Grape expectations

"The best noodles," I'm told rather vaguely by an ex local. I don't cross the Harbour Bridge all that often, so I have to take their word for it and give it a whirl.

Located at the bottom level food court of the oddly sparse Lemon Grove Shopping Centre off that main strip of Chatswood, Grape Garden is a bit of a tough place to find unless you have a guide or happen to pass by on your way to the New Shanghai restaurant, strangely one of two in Chatswood.

Chef 'pulling' noodles at Grape Garden Beijing Cuisine, Lemon Grove
Shopping Centre, Chatswood

As soon as we get there, the chef gets up from his late lunch at the table out front and asks what we would like. Noodles, is the simple answer and instead of waiting for us to decipher the menu board he asks what protein we would each like and how much chilli. If only ordering could alway be this easy and aided.

Grape Garden Beijing Cuisine, Lemon Grove Shopping Centre, Chatswood

Aside from the famed noodles, Grape Garden also does dumplings and has an array of traditional small cold dishes eaten like tapas of sorts. The selection includes vegetarian seaweed dishes alongside the likes of pig's ears; none of which I have tried yet.

Noodle dough ready for stretching

The highlight really are the noodles as each bowl gets a handful of freshly stretched noodles, or pulled to translate to lai mien. It's the real deal with bags of noodle dough on the tables, and this wheel of already 'noodled' dough, at the ready for a noodle order.

Pulling the noodles

When ordered, the chef gathers an amount of the dough strips in his hands, keeping them separated lest they stick together. And in a few lightning-speed motions, he stretches the dough, banging it on the steel surface, stretches again and heads to the stove with pots of boiling water. It's a quick show, but one worth catching.

Chicken noodles

Shortly after, he reappears with a bowl - my order of chicken with not too much chilli. This turns out to have no chilli in the soup base but is roasted chilli oil added on top of my serving - fine by me as I adore that chilli stuff as it's not too hot with all the flavour.

The chicken noodles come with choy sum, shallots and also some kind of nori like seaweed, which reconstitutes to briney, sloppy, green-black pieces. There's also an abundance of shredded skinless chicken - breast and thigh - submerged in the stock, also chicken, I think.

My hand pulled noodles

But to the noodles. Flat, wide and varied as a true sign of hand made noodles. The noodles have a good chew about them but in the initially boiling hot soup, they gradually soak in a lot and for the slow eaters (hello), they end up a little soggy and sorry. Thus, the recommendation is to eat as fast as you can without creating indigestion or looks of disgust from people surrounding.

Spicy pork noodles

Those in the know order the spicy beef or pork noodles, the latter of which is almost world's away from the chicken noodles I had. Same noodles, different world. The broth itself is tinted a deep red - fair indication of the heat level. But from a few sips of the soup, I noted an entirely different flavour profile; one that was heavy in spices and meaty so I don't even think it was the same stock base.

The pork mince is dotted with chilli and makes a nice textural contrast to the noodles and choy sum. It has bags of flavour in every mouthful, and makes up in taste every drop of sweat it draws from your brow. Next time, I'm ordering this, although hopefully they do a slightly less spicy version. Best noodles? Pretty darn good.