King of Noodles [SF] - Lamb noodle soup - quick report

[Dave MP]

A few nights ago I tried the lamb noodle soup at King of Noodles on Irving (@17th Avenue). It's a special listed on a paper on the wall, and I hadn't had it before.

The noodles were hand pulled and cooked perfectly, nice bite to them, but not too hard. Lamb was in boneless pieces, and despite some pieces that appeared gristly, everything was quite tender (even the gristly bits). I don't think I left a single lamb bit uneaten. The soup also contained some vegetables (bok choi, iirc) and a pretty plain broth, which would be my main complaint. I added a bit of the chile sauce, which helped, but if they had a richer lamb broth, or something with more interesting spices, this dish would go from good to amazing.

[Tripeler]

Kingdom of Noodles is one of my favorite places in SF. The menu seems to change a lot, so every visit is often much of a new experience.

[bigwheel042]

Thought it was pretty good too(tried it today). My noodles were a little on the softer side but more than acceptable.

I think there is probably some MSG in here, but a lot of the richness does seem to come from the fatty lamb pieces going into it. There's also a bit of shiitake mushroom that probably contributes some natural glutamate. For flavorings in the broth, I pulled out exactly one garlic clove, one star anise, one clove, and one or two chunks of sichuan peppercorn (the last not identifiable visually, but by the ma la burst when i popped it in my mouth). There's also a small amount of whole cumin seeds in there - maybe it's on the lamb to start with and falls off when they put the meat in the soup . Glad they use lamb that tastes like lamb instead of the flavorless beef-like stuff that it sometimes tastes like.

[sandunga_rbb]

+1. I've had this dish three times and loved it (in the three trips I've made to Kingdom of Noodles). Someone with a better MSG detector than mine should weigh in on the composition of this soup—I always think it tastes too good to be true.

[Spenbald]

Not to be pedantic, but just want to make sure everyone knows that this place is called King of Noodles. I know it's not a huge difference, but sometimes subtle differences like that can wreak havoc on a google search. There's Kingdom of Dumpling on Noriega.

[hyperbowler]

The full list of confusing places in the Sunset and Richmond:

Dumpling Kitchen
Kingdom of Dumpling (owners of King of Noodles)
King of Noodles (owners of Kingdom of Dumpling)
Shanghai Dumpling House
Shanghai Dumpling King
Shanghai House

"The House" and "Shanghai" are in other parts of the city and much more expensive. One day, I hope someone opens up a "Rou Jia Mou King," just so I can say I don't know what they call their version of the Whopper.

[Dave MP]

Ah okay, thanks! I can actually edit my post to make it correct—so anyone reading this now will see the correct name in the original post. Thanks for pointing this out, and sorry for the inaccuracy.