Capital Noodle Bar

Crossroads in Irvine, which has been host to a lot of new restaurants recently (Creamistry, Urban Plates, and Doner G among them), will have at least one more new entrant.

Capital Noodle Bar is the noodle bar concept by the same group that owns and operates Capital Seafood at Irvine's Diamond Jamboree and Capital at Irvine Spectrum.

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http://blogs.ocweekly.com/stickaforkinit/2014/02/capital_noodle_bar_to_open_in.php#more

I would love for this to be a HK cafe style restaurant...still haven't made my way to Tasty Garden yet but this should be a good option to go to.

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bones said:

I'm ok with this just being a great noodle bar - doesn't have to be HK style.  So hard finding a good bowl of noodle soup in this town.

Homie - hit us up with some GCs!

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I'm not a huge fan of HK style noodles...I like Mandarin style noodles (i.e. 101 Noodle) a lot more although a good HK-style wonton soup place would be nice.

It would be nice if they sold Dim Sum all day too (or at least the bao).

Saw their humongous picture wall today, right next to Ha Long in the Crossroads shopping center.  This is now my most anticipated new restaurant opening in Irvine.  From the pics, it looks like Trieu Chau Style noodles.  Not what I was expecting since the other Capital restaurants are Canto.  I wonder if it's even the same owner? 

If they open for breakfast and serve Chinese donuts.....drool, I'll be there every morning

Open open open, need my Trieu Chau noodles....read opening mid June

It's opening in the next week or two!

Its interior was showing signs of completion, with sleek display shelves and photography ready to be hung. And the noodle bar? Complete with purse hooks, "Women don't want to put their purse on the ground when they sit at the bar." It's all in the details, folks. As for the menu, expect their signature Hainan chicken, plus noodles and stir fry entrees mostly under $10. Two curry spaghetti dishes will cost you extra. They'll also offer a handful of dim sum sides for snacking, plus beer and wine options.

Capital Noodle Bar plans to conduct a soft opening either this weekend or next. Once fully operational, they will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., Monday through Thursday. On Fridays and Saturdays, they'll remain open for business until 11 p.m. James suggests ordering the Capital bowl (pictured), a house favorite. Follow them on Facebook for updates. We'll be the one hanging our purse, ordering extra dim sum.

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http://blogs.ocweekly.com/stickaforkinit/2014/08/capital_noodle_bar_irvine.php

I see communal tables, not a big fan of that, I don't like to fight/share my Siracha/Hoisin sauce!  Wish they can open earlier, but 10:30am is not bad.  Noodle bowl looks great, hopefully as good as Trieu Chau minus the cockroaches.  This setup kinda reminds me of Noodle Planet, hopefully much better though.  And what is the curry spaghetti dish?  Sounds nasty

Dim sum!

No soft open today 

Forget DTF, I'll be eating here twice a week!  Opening this Friday.

Hehe... was just about to post that they had a sign in front yesterday saying they were opening on Friday.

I was there looking at the menu around 6:40p... I could have run into you!!

irvinehomeowner said:

Hehe... was just about to post that they had a sign in front yesterday saying they were opening on Friday.

I was there looking at the menu around 6:40p... I could have ran into over you!!

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irvinehomeowner said:

Hehe... was just about to post that they had a sign in front yesterday saying they were opening on Friday.

I was there looking at the menu around 6:40p... I could have run into you!!

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Stole those pics from wife's photostream, I hardly venture outside of work and school since 9/2/14. 

Braved opening day and got some to go orders.  Not ideal and a sin to noodle soup lovers, but kid was tired and got outvoted by family to dine out.  So we got noodle clump with soup to go

Ordered the Capital Bowl which is my avatar pic above.  Broth was rich and lots of flavor.  Celery was pre-dominant and a tad on the sweet side for me.  Not as delicate as say Trieu Chau's version but I don't believe any restaurant can match Trieu Chau's broth. 

Of course the noodles are a mashed up clump by the time I get to eat it at home.  They pack it in disposable bowl containers, which is handy.  But the bowls can't hold all the contents of the soup items so you end up with half amount of soup on standby.  I hope they switch to bigger containers, like the ones from Pho Bac/Ha Long next door. 

