Noodles & Co. ( I should have known better)

LTH,

Found myself walking out of da Jewel in Niles hungry with three more stops on my Honey-do list. As I'm walking to my car, out of the corner of my eye, I spy....familiar red squeeze bottles of Rooster sauce (Sriracha) on tables, along with soy, in a new to me noodle restaurant. I'm thinking Rooster sauce, how bad can it be? Well, not bad as in gut wrenching want to vomit can't believe they serve this sh*t bad, but well on the low side of mediocre.

Noodles & Company's physical space is somewhat spartan, though obvious thought has gone into the decor, well spaced tables, friendly, efficient counter people, menu that hits 7 countries in 25 choices, hip(ish) music and, the clincher, Izze soda. It's hip, it's healthy, it's fast, it's got it all going on.

I opted for (in a fast/healthy/hip, World cuisine place like Noodle & Co you don't order, you opt) Indonesian Peanut Saute, which, in their own words consists of "Rice noodles sautéed with fiery peanut sauce, broccoli, carrot and napa cabbage. Bean sprout, crushed peanut and lime garnish." Sounds pretty good, right? The reality of it is, as my friend Bruce C likes to say, a goopy, sticky, bland mess-o overcooked rice noodles in an insipid, bland, swish of low grade peanut butter sauce, 1/16th of a dried out lime and undercooked veggies.

To add insult to injury, with my Add-On, as they so market consciously phrase it, of "sauteed organic tofu" and one soda cost was three pennies shy of a ten-dollar-bill. WTF?

Place was fairly crowded with pleasant appearing families, well behaved teenagers, even a table of octogenarians, who seemed fully bought in to the multi-cultural, cheap, fast, healthy groove Noodles and Co presents. Me, I was sitting there wondering why the hell I wasn't at Siam's House, which I would have to pass on my way to ABT in Glenview anyway.

Enjoy,
Gary

Noodle & Company
Multiple locations in 10 or 11 lucky states.
http://www.noodles.com

Siam's House
7742 N Milwaukee Ave
Niles, IL 60714
847-967-2390

Ah. I see you too were caught in the Insipid Noodle & Co. trap. I think I ordered the exact same dish as you did, althoug I think the result wsould have been the same no matter which item I picked. Live and Learn.

GWiv,

For some sick reason, I always get a big laugh over such tales of culinary woe.

Even Satan can quote scripture...so I guess even crap Asian joints can serve Rooster sauce.

Hammond

Bland, ubiquitous ... ah!

Customers who bought Jimmy John's also bought:
Noodle & Company

I go to Noodles and Co. sometimes with my kids, who are fans of the mac and cheese served there. When we go, I get the Thai noodle soup, or whatever they call it, which isn't bad, especially with some added hot sauce. Since they're in a broth, the noodles aren't as gloopy as in the other entrees offered. Of course it's not as good as the soup one could get at a real Thai restaurant, where I'd be eating if I had my druthers. But, since my kids, who are enthusiastic eaters of ethnic foods most of the time, sometimes just really want that mac and cheese, and it's a quick dining experience, it's an acceptable choice on a school night. Better than taking them to McDonalds, which is about as much as I could say. (Though McDonalds, to be sure, would be cheaper, especially since I don't get anything to eat there but steal some french fries from the kids. I don't know how the Chicken McNuggets compare to the mac and cheese in terms of fat and etc., but I assume they're comparably bad choices.)

ToniG wrote:But, since my kids, who are enthusiastic eaters of ethnic foods most of the time, sometimes just really want that mac and cheese, and it's a quick dining experience, it's an acceptable choice on a school night.

How does it compare to, say, the product made by Kraft (to name a standard most people are familiar with)?

Hi,

I ALMOST dropped in there on Thursday. To paraphrase another poster's wit: I am so glad you went there, ate and wrote, so I don't have to!

There are many sacrifices in time, money and stomach power to sift through the not-so-great to find rich culinary finds!

Again, thanks for your personal sacrifice!

Yes, thanks for the heads-up. I checked out the website (obnoxious sound effects, by the way) and what a weird combination of stuff. I go by the Arlington Heights location sometimes but have never thought to stop in since Mitsuwa, with its food court, is usually on the itinerary when I'm out that way.

As to how Noodles mac and cheese compares to Kraft: the N&co. version is not neon orange, which for some children is a disqualification. Elbow mararoni with a white cheese sauce, with some grated cheese on top. It's pretty creamy and rich, actually, though not an authentic baked version, but my kids wouldn't like it if it was. Again, it's not a place I would go without children in tow, even for a quick lunch, but the Evanston location, for instance, is fine with kids before a movie or a trip to Borders.

On a related note, Hyde Park has "Noodles Etc." (2 locations)
The menu is fairly extensive in terms of cuisine range: Udon to Pho, Chow-mein to Filipino Pancit. I can't remember what I had - just that it tasted barely more than starchy filaments in just-about-not-water. They seemed to be focussing on the "Etc." - I suppose that's what gets the crowds in...

