Restaurant Review: Noodleholic

NOODLEHOLIC 3350 Parsons Road | noodleholic.ca Instagram: @noodleholic2018 Co-Diners: The E.A.T Crew

Who doesn't love a big bowl of noodle soup (especially in the winter)? It's warm, comforting, and at Noodleholic you can choose exactly the way that you want it made. Named Best Chinese Restaurant 2024 in EDify Magazine, I absolutely had to try the restaurant that claimed this prestigious top spot. Opening in 2018 and formerly located in Chinatown, Noodleholic migrated south this past summer and can now be found in a strip mall in Parsons Industrial. The outside is quite noticeable with unmistakable signage and bowls of soup as their logo.

I visited on a Saturday evening and upon entering the restaurant was met with delicious aromas of soup and greetings from the friendly staff members. The space is a decent size with plenty of seating and it's lively and bright. I loved the large, mural-style art and vibrant red paint. The room is comfortable and welcoming and we easily settled into a table whereupon we were delivered a coffee pot of tea. I always love the ritual of sipping upon a warm cup of tea while I figure out the menu.

First I wanted to choose another beverage, since the Hong Kong Style Drinks sounded really good. The Milk Tea ($4.50) seemed like an obvious choice but they also serve a bunch of different and interesting-sounding teas. For example, they do a half coffee half milk tea - for when you can't decide?!

Served hot or cold, I opted for the cold version. I absolutely loved that I was provided with a small cup of liquid simple syrup to use as a sweetener. This is so much better to use in a cold beverage, whereas solid sugar would take a long time to dissolve. What a thoughtful touch! I loved this milk tea a lot! It was strong and sweet - thoroughly enjoyable! The servers and staff at Noodleholic are incredibly sweet and friendly. They were very happy to answer our questions and they made us feel very welcome. Dining experiences are made so much better when the people working are wonderful and this was certainly the case at Noodleholic. There is a long list of Side Dishes available and I definitely wanted to sample a few of them. The Grilled Pork Dumplings ($6.00) always seem like a solid choice.

These perfect little pouches were quite delicious! The meat inside was juicy and I loved dipping into the accompanying sauce for more flavour. These certainly fall into the "simple pleasure" category because they seem fairly standard but were just right. To try something a bit more adventurous, I was also curious about the Curry Fish Balls ($5.75).

I liked the curry flavour a lot but found the fish balls to be a bit lackluster overall. These are easy to pop into your mouth and serve well as a little side snack. Next time I would probably just get the Chinese long donut because it's never a bad time when you have one of those. The main thing at Noodleholic is obviously the noodle soup. They have pre-arranged noodle bowls (and they also serve congee (a Chinese savoury rice porridge) but the most popular option is surely the "Build Your Own Noodle Bowl" ($15.25). I actually found this to be quite similar to hot pot. It's almost the same type of experience, except the restaurant is assembling it for you and there is no table-top hot pot involved. But otherwise, just like with hot pot, you are given a paper and a pen to mark off which soup base, noodle, and various toppings that you would like in your soup. On top of your specific choices, each soup is served with green onion, cilantro, and bean sprouts (unless you specify otherwise). I got to work on creating my ideal noodle masterpiece. It did not take long at all before the bowl was steaming before me and I was enjoying a soup facial.

Here's what I decided to get! I was really torn on which broth to select because as we all know, the broth is the most important component. A great broth is key! There are twelve to choose from and I was conflicted because part of me wanted to keep things more traditionally Chinese... But I couldn't deny my love for Curry Laksa Broth (which is Singaporean in origin). I liked that the menu ranks the spiciness of the broths from 1-5 so that you can gauge what you're getting yourself into. The laksa broth was rated as a 1, which seemed pretty tame. This formidable broth was fragrant with a beautifully developed flavour infused with lemongrass. I enjoyed it a lot and I did find it quite spicy! I can't imagine what a 5 on the spice scale (Szechuan spicy soup) would be like! It must be very, very intense. Next is noodles and the menu boasts thirteen types. The idea of the Shrimp-Egg Noodle sounded great to me, especially since my soup was going to be leaning in a seafood direction. This noodle turned out to be a lot thinner than I expected and tangled itself into a pretty serious ball. I also found this noodle quite dense and not at all chewy. Was it supposed to have a shrimp type of flavour? I would probably choose a different noodle next time. Lastly, is the huge list of toppings! You get to choose any two that you like included in the price. If you want additional toppings you can add them for either $3.50 or $2.75 depending on what it is. I didn't pick any of the slices of meats... Maybe I should have. However, I was dazzled by some of the more interesting items. Luncheon Meat (SPAM), Lobster Balls, Fried Crab Nuggets, Tofu Puffs. This is who I am, people. I was pretty excited about this combo of stuff. The SPAM was great - you can't go wrong with it and it always gives you exactly what you want. It's the salty and reliable mystery meat of your dreams and it's best not to ask too many questions. Surprisingly, the lobster balls were my least favourite. They almost seemed... Crunchy? The meat did taste lobster-adjacent but there was something about the texture that did not work for me. The fried crab nuggets and tofu puffs were both great! However, they were both fried-style items and I maybe didn't need two things like that. They did hold up well in the broth though! The crab nuggets were sweet and tender while the tofu puffs were light and airy with a golden outside. Overall, this noodle soup was packed full of flavour, a decent amount of spice, and the serving size was very large. I couldn't even finish it! I didn't love all of my choices but the potential is certainly there to create a magical bowl. There are some pretty heavy-hitters in Edmonton's Chinese food game and it's nice to see one of the little guys doing so well. If you're a fan of hot pot but you want all of the work to be done for you, Noodleholic is your place!