Home Taste recently opened their second location in Arlington Heights where La Posada previously resided and I had my first successful visit today for some hand-pulled noodles. I settled on the D9. Chongqing Small Noodle Soup with Minced Meat & Peanuts and Bok Choy ($8.58). It was just a little bit spicy but the noodles were excellent, and I think I like them better than Gene’s. Lighter and slippery. I’ll be back to try the D3 and D4. I can’t find them on either FB or IG. Anyone?
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What? Better than Gene’s? And closer for me. I’ll be right over. Is there anything non-brothy comparable to the lamb #4?
D4 seems to be pretty close but I don’t think it has the garlic.
I went back today for another lunch and had the D5. “Spicy Hot Oil Seared Hand-pulled Noodles with Chopped Pickled/Red Chili and Bok Choy ($7.68)”. The noodles are not seared, and the Spicy Hot Oil was completely absent, but the pickled chili was delightful. I definitely like the hand-pulled noodles here and think they are better than Gene’s. They are silkier with a better texture. So either the menu is incorrect, or it was a case of a white guy can’t take the heat. If anybody else has the D5, please let me know if you got the chili oil.
http://thedailylunch-woburn.blogspot.com/2018/11/home-taste-arlington.html
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Was there any oil in the dish at all? I think (but could be wrong) the prep is to pour hot (plain) oil over the pickled chilis rather than add reddish chili oil (the latter would be a condiment you could add on your own).
There might have been plain oil in the bottom but that’s not what the description said.
That looks like the white guy version (at least compared to the dish at the original place.
Went with a friend for dinner last night for the first time (which is ridiculous as it is a short walk from home). We shared the scallion pancake (small, crispy-tender and delicious) and sauteed Chinese cabbage (not attractive but very good). I got the D4 (spicy hot oil hand-pulled noodles with bok choy and bean sprouts) and she got the D7 (hand-pulled noodles with scallion oil, cucumber and bean sprouts) as she does not care for spicy. Both of us really enjoyed ours. I ate far too much; she was more restrained. Sorry, no pictures, promise to do better next time. We got there about 5:45 and the place was totally empty. By 7:00 it was jammed and I mean jammed: they have an awful lot of tables crammed in. But it wasn’t too loud and everyone was clearly enjoying themselves. Service was very sweet. I will have to do some rigorous scientific testing* but on the basis of one visit I would tend to agree with @Ferrari328 that the noodles themselves were even better than Gene’s.
*such a burden
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Gah - you beat me to it (and I’m glad you did).
I hope to get to Home Taste in the very near future
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Just giving Home Taste a bump. Went to the Watertown location for lunch today, hadn’t been in a while.
I really enjoy their noodles. Had the hand pulled noodles with pork and bean sauce - excellent. The lunch deal comes with soup and 2 sides (the soup, hot and sour, was really good / the sides, eh).
But they are super nice, a great lunch deal for 8.95, and I’m very happy they are in my neck of the woods.
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Went again with same friend as last time. We shared the vegetable dumplings which came out way too fast and were quite dry – I am thinking microwave. She liked them more than I did. Also the green onion tofu from the appetizer section which was surprisingly delicious – tender silky tofu in a light sesame-soy sauce with sliced green onions. She had the D7 again and I tried the D5 which was great - like @Ferrari328 I loved the pickled red chilis. Again, packed a little after 7:00. Sweet, efficient service.
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Well, it only took me a year and an out-of-town friend to finally try Home Taste ARL, which is a 5 minute walk from my house. We went this past Monday and I’m sad to report that my friend had a bad experience. She ordered the beef noodle soup - a huge bowl of rice noodles, sliced beef, bok choy, wood ear mushrooms, fake crab stick, and I think some fish balls? She couldn’t get past the fattiness of the beef (I looked - the beef wasn’t really that fatty, but to her, it was) and the greasiness of the broth. She also doesn’t like 5-spice flavor, which the broth was full of. She got nauseated about 3 spoons into her meal. Which made me feel terrible. We took her soup home because I absolutely can’t throw out that much food.
My hand-pulled noodles with spicy chili oil and bok choy, on the other hand, was awesome. I gave her a few big strands of my noodles before she started eating her meal and she agreed. She didn’t order hand-pulled noodles because she declared herself gluten-intolerant a few years ago (with no medical evidence of it, which drives me nuts) and I think the hand-pulled noodles are all wheat-based (?)
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I had those again a couple of weeks ago and shared them with my son (he had the leftovers the next day). We both agreed they were super flavorful and maintained a good texture despite a 10 minute ride home or being reheated the next day. I should have posted! The pan-fried pork dumplings were improved by crisping up in a little oil over medium heat.
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Just sub in “Leftovers?” and you catch my drift. Edited to add: If you are unfamiliar with the original jim Mora clip, this meme will mean nothing to you.
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Sorry your friend had a bad meal. Do you recall the name of the dish your friend ordered? I’m scratching at my head at what soup noodle dish would have beef and fake crab meat… might be one of those, “hmm let’s just throw some stuff in there for anyone else who doesn’t like hand-pulled noodles.”
This place offers delivery to my work place via one of the food delivery services, so I might have to give them a try.
To be honest I am not sure if I would call that a bad experience (as this would sound like it was the fault of the restaurant) - it was more a well executed dish and your friend simply didn’t like the flavor profile, e.g. 5-spice etc
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It was D16. I felt the same way - kind of a “kitchen sink” bowl of noodles.
Are you sure about the D16? The menu just says Rice Noodle Soup and that would be a strange dish to order if you are not familiar with their dishes.
neglected to mention that I went here for lunch last Friday, and it was def. better than the last time I went to the Watertown one. (Aside: I’ve picked up some feelers elsewhere that Sichuan Taste at 30 Mt Auburn right down the block from that spot is worth a look. Anybody been and want to chime in? Would love to hear a report but will try to get there as the positive info has trickled in from @anon6418899 and @rosulate via IG and those aren’t signals to ignore). I kinda think it’s better than the last couple of times I went to Gene’s, too.
I got the D5 and it was fantastic, whatever the menu says. There’s minimal real chili oil (if any) and it’s not that spicy but man the noodles are really good and it just all feels like a balanced bowl with the crunch from the sprouts, the liveliness of the greens, the salt from the broth and the mild heat from the pickled chili. Very nice.
Also got the cucumber/chili appetizer which was fine if unexciting, with cucumber that was rough cut in a way that made my poor knife skills look precise. I’m not fussy about this sort of thing and it tasted OK, but if you’re looking for refinement then I’d steer clear of this.
Lastly, I never really understood how close this place is to the drive home on my occasional weekend morning trips to Burlington to hit the Market Basket/HMart/Burlington Liquors/Trader Joes superfecta. (Yes, that’s a word. At least when you bet horse races). I’ll no doubt swing by here again for lunch on one of these outings.
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