Phoenix Market city plays host to a plethora of stand alone upmarket restaurant's and the Noodle Bar happens to be one of the premier most serving a culinary spread traversing across Far East Asia to bring the taste and flavors of Pan Asian cuisine.
Background:
It is quite interesting to note that Copper Chimney (North Indian), Bombay Blue (Multi cuisine), Spaghetti Kitchen (Italian) and Noodle Bar (Oriental) all come within the same management "Pan India Food Solutions" and it must be said the cuisines offered straddles from one end to another offering great diversity in food.This particular Noodle Bar avenue is the 5th in the country with 2 outlets in Mumbai and 1 each at Chandigarh, Bangalore and Chennai.
The menu and the newness:
The menu is categorized into the following - Classic Dim sums, Soup, Salad, Starters, Main course, Rice/Noodles, Single serves (meal in a bowl), Desserts, Beverages and Mocktails. It is predominantly an Ala-carte spread but they also have the 'Toss it up' concept which is based on the Ad Lib style where you get to decide your preparatory style (Wok or Teppanayaki), pick the kind of noodles you like along with the ingredients from a bunch of options and your preferred sauce variety and voila you end up making it your way, the way you want.
Coming to the new menu which is being operational from Dec'15 onward's, certain revamps have been made to offer a more varied and wholesome spread. They have expanded the choices of Dim sums/soups/starters/main course and also brought to the table more exotic and dynamic noodle options including the imported kind. Another notable info was that each and every item in the menu had the country name bracketed against it. Found this to be pretty inventive and unique. Not only does it showcase the diversity on offer, it also educates the customer in knowing the signature dishes of different countries. These may be small innovations but goes a long way in elevating the customer experience.
The Meet:
As part of the Phoenix Marketcity Food Bloggers meet, we were invited as a group of bloggers from Chennai Food Guide on the 30th of Dec 2015 to try some of the signature items handpicked by the team of Noodle Bar from their new menu. It was more in the form of a set course meal and each of us received a paper copy giving a brief description of the place, agenda and the special spread being served for the day. It was a pretty good heads up and a professional way of doing things.
The Ambiance:
The place has a nice feel about it. Lots of red and black in the color palette brings out the Mandarin influence. The flowery wallpaper designs gives it a lovely floral touch. The space is also polarized well and the different enclosures in which it's divided makes it look as if it's a good place to have a quiet and peaceful meal. The decor is comfortable with both wooden chairs and cushioned seating. The grilled walls, the antiques hanging across and the miniatures all give it a fine vibe and at no point does it look out of place or over the top.
The Food:
In a nutshell, I would describe the food to be a mixed bag. Being the only vegetarian in the group meant I had far lesser food to gorge on in comparison to my counterparts. Handing below a brief summary of my foodie side of things:
- Pomegranate & Basil Fresh Fruit Mocktail: This pinkish drink with green basil leaves turned out to be pretty refreshing, however would have likened it to be a wee bit thicker.
- Emperor Noodle Soup (Thailand): This one's a specialty soup from Thailand. It had a garlicy flavor and floating over were an amalgam of assorted veggies. The Thai ginger glass noodles melted well when dropped into the soup and gave a nice flavorful taste. Only minor gripe I felt was it could have been a little more spicier.
- 5 Spiced Water Chestnut (China): This was a starter comprising of Water chestnut spruced up with 5 different kind of classic Asian spices. But somehow neither could you sense the spicing nor did it regale the taste buds and felt kind of bland and lacked the punch. An accompanying sauce could have helped a bit.
- Spinach Coriander and Corn Dim Sum (China): I had a lot of expectations on this one considering the extra focus on Dimsums and this one lived upto its billing. It looked pretty appetizing in a glazed opaque avatar consisting of sauteed spinach, fresh coriander and corn. It was soft and nice and went joyfully with the 3 different versions of sauces. I didn't hesitate taking some extra bites of these delightful dim sums.
- Burnt Garlic Coriander Rice (China): The rice was very good enhanced with an crushed garlic and fresh coriander. It had a subtle aroma to it and the garlic dose was pretty prevalent and flavorful. There were also Burnt Chilli Noodles another Chinese specialty and the Hokomein Noodles coming from the shores of Singapore. Since they arrived in the Non vegetarian variant, I had to refrain from having a shot at them.
- Devil chilli eggplant and tofu (Thailand): This one just didn't feel right and there was something blatantly missing on the taste angle. It was supposed to come with fresh tomato vinegar and dark soya but somehow just didn't set the tongue rolling.
- Black pepper cottage cheese (China): I was wondering what Cottage cheese was doing in an oriental set-up but this one was a deceptive dazzler. The cottage cheese were chunky and succulent and went jocularly well with the black pepper soya sauce and tinge of green onion.
- Orange Darshan (China): This one contained a scoop of ice cream besides some crispy flat noodles which were topped with orange honey reduction and roasted sesame. The ice-cream which seemed to be of a citrus flavor was creamy and had a lovely tangy taste to it but I am not sure it blended so well with the sugar coated flat noodles. It was definitely decent but quite a long way off from being exceptional.
The Other Factors:
The service was prompt especially in bringing the food at a fairly quick pace. They were also amiable in explaining to us about the spread and the different dishes available. However it lacked attentiveness during the course of the journey especially when the crowds started thronging in. Re-filling water is a fairly basic thing and that was missed many a time. A little extra care can help in covering the loose grounds. On the pricing factor, it's hard to say as we came for an invite. But looking at the menu, it seems on par with other restaurants of similar size and stature and the customer wouldn't really be complaining on this front. And parking isn't a problem since the restaurant is situated in a mall.
Conclusion:
Overall, it was a pleasant experience. There are lots of positives going for this place in terms of the decor, ambiance, price point and wider cuisine options. The expansion of the menu is a step in the right direction. The predominant Chinese influence continues to remain but bringing to the table cuisines from different parts of Asia gives the customer varied options and at the same time establishes the foot hold of the restaurant in serving a wide diaspora of Oriental cuisine. They are still new and experimenting and I guess it will take a little bit of time before they find their right footing. But they have made a start and it looks like going in the ascendancy. Some amelioration on the nitty gritty areas can go along way in elevating the experience a notch further. I wish the team of Noodle Bar all the very best and hope that their efforts yield the requisite success.
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