Shanxi Knife-Cut Noodle King    正宗山西刀削麵皇  

Knife-shaved noodle is a specialty of the Shanxi province, China. I remember I've once seen in a TV show a noodle master from Shanxi placed a the dough on his head, holding two shavers with both hands and shaved the noodles into pots of boiling water at various distances, wow! One of those masters is in Tsuen Wan, yesterday I met him in the kitchen of his very famous eateries, he is also the owner of two other shops under the same brand, one in Yuen Long, and the other also in Tsuen Wan. I arrived early in the evening to dodge the peak hour for pilgrimage, the shop looks humble indeed though there are some adverts and culinary reviews from newspaper cutting, and photos of the owner with gourmets and celebrities stick at the glass pane near the entrance, though nearly crammed every hour of the day, the owner may think his shop still needs enticement for new customers. I sat down ordering a bowl of Knife-shaved Noodles with Five Spices Beef, and a dish of Choi Sum with Oyster Sauce (oil skipped). While I was waiting for my food to come, I looked into the kitchen and could see the Shanxi master and a youngster whom I thought should be his disciple performing various mesmerising gymnastics with the flour dough.
Sometimes the master twisted the dough, sometime ramming it with his hands against the table, and hey presto, he was really doing the Ramen! I could actually see the Ramen became thinner and thinner with each twist and pull action in the master's dab hands. No placing of the dough on the head though, the shaving of the knife-shaved noodle out of the dough were blistering actions that require tremendous skill to maintain the length and texture of every pieces. I think working successfully in this kitchen considerable stamina for the chef, bear resemblance to an artisan, is required. The show in the kitchen proved to be an entertaining one well before the meal!And finally the knife-shaved noodle came, very large a bowl of it and I suggest the shop may provide lady's size in the future as an environmental friendly gesture. The knife-shaved noodles were thicker in the middle and thinner at both edges, what's expected of knife-shaved noodles, very chewy, a bit sticky and got a wonderful fragrance of flour. The soup was amazingly good too, it got a chinese medicinal smell but no horrid, it tasted so soothing and unique, "Isn't it the taste of Wolfberry?" I asked, and I couldn't help but drank the bowl of soup to the last mouthful of it, and without thirsty feeling afterwards. The five spices beef was good but nothing extraordinary, shank meat was used which tendons were soft enough, melted and blended well with the meat inside my mouth, though the texture was good the taste was nothing special to tell the truth. The Choi Sum was very good too, though not in a quantity that would satisfy me or the health conscious people, it tasted very good in its freshness, the oyster sauce was the less salty type which is also my kind of thing.

This place is really cool, had some very tasty dishes.

Most people come here for the noodles of course. When ordering, the waitress will give you a choice of regular ramen noodles, or 'knife cut'. Knife cut noodles are when you see the big fat chef with a ball of noodle dough cutting noodles off roughly with a knife. They go straight in the boiling water and are flash cooked. Very delicious

The noodles themselves aren't to everyones tastes, they're made quite al-dente, and they're very thick and will fill up up quickly. There's lots of noodle dishes to choose from, I recommend their signature dish which is a pork with mayonnaise. Sounds a bit strange but its delicious

We also ordered Siu Long Bao which to be honest, were pretty good. Sure they were no din tai fung, but in tsuen wan what do you expect? They were perfectly adequate, except I wish they came with more than 4

Other dishes - Drunken Chicken, which was very nice and refreshing. And my favorite which was the Shredded chicken in Chilli oil - extremely yummy. It was spicy and oily, but tasted sooooo good that I forgot about all the oil.

It's very cheap too, most like cha chaan teng. Just beware there is no english menu, which is a problem if you dont read chinese (like me). The waitresses and waiters are constantly busy so dont expect too much help, just go with local friends

All in all a good meal, and a good cheap choice in Tsuen Wan.

Walked by and decided to try this place out, and the food was very good. The texture of their knife cut noodles tasted a bit bouncy (in a good way) and you have the option of adding different ingredients in your noodle soup. Was so good I returned again.

The negative is that they only seem to have a Chinese menu, but otherwise all is well. Their soy milk is also good there.

I have a thing for wonderfully chewy handmade noodles, and this place gives me just that.

I ordered a bowl of hand shaved noodles in beef broth with sliced beef shin and pig intestine, the noodles were wonderfully chewy, the uneven thickness made every single piece even more interesting. The broth's aroma is rich with beef and spices and if pig intestine is your thing, you'll love these ones. Too bad the beef shin is a tad too dry for my taste.

The dan dan noodle from this shop is a bit too garlicky for my taste. Not a first date dinner material ;)

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I like to hang around that street to get quick meals.
This is the one that we will absolutely never return to.
We ordered two bowls of noodles, a plate of vegetables and two drinks.

The drinks should be fine.
But there was a bunch of hair inside the vegetables and a few in noodles......
My friend & I were so scared. We left there without finishing half......