Tasty Noodle House

A great and amazing addition to Convoy! I have been here for lunch and dinner and both times are great. Parking will always be difficult in convoy but if you can get a spot then this place is totally worth trying. The interior is modern, service is excellent and the food is served pretty quick. Best of all the prices are very good for what you get.
Cucumber salad — lots of cucumber and garlicy goodness! I love it as a cheap veggie dish with the rest of the items.
Xiao long pao — we typically get pork. They are pretty well made! Finally I don’t need to go to Costa Mesa for my dumpling cravings!
Seaweed wrapped fish — amazingly light and tasty. This is paired perfectly with rice.
House sauce noodles — noodles with minced pork in sauce and veggies. Really tasty and enjoyable just by itself.
Honestly this place just rocks. Their menu is beautiful with many delicious and craveworthy pictures. There are so many things to try and the final bill at the end is less than what you would think for such great tasting food. This is my new goto place!

3.5 stars. A surprisingly decent place for Chinese/​Taiwanese food without needing to go to LA for it. Their beef noodle soup is highly praised and they seem to keep selling out in my past visits. The broth is on the point and the meet and tendons are cooked well. I also tried the pork hock noodle soup which was also pretty good but beware the lack of meat on the pork hock. Flavors were just right but could use a little more meat.
I usually get the potstickers as well as it’s very juicy and fried well. Personally I prefer them over their XLBs. Another item I typically get here is their pickled cabbage and pork fried rice. It’s very simple but the flavors are all there. A minor complaint I have with the fried rice and fried noodles is that it’s too oily. All an all their service is pretty good and I will continue coming here again for my Chinese/​Taiwanese food cravings.

If you can get past the parking situation, then you should definitely give this place a shot. I’m taiwanese, so this is my stamp of approval.
Order the Xiao Long Bao, always. Not as soupy as other places, but still worth it.
The three types of noodles I like to order here are The Beef Noodle Stew, House sauce noodle, and recently, the Spicy Prawn Noodle Soup. It was very good that it surprised me, being that I usually prefer meatier noodle soups. The prawns were soooo good! I’m very glad I tried it, the broth was delicious.
Haven’t tried too many rice plates but the Beef Stew over rice is pretty bomb too.
Can’t wait to come back and try more of the food here, really makes me miss my mom’s cooking.

I’ve only been here two times, but so far I’m obsessed! Everything is SO GOOD. And not to mention their service is fantastic – my water is always refilled before my cup goes empty and all the servers are constantly attentive to customers’ needs.
The beef scallion egg noodles are amazing… A must get. I’ve also had the pineapple fried rice and Thai fried rice. Thai fried rice doesn’t taste Thai at all but it still satisfied my taste buds. And the chive fish dumplings are something else! You can really tell they’re fresh and unique; they don’t have the same wrapper as your typical Asian fast food dumpling.

The Tasty Noodle House indeed lives up to it’s name with its truly tasty noodles (+ more)! This little Chinese restaurant succeeded in fulfilling my expectations and more. It’s neat, affordable, and pretty darn tasty. When me and my food squad came in for some dinner, we were quickly seated and taken care of by the attentive servers.
TIP: you can choose complimentary green tea over water here. :) much better for a cold day!
We got to ordering after a long process of mulling over the delicious looking dishes. Here is what we got and what I thought of the dishes.
Shanghai Soup Dumpling (Xiao Long Bao): delicate is the best way to describe this pork steamed dumpling. The mildly flavored meaty delight was wrapped carefully around a thin, but durable peel. Proper way of eating this soupy delight? Hold it at an angle so the soup is near the bottom, make an incision with your teeth, and then gently slurp the goodness inside before consuming. YUM!
House Special Noodle: I found myself coming back to this dish multiple times for a refill. It’s savory from the beef/​tofu sauce, but also sweet from those caramelized onions. Getting one is definitely enough for a hungry person to finish. The only slight flaw I find with this is that our noodles were a bit hard to shake loose to mix everything together.
Seafood Stir-​Fried Rice Cake: everything in here was cooked perfectly. My favorite part was eating the excellently prepared squid. I would have liked a stronger soy sauce flavor though. But it tastes great with the house’s chili sauce (which is conveniently at the table).
Would I come back? Yes! Parking is a bother, but this place impressed me!

