Noodles can satisfy any meal for Chinese individuals. Some
may feel like a bowl of carbs is rather heavy and should be restricted to the
later meal of the day. But, visit a casual dining spot, cha chan tang, and view their breakfast menu and you’ll find stir
fried noodles (often paired with congee), macaroni and ham in soup and instant
noodles. With that in mind, it may not seem as strange that Magic Noodle is
opened 24 hours a day. Yes, you heard right, a 24 hours a day place serving
soupy noodles and other small eats. Luckily, they aren’t by my house or 1am
noodles may be a regular occurrence.
At Magic Noodle, they prepare two in-house noodles. The
first, hand pulled involves mixing a ball of dough for a long time until it
develops an elastic consistency. Then the chef will begin rolling it out, stretching
it out arms-length, folding/twisting it over and continuing the stretching and
folding process until it gets to the desired thinness. While visiting the
restaurant you’ll be able to see the chef prepare it from the open kitchen.
For the first visit, the options seem endless with varying
noodle sizes (seven choices) and different protein combinations. Thinking the house special magic noodle’s
($7.99 for small) picture looked amazing, we order this with the fifth
thickness (traditional). Like most food advertising, the actual dish paled in
comparison from the menu: the sunny side egg in the picture became an overdone
made-ahead-of-time one, while the clear soup base with hints of red chili oil
was tinged yellow and tasted of curry instead. But, the bowl was similar sized
and had the brisket, beef, turnip, tendon and garnishes pictured.
With fresh pasta it’s hard for it to ever be al dante –
after all it has just been made with a ball of soft dough moments from serving.
So, it’s natural for the noodles to seem soft and really it’s the delicate
silky texture that people enjoy. For me, the noodles were decent but was a tad
mushy especially since some sections were stuck together leaving me with
spoonfuls of mashed dough. I’d likely go for a thinner size next time as I’d
imagine the noodles will cook faster so even if it clumps it wouldn’t be as noticeable.
It was the lightly curried flavour soup that bothered me the
most. With past Chinese hand-pulled noodle experiences I’ve become accustomed
to beef broth or the hong siu soy
sauce version. Both naturally paired better with the beef and doesn’t detract
from the noodles as much.
The second version they serve is the Shanxi knife-sliced noodle. The chef holds a large ball of cold
dough, in an angle he uses a sharp knife to directly slice slivers into boiling
water. It’s impressive that Magic’s slices are so long it still resembles a
noodle. Silky and smooth they were good. But, with the rapid slicing, it’s
inevitable that some will be thicker than others, which does lead to uneven
cooking consistencies. For this, we went with the simpler sliced beef with
noodles ($7.99) which I found is a better choice.
Magic Noodle’s portion sizes are huge (it’s difficult to
even finish a small). But, if you have extra room the fried pancake with leek
($2.99) is definitely worth ordering. There’s a great crust that’s not oily,
the dough is thin and filled with a substantial portion of what I believe to be
chives (although the menu notes leeks), scrambled egg and bean curd thread
noodles.
How To Find Them
Location: Toronto, Canada
Address: 2190 McNicoll Avenue
Address: 2190 McNicoll Avenue
Website: http://magicnoodle.ca/
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Gastro World's Grading System
- Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
- 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
- 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
- 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
- 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
- 10 - absolute perfection!
Is That It? I Want More!
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