Noodles Etc. in Hyde Park isn't so bad if you keep it simple, but I did have the worst Ba Mee of my life there a couple of years ago. My roommate, a vegetarian, occasionally gets a craving for one of their salads, but I find that I can get a much better version of anything they do at Noodles Etc. if I go to TAC, Argyle, or even one of the 55th Street Thais in Hyde Park.

Nevertheless, the place is packed. You know how U of C students are... lazy. It's the same reason they haven't spoken up as the Medici has continued to jack up their prices over the past three years.

Looks like Noodles & Company is slowly making its way into inner Chicago. We'll probably see a few North Side locations before I graduate next year, and Hyde Park (which is in the process of getting WAY overchained) might also end up with a location. At those prices I'd rather CTA it to Chinatown or a South Side barbecue joint.

On our way to Wisconsin Friday evening, we stopped at Costco in Schaumburg to fill the gas tank. We were looking for a quick, cheap dinner, as it was already late and we had a long drive ahead of us. The kids were whiney and starving. As we pulled into a strip mall, I asked them if they would prefer Noodles & Co. (to the left) or Pompeii (to the right). We picked Pompeii, and as soon as we tasted our mediocre food I felt we picked the wrong restaurant. Now I know the truth -- BOTH restaurants were the wrong restaurant. I should not have given in to our growling stomachs and waited until I found something better!!

Noodles & Co have been pretty ubiquitous in N'ville for some time, and for a brief period, I would go there for lunch from time to time. I am a sucker for noodles and noodle soups and somehow felt optimistic about this new spin on fast food. After a few visits I discovered that I could order almost anything on the menu and no longer tell the difference. Okay, to be fair, some dishes had more liquid, and others more fat, and a few even had more chile pepper (tho not much) but the flavor elements and preparation were stultifyingly similar. It is an impressive achievement, when you think about it, to take such a broad range of noodle preparations from, literally, all around the world, and reduce them to the same flavors - starch, fat, salt, liquid, slightly vary the proportions and serve for 7 bucks a bowl. I think it comes from a combination of intention, and the preparation being done in the same area in back so there is carry over in ingredients between dishes.

I was done then. I had passed through the darkness and back into the light.

To add insult to injury, the place is not a cheap lunch either. Because of some mishap with one of my last lunches there I came into possession of coupons for free food. Being a frugal Scot & Jew, I could not exactly throw them away, and was much relieved when the daughter agreed to use them with her friends.

Last note - one of the owners of HP Schmaltz confessed to me that he was involved as a consulting chef setting up the menu at Noodles & Co. Up until now I had chosen to keep this as our dirty little secret.

Some day, Mickey D will buy Noodles & Co, I am sure.

Hi,

This concept sounds reminiscent of 'Hello Ricky,' which faded away last year.

My frequent lunch companion and I love noodles and dumplings. We sometimes scheme to eat at Argyle midweek whenever possible. When 'Hello Ricky' opened in Deerfield, we happily tried it a few times before realizing our wishes were better met driving into Chicago. We would have been willing to accept the elevated price if the food met our expectations, since there is a transportation cost going to Chicago. The noodles offered crossed multiple cultures but nothing was prepared as we knew it should be.

Yet we did see enthusiastic diners whom we reasoned just didn't know any better.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:This concept sounds reminiscent of 'Hello Ricky,' which faded away last year.

Hi Ricky, at least in the city locations where I experienced it, was orders of magnitude better than Noodles & Co. The food there may have been a bit dumbed down, but it wasn't totally insipid. I suppose it could have been further dumbed down in the suburban location.

It's a sad fact of suburban life that so many wishes are better met by driving into the city.

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

This concept sounds reminiscent of 'Hello Ricky,' which faded away last year.

The only difference is that Hi Ricky served very good food with lots of different flavor notes. N&co. serves school style paste.

Hi,

I guess then Hi Ricky's kitchen in Deerfield did not get proper training or was badly managed. I sincerely doubt it was dumbed down for the suburbs.

Believe me if it was half way decent, I would have been a regular.

Regards,

Too bad about Deerfield, in the city if you took the slightest trouble with Hi Ricky to order something beyond pad thai and satay, there was some pretty good and slightly off-the-beaten-path stuff (albeit with unmistakable signs of assembly-line prep). I'm not saying it was TAC Quick, but having eaten a lot of chain Asian delivery in my dot-com work-late days, Hi Ricky was the best of the bunch. Hi Ricky claimed Singapore and Malay dishes that actually did have recognizable spices and curries from those regions, compared to say Big Bowl which once served me a "Thai" dish that clearly did not have fish sauce (but it had plenty of sugar, that was for sure).

As my gf and I put it ... it's noodles for white people.

ChiTownAbs wrote:As my gf and I put it ... it's noodles for white people.

That's pretty insulting to a myriad of white ethnic cuisines such as German, Polish, Jewish and Italian that all do delectable noodles, not to mention well-made versions of good old American macaroni and cheese.

LAZ wrote:

ChiTownAbs wrote:As my gf and I put it ... it's noodles for white people.