Overall, I would assign 3.5 to 4 stars. It’s located in the «Convoy Plaza of Hell» — where parking is never available any evening (plaza with Crab Hut, TapEx, etc.). Happy to see that there has been a recent change of restaurants — one of which is Tasty Noodle House.
Despite the difficulties of parking, we were able to find a seat pretty quickly on a weekday night. The house was packed, but with a consistent ebb and flow of customers. The workers are super attentive, and they do all they can to seat you quickly. Definitely seemed popular with Chinese families. which is always a good sign when folks of the same ethnic background prefer to dine there.
We ordered several dishes based on a quick glance through of the Unilocal reviews:
(1) Chinese Green Beans with Minced Pork: This dish was okay. Slightly over cooked where the beans went a little soft. Nothing special. Definitely had better elsewhere.
(2) Grilled Pork Bun (the little white buns with sesame): This seemed to be the most reviewed dish (and most photographed dish). It didn’t take that long for them to come out, but the crispy bottom was a little too crispy (almost burnt). It is definitely unique and something I have not had before. Juicy, almost soup filled, pork insides with the fluffy with bun. My husband really liked these.
(3) XLB: Not bad… Hubster thought they were better than Shanghai Saloon with more soup and more flavor. They look a long time to come out. so I was pretty full by the time they were consumed.
(4) House Noodle: Not sure what it’s supposed to be, but it seemed to be the one noodle dish you HAD to order. Kind of reminds me of dan-​dan-​mien… It was pretty tasty but not as mind blowing as I thought it would be.
Overall, it was an OK experience. There’s definitely a lot more on the menu worth trying. I think I may have mentally hyped it up with reading the reviews and seeing all the photos. Again, not bad overall. and some of the dishes tried were new to us. so we have nothing to compare it to. Flavors were ok, service was great, prices a little on the med/​high side. so it all breaks about even.
Would consider trying them again, but from the four dishes tried. nothing really hooked us to feel compelled to return (may the grilled pork buns). definitely worth a try though! Just heads up on the horrible no good crappy parking!

Ehh, what a let down.
XLB — little soup inside and barely any flavor to the pork
Crab XLB — Inside was a crab mix that did not even taste like real crab
Grilled pork buns — very well presented but again no wow factor when tasting the meat inside
Ginger scallion beef noodle — They use very cheap pieces of beef with pieces of cartilage/​fat. This dish is also super oily.
Stinky Tofu — A little weird and funky
Thai Iced Tea — didn’t hit the spot
Parking is terrible and floor is super slippery. They also kicked out customers that just got done eating and were still having a conversation just to make room for new customers.
I won’t be back.

Being a lover of noodles, this place was heaven! So many options for noodles galore! It’s located in the same complex as Yogurtland and Tap Ex so obviously parking is a pain in the butt! They have a parking lot but it’s super small and it’s usually pretty busy.
The restaurant is really clean but it’s also pretty small so it might be hard to get a table right away or for a big group during busy times. Luckily, we were seated right away on a Wednesday night at 7:30. The staff here is really nice, they always filled up our waters and hot tea without us having to ask. The hot tea is complimentary and is served in a hot press and they have no problem filling it up!
The food: it’s actually quite an extensive menu so there are many options from noodles (both soup and dry) as well as rice dishes. They also have dumplings and buns. We ordered the Shanghai xiao long bao and they were really delicious! Be careful the first bite is probably really hot. We also ordered the Shanghai buns and those were REALLY hot when they came out but also really delicious. Sad days for me but I actually ordered the wrong thing. I wanted the spicy beef noodle soup but they also had a spicy beef noodle soup with tofu so I thought it just came with tofu but it’s actually noodles and soup and the tofu and the beef are in a side dish with a sauce very similar to szechuan. It was still delicious but this just means I have to come back to get what I really wanted!
The prices are pretty reasonable and the portions are definitely more than filling. I didn’t even finish my noodles but my friend finished it for me. :) The prices range around $ 9-​$ 13 depending on what you order. Definitely reasonable and I will definitely be back to try all the other noodles!