Soup is heavy, the Capital Bowl has ground pork, so it does get a bit greasy.  Gonna go with the seafood bowl next time for a lighter flavor.  Kid didn't really care for it, probably too heavy a flavor.  We all enjoyed the chinese donut though.  It was still crunchy when I got home and went great with dipping it in the flavorful broth.  Not sure if they make the donut in house, it's not as thick as the ones at Trieu Chau, but also not as light as the ones at Taiwanese breakfast places.  Highly recommend you order them with your soup.

The restaurant was pretty packed for dinner.  The staff seemed experienced despite the dinner crush.  Can't wait to properly try them again by dining there!

Gonna test the restaurant next time by ordering a dry style egg noodle with soup on the side.  If they can make that, I'll be a very happy diner.

We made it on opening day, wait was about 15 minutes at around 6:30 pm.  Got the Capital Bowl.  Like PS9 said, can't match Trieu Chau's broth but decent for Irvine.  They ran out of the thick rice noodles so had thin rice noodles instead.  Not the same, but still good.

The best was Hainan Chicken Rice. Flavorful yet not too salty.  Also got DTF type dumplings. Clearly not as good as DTF but decent as well.  Lots of juice.

The fried fish cake was good, kids loved it and they also liked Beef Chow Fun.  Only complaint from kiddos was too much bean sprouts.

Got the herbal ice tea. Interesting and refreshing.

So what is the concept of the Noodle Bar vs their Seafood restaurants?

Is it supposed to be like a Taiwanese Cafe style eatery?

Just try this place also and really liked. 

The food remains me so much of Kim Tar's and the Trieu Chau style rice noodles like the Capital Bowl and the Wonton Egg Noodle Bowl are both excellent.  The place is not big and not many tables, wait time might became a problem during peak hours. 

irvinehomeowner said:

So what is the concept of the Noodle Bar vs their Seafood restaurants?

Is it supposed to be like a Taiwanese Cafe style eatery?

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Focus is on soup noodles and canto rice dishes.  It's not Taiwanese, more Chaozhou, or Teochew.  Ethnic chinese that settled in southeast asia, mostly singapore, some in Malaysia.  Food is like a cross between vietnamese and chinese.  That's why you see the red and black sauces at the table, kinda like pho places.  Have viet slow drip coffee.  Differences are they have a jar of pickeled peppers at the table.  ALso serve pickeled cabbage as a side dish.  Soups are also more of a pork or chicken based broth instead of beef.  The owners probably speak a combination of southeastern asian languages.  At least the ones at Trieu Chau in Santa Ana speaks 5 languages (canto, mandarin, viet, teochew, hokkien). 

Ate here again today.  I'm very happy to have this kind of restaurant in Irvine.  Got the seafood noodle and it is gonna be my go to dish from now on.  Wife got the hainan chicken, and it was decent, the ginger dipping sauce is like crack, highly addicting.  Also got the fried shrimp egg roll, beef satay sticks, and juicy pork dumpling.  Kid enjoyed it as well.  They're not at full menu yet, believe the spaghetti and siu mai are still not available. 

Wife claims too much MSG, but I can't tell.  It does leave a lingering sweet taste in my mouth, usually that means MSG but who knows.  I'll ask them next time if they use MSG in the broth.  I don't like the big communal tables, they should've split into smaller tables and push them together for big groups.  Lots of empty seating that are not available because they sat a party of 4 at the large tables.  The bench seating is not the best for kids, seen kids tumble around since there is no back.  And the bar seems very high to me, and would not be comfortable.  The purse hooks seems like painful knee decapitators to me.

Also the viet coffee is weak.  Need more condensed milk and stronger coffee.  BUT at least it's not ghetto like most teochew places I've been.  And it doesn't have any dead rodents in front of the restaurant ( Kim Tar)

went there today for lunch.  manager let two parties (his friends) cut ahead of everyone else. got this one grandpa really upset.  grandpa complained to hostess and she didn't even apologize.  just said it is what it is so grandpa stormed to the back to talk to the manager. essentially the same response.

not a good way to do business IMHO.