It’s getting a bit chilly in Frankfurt, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time and a good meal. The restaurant I’d like to introduce to you today is good for a casual lunch or dinner during the week, but it’s also not a bad choice for a casual get-together with friends looking for authentic Chinese handmade noodles in Frankfurt.
Restaurant Profile
- Name ot the Restaurant: The Noodlemaker
- Adress: Europa-Allee 41, 60327 Frankfurt am Main
- Style: Chinese handmade noodles
- Price: around 15 – 20 EUR p.P. (incl. drinks & tips)
Before the main course, there are some amazing cold dishes as starters for both vegetarians and meat eaters.
Our favorite is Kou Shui Ji (口水鸡). This literally translates as mouth-watering chicken, which only hints at its appeal. It’s a classic of Sichuan cuisine and one of the most popular dishes in any Sichuan-themed restaurants.
The chicken is served in the full shape of a chicken thigh, chopped into slices with skins and bones to retain its juiciness and allow the hot and super aromatic chili oil to penetrate. The chicken is firstly simmered, usually with ginger, and then cooled in icy water to tenderize it. The meat is so tender that it often falls apart when you try to pick it up. Together with the homemade chili-oil and various ingredients and spices, the chicken has a very flavorful and multi-layered taste: nutty (from the peanut and sesame), garlicky, gingery, numbing (from the Sichuan pepper) and spicy (medium).
This dish is a typical festive meal in Sichuan and many other areas of China, as the color of the red vibrant chili oil corresponds to the New Year Red. This is a must-try for anyone interested in authentic Sichuan food.
If you’re looking for something to cut the heat, cold dishes such as 凉拌豆腐丝 (cold marinated shredded tofu) and 盐水毛豆 (salted boiled edamame) will do the trick. The tofu is seasoned with sesame oil and scallion oil, plus a little sugar and salt, all in moderation, which brings out the true flavor of the food itself.
Having said a lot about the typical Sichuan dish at the beginning, the mouth-watering chicken, The Noodlemaker is not really a Sichuan restaurant. It’s a restaurant that specializes in noodles (a staple food in northern China, while Sichuan is in south-west), and you can tell as soon as you walk in. With its large open kitchen, customers can observe the entire cooking process and the amazing culinary art of noodle making. The pulling and cooking process happens at the same time, after which the noodles are served super fresh to your table! The Chinese have been making noodles for over 4000 years, since the Han dynasty. With certain evolution in techniques over time. The traditional way of hand pulling still gives the noodles a much more silky, springy and chewy texture compared to hand-cut and machine-made noodles.
There are 7 different shapes of noodles to choose from, from the thinnest to the widest to the thickest, to go with different broths and sauces.
The first one I’d recommend is vegetarian and it’s called 麻酱拌面 (Ma Jiang Ban Mian). I usually choose the noodle shape ‘standard’. It’s round wheat noodles served in a rich sesame paste-based sauce and topped with cucumber, grounded peanut and green onions, etc. I would usually add a big spoonful of chilli, as I’m a die-hard chilli lover. Before eating, toss the noodles well so that each noodle is generously coated with the silky sesame sauce and glossy chili oil. Take a hefty first bite of the noodles with a little bit of everything, you have the noodles, the silkiness of the sesame sauce, accompanied by the julienned crunchy cucumber, which neutralizes the thickness and fattiness of the sauce, and the crushed peanuts, which add a bit of crunch on top, all in one bite! It’s so good I can’t stop eating more. That’s probably why I’ve been ordering it literally every time I’ve been to this restaurant lately.
But that doesn’t mean that there’s a lack of variety in the noodle dishes. The second one I’d like to recommend is called 炸酱面 (Zha Jiang Mian or Chinese Bolognese). It’s a signature dish of Beijing and very popular in northern China. As I wandered the narrow, winding alleys of Beijing’s hutong (a traditional courtyard dwelling of great cultural significance in China), I would often come across a long queen outside a humble little restaurant serving the most authentic version of this dish. The one at The Noodlemaker has a little local twist, but doesn’t lose any of its authenticity.
It’s best to go for the noodle shapes No. 6 or No. 7. The main seasoning of the noodles is the fried pork mince, cooked in a dark, thick, salty sauce made from fragments of yellow soya beans. It gives the dish a pungent and aromatic flavour and is the soul of this dish. I like that it also comes with toppings of various vegetables, which helps to neutralise the saltiness of the sauce and also adds a bit of freshness.
It’s really our most ordered combo. I hope you can give it a try and let us know what you think.
My coworkers and I are going there regularly. I love watching the chefs working with the dough. Good recommendation 😊
Thank you so much for reading our very first post and for leaving your comments! 🙏 We absolutely love hand-made noodles and can’t wait to share more of them soon… 🍜😋