Red-Box Noodle Bar

I’ve not been to red box for a while but remember it for it’s no nonsense, fast and cheap noodles. What I don’t recall is the staff being so unfriendly. On this occasion I got cold treatment while placing my order and felt totally rushed. The noodles were very tasty and still great value for a small box (which just about fills the spot).
They could improve this place though. Firstly, who wants to listen to annoying and fairly loud pop trash while they’re eating?! And the atmosphere is a bit cold. The floor and furniture is adequate but a wee bit worn looking. I wouldn’t go as far as to say dingy, but could benefit from a bit of TLC. Toilets are a bit manky too.
If though, like me, you’re after a cheap grub while out n about then you probably won’t let this put you off. I wouldn’t make a special trip though.
Time persevered with chop sticks on this occasion: 2 mins (Luckily they have forks!)

Excellent noodle bar for a quick lunch or dinner before getting on with your daily activities. Nothing fancy at Red Box– you literally get your food in a box, so it’s easy to take away. You can also sit in, but it can be difficult to get a place at busy times. Chopsticks available, of course, though I’m a lazy Westerner so always choose a fork.
The portion sizes are great! I never leave hungry from Red Box for this reason. The food tastes good. You choose a type of noodle, a meat, veg, and a sauce, and the food is prepared fresh and ready for you in about 5 minutes. Simple, and effective. I think the price is a bit steep compared to similar lunch options in the area, but the food is good enough to justify coming back.

Great place! Great price, fast service, wonderful selection and amazing noodles! The ramen noodles are my favorite, with satay sauce. It’s a build your own type place, so you can have exactly what you want! Try the starters too — the dumplings in particular are great. And don’t forget to get your loyalty card stamped to earn free starters, mains, and meals!

Came here after leaving the Peachtree House. My friend aptly described this place as the noodle shop version of chipotle. You can pick your starter, noodles, meat, veggies, sauce, and drink. It’s at the perfect location for catching people after drinking at the pub across the street. Had a yummy experience.

Too salty to eat! I’ve never eaten such a bowl of salty noodle like this. Except for the taste, it’s clean.

It is a good pick-​your-​noodles-​and-​what-​goes-​in-​them place, served in a card board box. Take-​away or eat there, it is not really a place where you hang around. There is tofu, and quite veggie friendly in general.
Once ordered food is done quickly. Have a glass of water to go with it.
It is good, you get good value. But it is not breaking boundaries of culinary heights.

This place is amazing. I can’t count the number of times I ate there as a student in between classes. On of my favorite activities was getting some noodles on a sunny day, taking them to The Meadows or the park in George Sq. and just watching the clouds drift by overhead with my friends. They have a wide variety and a fairly inexpensive. Being so close to the University is really the perfect spot for them. The only reason I don’t give them 5 stars is that they do not have the most comfortable dining area. Because of the small size of the shop, it can get cramped and loud in there very quickly. I suggest getting carry out.

Noodle bars are an oddity to me… I think maybe this is my age showing. The quality is ok, the sauces are a bit thin but for a cheap meal with a starter and a drink thrown in for £9 it is very good value.
Clearly setup to feed the student population this place is good at what it does to an extent without wowing anyone. Its really what A-​ok was made to represent.

I’m having a noodle love affair! Everyone I’ve brought here has fallen for Red-​Box, just as I did, and comes back time and again. Even friends from out of town have clamoured for a trip to Red-​Box at some point during their visit, and I’m pretty sure that’s not simply to escape my notorious cooking. The variety of items on offer means that there’s something for everyone, and you can either develop your own personal favourite or experiment with something new every trip, knowing it’s going to be freshly cooked right from scratch there and then.
The concept behind Red-​Box is simple but effective; along the lines of a Subway for noodles, customers pick their base (noodle type), key filling (meat) and extras (vegetables, sauce, and seasoning). Large signs near the entrance explain the process and different noodle types to beginners, and then you just head straight on in and compile your dream meal.
Brilliantly located and never less than delicious food, this is a regular lunch-​spot for me. The titular red box arrives at lightning speed just minutes after ordering (everything moves fast in this place, including the queue) and, TARDIS-​like, contains piles more nosh than a conventional understanding of spatial dimensions ought to permit.
For those patrons choosing not to take away, the restaurant is clean and functional, although not particularly stylish in its minimalism and the stools can get little uncomfortable. The service is as one would might hope for from a fast-​food restaurant — brisk but polite — and the pricing with noodle boxes starting from little over £5 is extremely good value given the sheer quantity within. A drink can boost the price considerably, though; while you’d be hard pushed even when buying a starter and beer to spend as much as £10, the comparative added expense of drinks does mean that Red-​Box can be a less competitive option for a full meal than some other fast-​food outlets, based on price alone. Of course, if you’re taking away and have your own drinks sorted, then I can’t see a single reason you’d go anywhere other than Red-​Box to get your food.
Noodle me. Noodle me good, Red-​Box, my love.

I went to this restaurant last week for the first time and thought it was great, so I will definately be back. A super fast-​service noodle bar where all the ingredients are cooked fresh in big pans behind the counter and it is cheap and cheerful.
You choose what you would like from a selection of noodles, sauce, meats and vegetables and can also add a starter or a beer on really cheaply too, only for an extra £2−4. I had the chicken satay and pork dumplings and they were both so yummy — love the novelty of eating out of a box with chopsticks too.
If you plan on sitting in it can get quite busy, so you might need to wait on a table, but it is well worth the wait. You can also do takeaway and as service is so fast, you would really not notice the way.
I would recommend on sitting in the first room though near the front door — it doesn’t shut on its own, so with the number of people walking in and out the door was often left open so it was quite chilly.
Perfect for fast, fresh and cheap but very yummy food.

