Lanzhou Niu Rou La Mian is not so much a chain as a product description, like “Philadelphia Cheese Seatk.” There are in fact small chains like Muslim Boutique Beef Noodles:: and large conferacies like “兰州正宗牛肉拉面” “Authentic Lanzhou Hand-Pulled Beef Noodles” that dominates Shanghai, and whose owners are mostly from Qinghai that use similar menus and signage but no central management. They do, in fact, operate at the pleasure of sort of protective cartel, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Treaty…
Their Chinese name has a ‘Zhong Wah’ preceding the lanzhou niu rou mian. ‘Zhong wah’ just means Chinese. There happens to be a chain with that name in China. But we’ll see whether its related, since the name is still very generic.
Apologies, I have never seen the name. Is it in Guangzhou? Why the “China” qualifier? Maybe it’s pushback against Shanghai’s venerable “California Beef Noodle King USA” 
Not sure! I googled the name and came across a number of listings with that name. Clicked on it and the web site is down…
A few I’ve missed:
- Bamboo Garden (Millbrae) Shanghai, small menu
- Koong’s ( Milpitas) Korean Chinese scattered through the menu
- Porridge House (Newark) taiwanese
- Hunan Chef in Pleasanton has some Shaanxi soups on the menu and a Lanzhou noodle soup they source noodles). They don’t seem specialized enough for inclusion on this list, but given their location I wanted to bring it to the attention of the community
Reopened:
- Root, a Jiangxi style restaurant in South SF and Hongs Szechuan in outer sunset have reopened
I moved these under some subset of northern:
- Mom Dumplings (Milpitas) Lanzhou hand-pulled noodles
- Bing’s Dumpling (Fremont) hand-pulled noodles and Xiao long bao, owner from Shandong
- Jenny’s Kitchen (San Jose) owner from Hebei CH
It has? Did they remodel? When I was there a couple weeks ago they were all boarded up… Or did it have anything to do with that Food Safety Score?
That’s bizarre… Yelp relisted them this morning, but they’re listed closed as of now and the phone number is dead as it was a few weeks ago. Never mind I guess 
-
Northwest Noodle House (West San Jose) opened. They have wide hand ripped noodles, rou Jia mo, and big plate chicken. Northwestern food, including that of Shaanxi, has been conspicuously absent west of Milpitas. Anyone been?
-
168 Restaurant, in Richmond’s Pacific East Mall, closed. What’s replacing it?
Nan Cafe (Oakland Chinatown) on Webster & 8th. Sichuan, chef from Chengdu. Hot pot, toothpick lamb, bobo ji, etc.
It seems like they make their own noodles. I may go this weekend. I will report back.
I will write up a longer post later. The rou jia mou was fab. Everything was made from scratch and tasted ‘clean’
2 Likes
Celestial Flame and Qiwei Kitchen are closed according to Yelp.
I’m adding two Teochew Vietnamese restaurants and plan to add a few more. Also, I understand that Teo in SoMa still has a full Teochew menu, but the servers would prefer you order Teochew hot pot as the main meal.
- Noodle 21 (San Pablo)
- Yummy Trieu Chau (San Jose)
I’ve been to Noodles 21 and it was good, though I’m not familiar with Teochew cuisine.
Had a quick glance of the menu. They have the fish balls. fish cakes, ho fun that are common in Teochew cuisine. They refer to Teochew on the menu as ‘Chow Jou’.
What characterizes Teochiew Vietnamese?
I had a tea smoked chicken leg which was quite delicious
It’s Chaozhou in Mandarin Chinese, of course.
All the “Vietnamese Teochew” restaurants list their dishes in both chinese characters and Vietnamese. Presumably the owners (or their families) are from Vietnam and also have Teochew heritage. Please let us know on a separate thread if you know more about any of these restaurants! (I’ll gather some info next year when I have a chance)
In terms of food, all have Teochew (“Trieu Chau” ) noodle soups (wet or dry style), which some list alongside Chinese American, Vietnamese, or Cantonese dishes. @sck’s description of “fish balls. fish cakes, ho fun” plus egg noodles are the common threads, and some have other Teochew dishes (e.g. kidney dishes, satay). Other than the language on the menu, I’d like to learn how/whether the owner’s time (or family or mentor’s time) in Vietnam changed the food in any stylistic way.
I found this discussion on Quora about Cantonese and Teochew influences on Southern Vietnamese food. It sounds analogous to Chinese-American food; perhaps these restaurants exist to serve Vietnamese immigrants hankering for what they thought of as “Chinese” food at home.
Interesting that the author considers “Hu Tieu” dishes to be Teochew-influenced. I’d thought of them as Cambodian, but they might be pass-through cuisine thanks to the Hakkas, the Johnny Appleseeds of Southern China cuisine. (Interestingly the Thai dish “Guay Jub” is of Teochew origin, but many Thais refer to it as “Vietnamese noodles” – another example of the Hakka sowing the seeds of their cuisine along the way.)
I was reading that some Teochew Chinese fled to Vietnam. Some later born in Vietnam don’t speak Teochew. It would be interesting to know what the background is of the owners of Noodles 21.
