boat noodles – Michael Eats

Location: 5308 Yonge Street, Toronto
Website: https://555noodles.com/

I recently wrote about the boat noodles at Paddler Thai Boat Noodles, which were pretty great. Well, the version at 555 Boat Noodles are equally delicious, so clearly, boat noodles deserve to be way, way more popular (I think these might be the only two restaurants in the GTA that serve the dish, or at least the only two that specialize in it).

The boat noodles here (“Chinese Broccoli, Garlic, Coriander, Bean Sprouts, and Onion”) come with your choice of beef, braised beef, or pork, and wonton noodles, rice noodles, or vermicelli. The waiter suggested braised beef and rice noodles, so that’s what I went with.

The braised beef probably could have been braised a bit longer (it was slightly tough), but otherwise this was a fantastic bowl of noodle soup. The broth is savoury and flavourful, with a decent amount of heat, a nice toasty garlic flavour, and a really satisfying tanginess that rounds things out.

And everything else in the bowl (aside from the aforementioned beef) was great, with a really generous amount of noodles, and a nice contrasting freshness and crunch from the veggies.

Location: 1710 Queen Street West, Toronto
Website: https://www.paddlerthai.ca/

I’m pretty sure this is my first time trying boat noodles, but if this place is anything to go by? Boat noodles need to be a regular part of my life. They’re seriously, seriously tasty.

Here’s how Paddler describes the dish: “‘Kuaytiaw – Rua’ was originated in Thai floating market back in the old days. A dark brown flavorful soup contains Thai herbs, dark soy sauce, coconut milk. Comes with Chinese broccoli, bean sprouts garnished with fresh basil, culantro, fried garlic and pork rinds.”

You can pick from small rice noodles, medium rice noodles, flat rice noodles, or egg noodles (I went with small rice noodles). You can also pick either beef or pork (I went with pork).

Everything here is so good. The soup itself is intensely savoury, with a satisfying tangy brightness and a bunch of depth (sometimes you’re kinda sick of the broth at the end of a bowl of noodle soup, but that definitely wasn’t the case here).

The bowl is absolutely crammed with tasty stuff, from the tender pork, to the pleasantly springy meatballs, to the flavourful herbs and fried garlic. It’s a definite flavour bomb, but in a way that feels very finely tuned. I’d probably go with the medium noodles next time (the small noodles were slightly too thin), but otherwise this was a superlative bowl of noodle soup.

Tag: boat noodles

Delicious Noodle Soup at 555 Boat Noodles

Tasty Noodle Soup at Paddler Thai Boat Noodles