Dropped by on January 1^st for some delicious XLB to start our year, but it was closed — «Closed daily from 3:00 — 4:30pm.» No problem! We’ll whet our appetites with some boba and hang out at Tapioca Express first.
— Sesame chicken w/​spicy sesame sauce: texture of the chicken was nice — juicy and soft — but I felt that the peanut flavor in the sauce was a bit too strong, and overwhelmed the other flavors.
— Stinky tofu: YUM! The light spiciness paired really well with the dannnnkness of the stinky tofu. Not as stinky as I would have liked, but still delicious!
— Xiao long bao: tasty, savory and soup filled. Wonderful with a bit of ginger and vinegar.
— Shanghai grilled buns: took the longest to come out, but it’s understandable, since these grilled buns are pan fried/​steamed. The texture of the bao/​dough was good — chewy, and soft. The filling was a little bland, though :/​
Solid place. Looking forward to coming back and trying their other menu items!

Came around 5 pm on a Saturday and was surprised we didn’t have a wait as the plaza was packed and parking was difficult! Satisfying meal and totally ordered way too much. Started with an order of soup dumplings and Shanghai grilled pork buns. Entrees were the house sauce noodles and the beef noodle soup. Portions were generous and everything was tasty! Even have a good amount of leftovers. Will definitely be back!

This is so weird. We went back for more XLB at 4pm on a weekday – when they are open – and there was no one inside except for a couple of people (we assumed, employees or restaurant family members) SLEEPING. One guy was fully *lying down* on a bench, next to the window, another had his head down on the table, all in full sight from the outside. What the actual f? My eating partner and I were gobsmacked at the unprofessionalism and just plain weirdness of this. Obviously we weren’t going to enter the restaurant when people are lying down and sleeping on the seats. What the hell?
So we went somewhere else.
I took away one star for this.
UPDATE: We went back again on a weekday and the SAME thing happened! People sleeping and they actually waved us away! Then a Unilocaler sent me a message saying they don’t open til 4:30pm. That’s not what their sign says outside!

AMBIANCE: Place is crowded. Write down your name and wait to be seated. Hallway is pretty slippery, so be careful! The place is nice and modern. Seats are limited. Parking is very limited because it’s located in the plaza with raki raki, crab hut, shabu house, tofu house, tapioca express, etc.
SERVICE: Waitresses are quick, one took our drink order and another comes asking what we want to drink, same thing happened with our food orders. Waitresses are fast, but they must not be as observant or talk to each other. Tea was refilled often without being asked. We were also asked a few times how we were doing which was nice.
FOOD: Very extensive menu, so many things to choose from! The french pressed tea is free. All the food is pretty good, I really enjoyed my meal! Meal was good and pretty affordable, cheapest XLB’s i’ve seen in SD. Definitely coming back to try more dishes!
1. Black Pepper Seafood Rice Cake — Very interesting flavoring, sweet and peppery. If you don’t like pepper, this may not be the dish for you, the pepper is overpowering sometimes. Many of the little slices of rice cake also stuck to each other. There wasn’t very much seafood either. I thought the dish was just okay, one of my less favorites.
2. Grilled Pork Bun (8pc) — I LOVED THIS THE BEST of everything we ordered. The bun’s were soft and crispy, maybe a little burnt on the bottom but it didn’t ruin the overall flavor. The liquid inside was delicious and the meat tender. Just melted in your mouth! A MUST TRY.
3. House Sauce Noodles — You are given lots of noodles and enough sauce to cover all that noodle goodness. It was a delicious mix of beef goodness, just made me wanting more after finishing the dish. The rest of my party enjoyed it too!
4. Xiao Long Bao (8pc) — Sadly came dried out, there was barely any liquid left in the little bao’s. Didn’t get the pleasure of slurping the soup with the vinegar and ginger. Would be better if it were juicier.

XLB — meaty and satisfying, though could have done with more soup.
House sauce noodles — this stuff right here. Get it.
Pan-​fried string beans — a bit spicy, a bit stinky, all in the best way possible.
Grilled pork buns — star of the show.
Logistics/​seating/​etc. need a bit of work.

