Quietly, Magic Noodle House opened a couple weeks ago in Uptown, brought to the neighborhood by the same team behind Hana Matsuri Sushi in Westminster. The shop took over the old Qdoba, which had held court in the roomy space for about 25 years. Now, the neighborhood has a convenient, Chinese hand-pulled noodle shop, complete with another Denver rarity, parking.
“Hand-pulled noodle is not everywhere, and I feel like Denver has a new population and a young generation, so they can easily adopt the new concept,” said co-owner Nina Zhang, describing the reason she decided to open a new restaurant 15 miles away from her first and in a different city.
Hand-pulled noodles, also called lamian, may not be common in the Mile High City, but there’s nothing new about the concept. In fact, the practice dates back to the Ming Dynasty in Northern China, namely the Gansu Province. The art includes making a simple wheat flour dough that gets kneaded and then stretched, doubled over, twisted, and lengthened again. The process continues until the dough acts like a rubber band and can be stretched a couple of feet. It’s not easy, and lamian experts spend years perfecting the pull.
Lanzhou beef noodle soup remains one of the most popular lamian dishes, and is even touted as inspiring the rise of this noodle style. At Magic Noodle House you can try the dish under the name Magic Beef Brisket Noodle Soup, which comes with beef brisket, scallion, white radish, and cilantro.
Other hand-pulled noodle dishes include Sichuan Beef Brisket Noodle Soup with baby choy sum, sichuan-pickled mustard, cilantro, and scallion; and Sichuan Dan Dan Noodle with Iberico pork, peanut, sesame, scallion, and a tongue-numbing red chili garlic sauce. You can also find knife-sliced noodles in select dishes.
But, even though noodles are the specialty, don’t sleep on the excellent dim sum options or rice dishes. The Iberico Pork Wonton in Magical Red Sea Sauce proves just as remarkable as the magic noodles. You’ll also find Iberico pork in the restaurant’s soup dumplings, shu mai, and pan-fried buns.
On the rice side, Chen’s Mapo Tofu deviates from the usual pork and uses beef instead, giving it a darker depth that’s addictive with each mouth-tingling bite. Other rice entrees include Black Pepper Beef Fried Rice, Kung Po Chicken, and Magic Fried Rice with blue shrimp, chicken, Virginia ham, egg, shiitake mushroom, and scallion, to name a few.
The restaurant also offers a curated cocktail program featuring a Sesame Old Fashioned, 5 Spice Margarita, and Japanese G&T spiced with lemongrass and ginger. No matter what you order, make sure to check out the chefs as they twist and pull the noodles. It’s a free show with a lot of history, and not like anything you’ll find in the area.
Visit Magic Noodle House Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. 1400 E. 17th Ave., Denver, magicnoodlehouseco.com
