleanly washed. Overall it’s a nice environment and the food will fill your cravings if u are hungry.

I came here for breakfast since I saw that they have a $ 3.50 special which included a small bowl of guilin rice noodles with a drink.
I ordered the beef with seasonal veggies and the guilin rice noodles. The broth comes in a separate bowl, so you can decide whether you want to add it to the noodles or just drink it. When the noodles come out, I mixed it. It is pretty plain without the special spicy sauce that they make. I really like their special chili sauce that they make so that’s a plus. Another plus is that the noodles here are actually a healthier option. It wasn’t oily or too salty. Even the broth wasn’t oily!
As for the drink, I chose the milk tea, but it wasn’t that good. The color was great, but it tasted like it was made from a powder form of milk tea.
Overall, I will come back if I’m craving guilin noodles, and to try the spicy snail! There aren’t many places that sell this type of cuisine.

The Good:
Super clean restaurant with lots of seating and a update and modern designed interior.
The Bad:
I didn’t get a chance to spend enough time taking in all the potential this place has to offer.
The Ugly:
There’s nothing ugly about this place or their food.
The Synopsis:
Gullin Rice Noodles was the first stop on our walking tour of Chinatown. From the outside, you’d never think this place is as clean or as big inside from what it looks like from the front.
The menus are plain, simple and to the point and from what we were told by our guide, Gullin Rice Noodles is what China food is truly considered to be.
The food portions we were provided are not huge but, they were good and fresh.
This is a place I’ll be revisiting very soon.