4.5 stars
Dined in once for dinner, and picked up to-​go once. Prices are decent. Portion is not huge but is slightly cheaper than Dumpling Inn. There are more varieties of noodle soup here than Dumpling Inn as well. It’s more 1-​person portion and you are not gonna get leftover noodle soup (who would want that?!).
Seating was easy on a Friday night, but parking was not.
Dined in:
1. XLB: average imo, but good pricing.
2. Yellow Eel lo mein: no broth, noodles were al dente, flavors are solid. I don’t and didn’t eat the eel, but it was well received.
3. String beans with House sauce: unexpectedly well cooked, wokness!
To go:
boy it was packed on Monday, but to go was quick and easy.
1. SH pan fried rice cake: delicious, not too oily, seasoning was great.
2. Seafood in crab meat sauce noodle soup: broth was very flavorful without being too salty. The noodles was a bit softer, though dine in may resolve this problem.
Who doesn’t love a dish hot off the wok. Better yet, you can almost taste it here! Definitely returning in the future.

I’ve been on the hunt for a new Chinese spot and a friend recommended tasty noodle house. Nice renovation from the previous restaurant that use to be there. Modern, sleek and clean. Not as much tables so there is a wait (clip board right up front). Must get are their grilled pork buns and the ginger scallion beef with noodles.
The buns are filled with ground pork and does indeed contain soup. Think of a xiao long bao except this bao is yeasty, doughy, and pan fried (Filipinos: imagine siopao). There was a decent enough amount of soup which tasted mildly sweet. I thought the filling was okay but under seasoned. The dough itself was okay — nice and fluffy but could have used a bit more browning on the underbelly. It takes about twenty minutes to make so be prepared to wait.
The ginger scallion beef noodles though were my absolute favorite. The noodles were cooked perfectly and the beef very savory. Shared this dish with the boyfriend and I wish I had it all to myself. A lot of green onions but the balance of black bean sauce in this dish is just yum.
We also had an order of the combination fried rice with Chinese sausage. It was good but could have used a bit more seasoning.

FREEDOMMMMMMM! First weekend off of finals, and the best thing is to treat yourself! I didn’t expect so many people to be chilling around SD, but there was actually a waitlist. Me and 3 others came around 1 PM and waited for about 20 minutes before we were seated.
I hate to be a follower… but when you see so the same recurring dishes at every table, that has to be a sign, right?
We ordered:
–1 order of Shanghai Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings) /​/​Actually better than what I expected! The soup (meat juice?) was sweeter, and the skin was on point! Not too thick or thin. It will definitely receive nods across the tables!
–1 order of Shanghainese grilled buns /​/​*MUST GET* If my parents said yes, then it is a YAS. That’s right! Classic. Delicious. HITS THE RIGHT SPOT EVERYTIME. I can eat this all day long!
–1 order of spicy stinky tofu /​/​I really like stinky tofu, but this dish is a hit or miss if you just like «tofu». It was a bit too over fried and the pieces are a bit too small. But, the «stinkiness» is just what I miss about Asia! Good with rice or as a side dish.
–1 order of Hunan style lamb /​/​I guess lamb is just fatty in general, but this was a bit too skimpy and fatty for my liking. Good spiciness though! It has the perfect «ma» (numb) flavor that Hunan is known for!
–1 order of beef noodle soup /​/​Too salty! Looks delicious but a red-​alarm for sodium overload! Definitely share it with others to get a taste of it, since the taste is good (the fermented/​sour vegetables and LOTS of star anise!)! Meat is also VERY tender and delicious. A bit too much tendon for my family, but I loved it!
Pros:
–Clean environment. It’s new, but since it’s a chain restaurant it will have to uphold its image for a while.
–Good selection. I am thoroughly impressed with the menu selection! Such a small place but it can rack in some pretty classic items!
–Decent pricing. If you come for yourself and order a dish, it’d be a classic price range. But don’t expect to be exploding full if you come with a huge party (if you choose to do family style).
Cons:
–Tone down the salt shaker! Not only was my whole party lethargic, but our tongues are dry as the Sahara Desert.
–Meh service. Our waitress was an international Chinese student who obviously doesn’t know how to speak fluent English. It bugged me so much that she didn’t know when to come take away our dishes so I ended up bringing them to the kitchen area myself since the table was so small.
Tips/​Observations:
–Parking is HORRENDOUS. The absolute worst plaza 24/7…just don’t even try coming in-​do street parking!
–Check in on Unilocal here gets you a FREE drink! Weird that it’s not a function yet on the app, but it says so on their menu!
–To-​go/​call in is possible! They are actually super busy in that aspect.
–They only take VISA or Mastercard!
Overall, I would come here with friends if Dumpling Inn was too busy! Definitely a good addition on Convoy!

