Tai Pei Noodle

[Rosie]

We recently enjoyed a dinner at Tai Pei Noodle, 6 Willowbrook Blvd, Wayne. I like the food better at China 46 and Hunan Cottage but this establishment had some interesting items on the menu that I will return to try. We had fried pork dumplings which were very tasty. The steamed vegetable dumplings howerver were soggy with a thick dough. I wouldn't order them again. Scallion pancakes were crispy and as good as any I have had. Baby bok choy had too much ginger. I asked for extra garlic! We also had an excellent eggplant, chicken and prawns with garlic sauce, home made cut noodles with beef and crispy shrimp with pepper sauce. Dinner with tax and tip was $70 for four people. There are seventeen noodle soups listed on the menu that I'd like to try next time.

[201]

...There are seventeen noodle soups listed on the menu that I'd like to try next time.

That's a pretty ambitious amount of food to eat!

I remember walking past this place on a couple of occasions (it's in a strip mall, correct?) and being interested in trying the noodle soups. I haven't quite found the opportune time to do so yet, but I'll be looking forward to reading your thoughts.

[Rosie]

"Ambitious" is my middle name. Yes, it's in a strip mall near The Jewely Exchange.

[Rosie]

We returned to Tai Pei tonight. Had the meatiest slightly greasiest spareribs ever. Do order them. Yum! Then we tried the homemade cut noodle ten ingredient soup. I didn't count all the ingredients swimming in the bowl but it was delicious and could easily feed four or more. Then we had a special of seafood and bean curd casserole. The calamari, shrimp and scallops were perfectly cooked--not rubbery which can happen with 30 seconds of too much of cooking! This restaurant has many Asian diners and I noticed that they received what looked like a pickled cabbage amuse. The last time I was here ( a few days ago) I asked if they had a Chinese menu and was told that it was being printed up. When leaving I noticed some very interesting dishes that a couple were eating and asked them about these dishes. When they described the dish I asked if it was on the menu. I was told that it was on the Chinese menu! We love the food here and but found that many dishes were heavy with ginger. Is this typical of Taiwanese cuisine? Also, they serve a dim sum brunch on Sat and Sun. which we would like to try.

[tommy]

heavy with ginger? awesome!!!

does the place fancy itself as sechuan? i noticed that style of steamed dumpling is *not* to my liking, as it is very doughy.

[Rachel Perlow]

This place sounds like it might be run by the same family which owns the Noodle House restaurants in Teaneck and Parsippany (I think they are called, Taiwan Noodle House and Hunan Noodle House, respectively). Jason and I have been to both and enjoyed their food very much. In fact, in Teaneck, they not only own the Noodle House but also Veggie Heaven and East Saigon.

[NJ2FLA]

Hey Rosie I remember way back when that place was called the Mandarin. Used to go there years ago as a kid. I had lunch there a few months back (under the new name), but don't remember much of the meal to mention it.

[201]

I ate here recently and asked about the Teaneck connection. My server said that it was related to those restaurants on Cedar Lane (two out of three of which I am not a fan). Regardless, I had a pretty good meal.

There's certainly a lot on the menu that caters to Americanized tastes (as the family of regulars behind me ordered "pork-fried rice, general chow chicken, and more fried noodles with mustard AND sweet sauce"). Meanwhile, I asked my server if he could take the fried noodles away and he brought the pickled cabbage instead. I really do wish there was some sort of secret handshake I could use to not be immediately served "white people" food when I walk into some Asian restaurants (I also had to request chopsticks). Anyway, the pickled cabbage had a fairly strong level of spiciness to it as well and it set the tone for what I ordered.

I had the spicy cucumber appetizer which was pretty interesting. Basically long slices of cucumber tossed with some garlic and those dried hot peppers that seem to pop up everywhere. I enjoyed it as served, but I took more than half of it home and tossed it in the food processor. I liked the resulting "relish" much better because the flavors were integrated more.

I also had a spicy beef soup with very thin rice noodles. This was a dark and heavy broth with a robust flavor. Definitely not for the Americanized-Chinese food palate, but still found on the same menu as that family of regulars used to order their meal. The beef was basically pot roast and came with some fat on the outside and in a couple of big clumps. In otherwords, pretty damn authentic! It was pretty good. Definitely a lot heavier than I had anticipated (I was shooting for a light, spicy lunch), but also very satisfying.

I wouldn't call this place a destination restaurant by any means, but if you're at the Willowbrook mall and don't feel like eating at the food court, it's worth a shot.