This place deserves a fourth star if we’re talking food alone, because my meal was tasty, cheap and fast. And I was very happy with my serving coz it was massive and steaming hot and was all round goodness. I opted for rice noodles with four veggies and the singapore sauce. Yum. Very nice indeed.
But Red Box has to stick to three stars at the moment because I sat in and the place was FREEZING. There are no seat backs on the chairs so your back gets sore. And it all looked a little dingy and I felt the eating section needed a bit of a scrub. So although the food was really pretty durned tasty, the experience of eating it wasn’t so fun.
Ideal for takeaway though! I think I will definitely be back here, just not on a cold day or to sit in.

I was attracted here by the cool retro noodle boxes and the decent reviews on tripadvisor. Being a vegetarian, I was quite skeptical when I saw the cooking preparation here. I asked whether they use separate cooking apparatus for veggies, and despite a positive response, I feel dubious. The food and sauces didn’t feel particularly fresh, the interior was quite dirty, and the staff ignored me when I asked for anything after having ordered the meal.
The taste of the noodles isn’t bad, though it isn’t amazing either. There is far too much sauce and far too little fresh ingredients. I went to soba bar last week and got a really good serving of fresh noodles, which was admittedly smaller, but far more satisfying in terms of taste.
If you want a lot of food for a good price, this is the place to come. If not, I advise you to go elsewhere.

Simple and easy to use menu, food arrived swiftly after we placed our order and it was very good value for money so, despite the rogue beggar who made it through the doors and asked us for money, I’d be more than happy to make a return visit.

Great noodle bar! Choose a noodle, sauce, 3 veg and a meat! Great price and good food!

There’s a big sign by the drinks fountain saying «No refills».
So I have to pour my own drink, eat out of a cardboard box and am expected to bus my own table but you can’t stretch to free refills?
*ping*
What’s that? That’s the sound of you losing a star.
Oh they also do noodles and it’s pretty good.

No. Just no.
Maybe because I grew up cooking Indonesian and Thai food, maybe because I’m just really picky about my noodles, or maybe because I’m blind as a bat (or rather my taste-​buds are) but no. I just can’t, for the love of me, understand what people like about this place.
It’s clean, it’s well-​lit, but that’s about it for me. The sauces taste factory-​made and cover any of the flavours a well-​wokked dish should have, the satay is nothing like a proper satay (and I’ve been making my own satay with the help of my Indonesian Nan since I was 7 years old) and it’s just no! I’m not saying you shouldn’t go here, I’m just saying it doesn’t taste anything like what I expect proper noodles to taste like.
Okay, so it’s fast food, quickly prepared and I understand why that’s attractive to people. But I’ve eaten here four or five times now and not a single time have I not had the impression that eating cardboard covered in the same sauce would have the exact same taste. It just doesn’t tick my boxes.
I’m sorry Red Box, I just can’t say I’m impressed with you at all.

Ohhhh I see what you did there. You’ve got the menu all back to front and cute because, well, it’s traditional and it confuses the hell out of folk like me. Me all like «oh so we choose our sauce first and our meat second last, how novel!» So yeah, when choosing off the menu-​as-​you-​go, remember it’s right to left.
Red Box Noodle Bar is a fast-​service, quick noodle bar with really fresh ingredients cooked quite delectably. Those prawns, whoah. I knew I was having the prawns when I saw them. All big and juicy and fresh. Ok so the oyster sauce required me to dose about half a bottle of soy for flavour after, and there were far, far more noodles than vegetables but there were a decent number of prawns and it filled the hole.
The service was good too, they were happy enough to wait for me to run to a cash machine, no hassle there, and even though we stayed till 10ish on a Monday when they were obviously eager to leave (and go play football?) they weren’t arsey about it at all, but instead just asked politely «are you guys finished yeah?»
Noodly goodness. Prawny goodness. Goodness me. Yep I like Red Box and Red Box likes me.

This place is a really delicious place to stop by if you want a cheap, quick dinner. I first went there about 4 days ago and I found that I was craving it for the entire 4 days until I went there today.
I had the ramen noodles, roasted duck and pepper and it was perfectly spiced and flavourful. I couldn’t finish it all! I ended up saving it for a late night snack and it was still good upon reheating. Totally worth saving for later if you can’t seem to finish it at the restaurant.

A regular spot for us.
I’ve always lamented the lack of cheap noodle places in Britain and Ireland. Luckily Red Box has answered my call!
Everything is so simple and so well cooked it’s surprising they’re not chancing their arms for an extra few bob from you. I’ve eaten here many, many times at this stage as the location is so convenient for us. Never had bad service, always prompt and polite. Great choice of ingredients and I love that you can always order whatever you’re in the mood for.

If I were going to be truthful to myself, I would pre-​emptively give these people 2000 pounds because that’s about how much I expect to spend here in the next year.
This shit hits the spot.
Here’s the best part… and I KNOW I am not alone in feeling this way… The best part is that you get to choose stuff. Yes, I know, when you go to a restaurant you get to choose stuff, but here you get to choose exactly which veggies and meats and spices.
Now choosing whatever you like is wonderful, but NOT having to pick out the weird veggies that you don’t like — EVEN BETTER. I know you do it. Everyone does. Over in the corner of your plate is a little pile of onions or water chestnuts or babycorn (I personally hate beansprouts).
I get a monster bowl full o’ fresh veggies — REAL Asian veggies like:
bok choy; shiitake mushrooms; sugar snap beans; bamboo shoots; water chestnuts; baby corn; Chinese broccoli
I also get CHOPSTICKS — yay! And there’s enough food for 2 meals. The cute Chinese waiters and waitresses all have adorable ½ Scottish, ½ Chinese accents (as a nerdy linguist this is cool for me).
and NO POTATOES — yippie.