4.5 stars, can’t bring myself to give them a 5 because I just have high standards since I’m from LA… ANYWAY, I’m SOOOO happy that there is finally a decent Chinese restaurant in San Diego.
They have great service, which you don’t normally see at a good Asian restaurant. They also have a really modern and clean space, which you don’t normally see at a good Asian restaurant either.
Food? Their food is so photogenic AND it tastes GREAT! I have yet to try the Beef Noodle Soup, but I heard it’s good, couldn’t get it last night since it ran out…
Xiao Long Bao– AKA Soup Dumplings had the perfect amount of fatty soup in it, I highly recommend you getting it.
Shen Jian Bao– AKA Grilled Pork Bun was just average, the skin is too thick for my liking, although the pork itself is very flavorful and yummy.
House Sauce Noodle — noodle was really chewy, and they were very generous on the sauce.
Sesame Chicken– One of my favorites for sure, chicken was soft and juicy, The sesame sauce tasted peanuty and has a nice kick to it. Will order again.
They have a very LARGE menu, but props to them for knowing to cook everything pretty well. I still need to come back many times to try everything that I want to try on the menu… YUMMY!

Just now trying to catch up on my Unilocal reviews. Came here about a week after opening and I can’t wait to go back for some more buns!
My initial impression of Tasty Noodle House was the weirdness of the mapo tofu. This is probably one of my favorite Chinese dishes of all time and this version was just strange. By all means it wasn’t horrible, the flavor was someone off and it was strange having peas and carrots mixed in.
The real star of the meal was the Shanghai grilled buns. The outside was so soft and pillowy, but the inside packed a real punch of flavor! I’ll be getting these again in the near future, but as others have mentioned it seems like the XLB is getting rave reviews. Hope this place sticks around long enough for a second go around!

Tasty? I’d say average. A new restaurant in the ever popular crab hut lot, so be wary of trying to find parking here. I usually try to go down a block or two to find street parking. This place was pretty packed for a Monday evening, which is pleasant to see, but we were fortunate as a party of 2 to be seated in less than 10 minutes.
I was looking to try their beef noodle soup, but they ran out. Like what the heck does that ever happen at a Chinese restaurant that something as simple as beef noodle soup runs out. I ended up getting the special house noodles (which was similar to dan dan noodles). Being a bit dissapointed, I feel my taste buds were skewed, but it was very standard. We also got xiao long baos, but it came at the end and was only warm, but it was still tasty.
Overall, a very average restaurant, but will come back since it may have been an off day.

Tasty Noodle House opened up last month (replacing Yu’s Garden) and is a chain from LA/​OC that specializes in Shanghai specialties. My Chinese friends told me that the food here is really good, so I was pretty excited to try it out!
I went here last night and noticed how clean and modern the décor is. The menu is extensive, with beautiful photos of some of their popular dishes. I ordered the Shanghai grilled pork buns and my friend finally decided on the black pepper seafood rice cake. The pork buns come with 8 pieces and take about 30 minutes to make! When the buns finally arrive, I concocted some sauce out of chili, vinegar, and soy sauce to dip it in. The buns were a little soupy inside and had a nice brown and crispy bottom. It was delicious and I can see why everyone orders this!
The rice cakes were ready shortly after we got our buns and looked very tasty! I’ve only tried rice cakes from Korean restaurants before, so this was my first time seeing it cut in small, flat circles. The rice cakes had a nice chewy consistency, but there weren’t enough seafood (for me) and veggies (for my friend.) There were only two pieces of shrimp and very small portions of the fish. I did like the sauce they used and will try the vegetable pork version next time!
The service was nice and friendly for the most part. My water was refilled frequently and the staff made sure we were enjoying ourselves. It was strange that they were trying to rush us out when it was only 9:30 and they close at 10pm. My first experience here was satisfying, so I will definitely be back to try more of the menu items in the future!