That's pretty insulting to a myriad of white ethnic cuisines such as German, Polish, Jewish and Italian that all do delectable noodles, not to mention well-made versions of good old American macaroni and cheese.

You gotta love anybody who can insult so many ethnicities with so few words. Post on, CTA!

As much as I hate to admit it, Noodles and Co. has lately become my steady lunch break staple (it's located conveniently from where I work). Although I don't have a taste most of the menu, I have a taste for the Penne Rosa with the feta.

A quick bump to inform that this place duped me out of $10.54 for a lunch that 5 or 6 of my coworkers openly laughed out loud at when I brought it back to the office. Many were curious of this place, and I was sick of the "same old same old" one day, and played the guinea pig role. Had the regular order of the "Bangcock Curry" which was overcooked rice noodles in a thin, bland hint of coconut milk curry, with broccoli, and I ordered the chicken to go with it. The chicken was about a quarter to a half of one breast half, and I think it ran about two dollars extra. I also tried an order of potstickers. This meal was wrong in every way except for the three broccoli florets that I got were expertly steamed. Wow, was I ever duped here. You'd think for the prices they are getting, that they would actually throw you a full 50 cents worth of rice noodles. (Let's not pretend we don't know how much rice noodles cost, people.)

Another example of my high hopes for someone taking actual pride in their business overcoming my logical reasoning. Most of the time, I can usually shrug these experiences off with an "at least now I know" kind of attitude, but this place was genuinely horrible for what I ordered, and for value. People were walking by to check out the meal, and when I told them the price, they laughed, and pointed, and then apologized. $10.54? For THAT? BWAHAHAHAH! Sorry.. sorry. And then, they would walk down the hall, and I could here them telling others, and then the others would come down to take a look, and the whole scenario repeated again. Several offered to get me a real lunch when they were going, and several offered me parts of their lunch when they got back - half a sammich here, some fries there, few slices of za etc. I did garner some more respect for being the explorer of new joints that I am, but I really feel ripped off. Live and learn. Should have looked for this thread.

If this might stop someone else from making the same mistake, then I can feel a LITTLE bit better.

I've been to the N+Co Broadway and Diversey across from Borders. It serves a very, very narrow function:

1. You can't get the asian dishes.
2. You are wasting your money adding on the "protein".
3. For $5.25 you can get some bland vegetarian pasta if you are out and about.

Ok, so in most places of the city you can do a little bit better, but sometimes, if you are a vegetarian, this is an ok option.

Oh, the mac+cheese sucks too, though.

We tried this place a few years ago when it opened in Arl Hts. My co-worker who hates Culver's and Steak N Shake recommended it. Blah! Still does a fairly good business- i guess some people don't know any better. Yuck!

Ok, I've got it.
We should take a tip from the environmental movement and create "Flavor Offsets," in which restaurants with a surplus of flavor could sell some of it to the flavor-challenged. That way, excellent but under-patronized restaurants could increase their revenues and, at the same time, improve the tastless food at places like Noodles & Company. It's a win-win!

In concept, the place is pretty good. However, the actual performance has grown increasingly mediocre, at least at the location in Crystal Lake. I would attribute the quality of the food to the fact that I never see any familiar faces from one visit to the next.

jlawrence01 wrote: I would attribute the quality of the food to the fact that I never see any familiar faces from one visit to the next.

But yet you keep returning?? I tried this place once or twice and it was enough.

I think Dickson nailed it on the head with this remark from his 5/31/05 post, above: "After a few visits I discovered that I could order almost anything on the menu and no longer tell the difference. Okay, to be fair, some dishes had more liquid, and others more fat, and a few even had more chile pepper (tho not much) but the flavor elements and preparation were stultifyingly similar. It is an impressive achievement, when you think about it, to take such a broad range of noodle preparations from, literally, all around the world, and reduce them to the same flavors - starch, fat, salt, liquid, slightly vary the proportions and serve for 7 bucks a bowl."

IMHO, this place might be suitable for inexpensively feeding a group of small kids, but that's about it. The Naperville branch may be able to do a decent business simply because of its location, but I suspect that this mediocre chain eventually will run its course.

Ron A. wrote:

jlawrence01 wrote: I would attribute the quality of the food to the fact that I never see any familiar faces from one visit to the next.

But yet you keep returning?? I tried this place once or twice and it was enough.

When someone invites me to join them for lunch, I don't have the chutzpah as to tell them where to take me.

stevez wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

This concept sounds reminiscent of 'Hello Ricky,' which faded away last year.

The only difference is that Hi Ricky served very good food with lots of different flavor notes. N&co. serves school style paste.

Whenever my dad and I would get together for a movie at the Music Box, we'd eat at Hi Ricky's across the street without fail. Oh how I miss the Southport Corridor of those days!

A restaurant very similar to Hi Ricky's in quality of food, range of offerings and price point is the noodle place next door to Quimby's Bookstore in Wicker Park. Actually, the two places are so similar, I wonder if there's an actual relationship. I never remember the name, but the Wicker Park place has never disappointed me on those afternoons when I've completely lost track of time browsing zines at Quimby's and have realized I needed to eat something ASAP.