I should have know when the menu said “Pacific Rim cuisines”, the food would be quite bad.
Napa Noodles on downtown Napa was highly rated in the guidebooks as the best ramen in town. We arrived quite late into the city on Monday night and most of the restaurants were already closed. This was the only place still opened downtown.
The only table that was dining with us were some nurses just off their shift. And all of them ordered the ramen, so I guessed it would be already.
“KFC” Korean Fried Chicken
Spicy. Crispy fried chicken wings, maple chili gochujang glaze, toasted sesame seeds, micro wasabi and maple salt.
First the snacks, we ordered the tongue-in-cheek named “KFC” or Korean fried chicken wings. They were like American style buffalo wings but with a Korean gochujang coating. Very salty.
Tokyo Ramen
Chef tataki’s 10 hour savory chicken Broth, ramen egg noodle, braised pork belly, scallions, pickled bamboo shoots, soft boiled egg.
Next came the ramen, the egg was just a poached egg, the broth was sticky and pretty oily, but it was the soggy noodles that failed the taste test. And pickled bamboo shoots? Well I guess they could not get the regular ones in this part of the world, but pickled ones were a no-no.
Japanese Curry
Housemade Japanese curry, roasted chicken, potato, carrots, sweet onion, edamame, green onion, served with steamed rice.
Darling ordered the Japanese curry – the curry roux was housemade and quite dark. The taste was authentic, but the roasted chicken was quite stale. The rice was too mushy.
Not quite a gourmet spot, and not even when you are hungry and looking for a quicky. Go get a burger or room service instead.
Napa Noodles
1124 1st Street, Napa, CA
Tel : +1 (707) 492-8079
Visited Nov 2023
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