Double Happiness: Different Noodles on Argyle

After reading the pho crawl that was recently completed I had a hankering for noodles while on Argyle. While pho would be the typical choice, I went with something different. Dry thick egg noodle combination. They put the soup on the side and they have different condiments to flavor up your noodles. My go to order is dry thick egg noodle combination and turnip cake omelette. The dry version comes with soup on the side. The combination has ground pork, sliced pork, 1 shrimp, 1 cuttlefish slice, 1 fish ball, 1 slice of sausage of sorts, iceberg lettuce and green onion garnish. I put some fried garlic on top, mix it in and go to town. The turnip cake omelette has a nice crisp to the cake. With the dipping sauce and some sirracha it hits the spot. They have many different noodle options, wet or dry, and with different additions.

This place is somewhere you just walk by and never figure to look in. But, next time you walk by step in for something different. Inside it's plain and dated. It's probably been the same since they opened who knows how long ago. But, that's fine by me. I've been going here for the past 10 years and never thought about mentioning it. So, here you go. I've never had baked goods from the case though.

No pics. But, Yelp has some.

https://www.yelp.com/biz/double-happiness-chicago?utm_source=ishare

Double Happiness
1061 W Argyle St, Chicago, IL 60640
(773) 334-3735

The consistency of the broth at this place impressed me when I was a regular in the aughts. Was there last summer and nothing had changed.

I seem to recall that this has always been cash only.

Been going here for close to 20 years now, and yes, the place has not changed one bit. You can get noodles with soup on the side, or you can get the more traditional noodles in the soup as well. You also have the option of wide egg noodles or the skinny one. I haven't been here a few months, but now that you mention it, its probably time to head back.

TomInSkokie wrote:The consistency of the broth at this place impressed me when I was a regular in the aughts. Was there last summer and nothing had changed.

I seem to recall that this has always been cash only.

Glad to hear there stardards haven't slipped. You are correct they are cash only.

exbauer wrote:This place is somewhere you just walk by and never figure to look in. But, next time you walk by step in for something different. Inside it's plain and dated.

Page out of time, easy to miss for sure, I don't ever remember going to Double Happiness but thanks to exbauer I'm now a fan.

No dazzle, think Woolworth's lunch counter for pressed ham and chips, if the Woolworth's were in southern China and served dry noodle with shrimp, squid, fish ball and pork, soup on the side.

I liked most everything I tried, fried shrimp were forgettable, and the fried garlic chips, pepper in vinegar, chile flakes and ground peanuts accessorize nicely. Thin noodle springy and my Celiac dining companion was happy for rice noodle.






I found myself wishing for chili oil, not much of a Sriracha fan. Thought about going a few doors east to Viet Hoa for a jar of Lao Gan Ma Chili Crisp, next time I will simply bring with.

Double Happiness, count me a fan!

G Wiv wrote:No dazzle, think Woolworth's lunch counter for pressed ham and chips, if the Woolworth's were in southern China and served dry noodle with shrimp, squid, fish ball and pork, soup on the side.

Banner quote!

I have to dissent. My wife and I checked this place out over the weekend and were thoroughly disappointed.

The noodle broth was flavorless and unseasoned and none of the toppings are notable. I appreciate the fried garlic, but the fish sauce was cheap dreck and I would rather have the chilies at Cafe Hoang.

We also got an order of radish cake. It had nothing on the version at Dong Ky, with no discernible radish, particularly gummy cakes and again woefully underseasoned. Also no dipping sauce was served with it, which is a gross error in my book.

We ended up grabbing some banh mi afterwards because we didn't eat everything and were pretty unsatisfied.

botd wrote:I have to dissent. My wife and I checked this place out over the weekend and were thoroughly disappointed.

I dug Double Happiness for the simplicity, the Woolworthness of it if you will.
Your milage may vary, and obviously does. Anyway, its no fun if everyone agrees. ~

I'm going to glom onto this Double Happiness post to ask a general favor regarding Argyle. Can I get some opinions to favorite Chinese on Argyle? I tried Hon Kee recently and have to agree with previous opinions that BBQ pork is ok but duck is not crispy enough. I had planned Sun Wah but want to avoid trouble.

I'm taking some travelers through the neighborhood and would like to include Chinese to tell the New Chinatown story. For Vietnamese, we get banh mi from Ba Le. If you had to get more Vietnamese from, say, Nha Hang, over any Chinese food, would you?

And if one or two people would be kind enough to meet for lunch someday soon on Argyle, lunch is on me! Thanks in advance!

UptownPJ wrote:I had planned Sun Wah but want to avoid trouble.

Trouble?

I've been a fan of Sun Wah for 20+ years. Was feeling under the weather just last week and went to Sun Wah for a restorative bowl of soup with shrimp wonton and noodle. Love the salt baked chicken and duck service, adore the Cheng family, love the table hot chili oil and ......., well you get the idea.
Main Sun Wah thread ---> Here

UptownPJ wrote: If you had to get more Vietnamese from, say, Nha Hang, over any Chinese food, would you?

In my opinion, Chinese food on Argyle tops out at "pretty good". Nha Hang Viet Nam is top tier Vietnamese in Chicago, and I'd choose it 100% of the time.