One Noodle Friendship

When I first heard about One Noodle Friendship, I was immediately taken by its name. One noodle’s worth of friendship? One long noodle of friendship? One friendship-noodle? Maybe the name simply means that this place is spread by word of mouth through friends, because all you need to try is one bowl of noodles? Yeah. Let’s run with that.

Run by a smiley guy with a lustrous moustache and his team of smiley staff, you know you’re in for a treat when they cheerily greet you while rolling out the dumpling dough.

I’d turned up as part of a motley bunch as far as eating habits go – a guy who loves his meat, a girl who suffers from a peanut allergy, a vegetarian and two dedicated omnivores. This story has a happy ending, which is a testament to the restaurant.

The offerings are deceptively simple – dumplings, noodles, fried rice and Chinese takes on Japanese food thrown in. So far, so suburban. Then you take a closer look at the menu and realise that they offer eggs brewed in tea ($1) and five spice pig’s ears ($6).

They also hand-pull Lanzhou-style organic noodles on site, selling their handmade noodles with a choice of meat, seafood or vegetables. Chewy, yet silky smooth, the noodles perfectly soaked up the sauce in which it had been cooked.

The table also ordered zha jiang mian with the organic handmade noodles ($9), Japanese deep fried eggplant with homemade sauce ($6.50), Chinese broccoli in oyster sauce ($5.50), pork and prawn dumplings ($8.80 steamed, $9.80 fried) and the vaunted vegetarian dumplings ($8.50).

These can best be described in quotes:

“I’m not a fan of sweeping statements, but these are the best vegetarian dumplings I’ve had in my life” – Vegetarian girl.

“That eggplant isn’t Japanese but damn it’s tasty” – Carnivore.

“These vegetarian dumplings are a revelation. Also, I’m not dead yet. And everything tastes delicious!” – Girl with the nut allergy.

“Next time someone comes down from Sydney, I’m taking them here for noodles. Not the city, nuh-uh. Here.” – Vegetarian girl

“I’m so full from the noodles, but I must. Eat. More. Dumplings.” – Everyone.

Perhaps One Friendship Noodle refers to the fact that bonds are formed over the noodles. And dumplings. And food in general. Plus smiley, super-helpful staff. Just maybe.

ONE NOODLE FRIENDSHIP
417-419 High St, Preston (in the arcade)
9478 4590
Mon – Sat 11am-9.00pm (I gather that the restaurant closes at 9.30pm, but couldn’t get it out of them whether the kitchen closed earlier. I’m putting 9pm to be safe)