Noodles can be oodles of tasty fun

Max Jacobson

Wednesday, May 17, 2000 | 9:51 a.m.

Noodle kitchens are springing up in Las Vegas like Chinese mushrooms after a spring rain. We're not talking Italian-style pasta, but rather Asian-style noodles, with Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Korean pedigrees. These dishes are cheap, filling and delicious. You don't have to be Asian to love them.

The best new examples of this genre are found in casinos such as the Venetian, Rio, Bellagio and Mandalay Bay. Before exploring them, though, it should be mentioned that there are wonderful Asian noodle dishes all over the city. Togoshi Ramen is great for Japanese soup noodles with interesting toppings, while Joyful House, a Chinese restaurant, has incredibly good dry fried beef chow fun, a flat rice noodle.

Kimchi, a rustic Strip restaurant, serves naeng myun, light brown noodles made from potato starch, summer fare eaten in a delicious cold broth. Noodles are so hot, in fact, that the new Wild Oats Market on Stephanie has devoted an entire section of its deli to a hot noodle bar. There, while kettles boil away with savory broths, a team of chefs prepares a variety of noodles to be plunged into and eaten informally in the market's common area.

Noodles in Bellagio is easily the spiffiest-looking of our casino noodle houses, and the pan-Asian menu is more eclectic than the competition by a wide margin. There are straw mats mounted on the walls, shelves stocked with glass jars filled with dried noodles, a tile floor inlaid with gold-colored Chinese characters, and low-slung booths with cushy foam backs. Even the staff is stylish; waitresses sport cool white blouses, properly starched.

The menu here reflects a new-age restaurant consciousness, so often the mark of restaurants in Bellagio. There are noodle dishes from Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan at Noodles, to complement a core menu that is mostly Chinese. Perhaps the best dish Noodles serves is Vietnamese seafood pho. It's as complete a bowl of food as the law allows.

Pho are long, slippery rice noodles, served in a flavorful broth. In Vietnam, these noodles are generally topped with beef in various forms. Noodles does this dish with slices of a delicate fish cake, crunchy Vietnamese-style fish balls, a few strands of shredded pork, a few greens and fresh herbs. It's the best pho in the city, and the broth has a long, intense finish.

Mee goreng are soy-drenched sauteed egg noodles topped with either chicken or shrimp, loaded with beguiling Indonesian spices. Spicy Thai shrimp noodle soup is redolent of lemon grass and lustily flavored. No matter what you order, you'll eat just as you would in a night market almost anywhere in Asia.

Then there is Noodle Asia in the Venetian, not the best-looking kid on the block, but probably the tastiest. Noodle Asia belongs to Kevin Wu, the man who has given Las Vegas its best Chinese restaurant, Royal Star, also in the Venetian. Unfortunately, this modestly appointed room is jammed in behind the sports bar, facing a bank of slot machines.

But the food sings louder than the machines. Take ba bao noodles, a mouth-watering bowlful of flavors. This dish is based on the long, wheat-based noodles Chinese call mein (Cantonese) or min (Mandarin.) The noodles are tossed in a spicy red chili sauce, along with minced pork, diced fresh shrimp, roasted peanuts and scallions. It's one of the most delicious noodle creations you'll ever taste, if you don't mind a little extra heat.

On the slightly milder side, there is cha tsai noodles, the same noodles (min) in a salty broth with pickled Szechuan vegetables and sliced pork. This dish has a touch of heat, but not enough to overwhelm anyone. One of the menu's triumphs is peppered beef udon, made with the fat Japanese wheat-based noodle. For this dish the noodles are stir-fried with crushed black pepper, chopped onion and an abundance of tender sliced beef.

As an aside, none of these dishes (excluding most of the better known favorites such as chicken chow mein and the like) are to be found in any of the other casino noodle joints. So give Noodle Asia an A for originality, but around a C- for decor.

The Noodle Shop, in Mandalay Bay, is quite attractive. It is equipped with a long noodle counter, faux granite tables, cloth place mats and the best hot bean paste in the city in the condiment trays on each table. The further back in this long, rectangular room you sit, the more quiet it is; the front of the restaurant faces a busy casino pit, which can be quite unnerving when one is not in the mood.

This menu is somewhat limited in terms of the noodle dishes because the kitchen does no stir-fried noodle dishes. Instead you may have your noodles in soup or braised, excellent either way.

You won't get a trip around Asia in here, but you will get a tour of China. Braised pork knuckle with noodles is a northern Chinese dish, and may be ordered with a choice of egg noodles, thick egg noodles, flat rice noodles or rice stick noodles. (Try it with the thick egg noodles.)

Roast duck and honey-glazed barbecued pork, both superb, make good companions for egg noodles, and the house fish balls are good in soup with flat rice noodles. Dan dan mein is what residents of Peking call noodles with spicy meat sauce, as close to spaghetti Bolognese as anything in Asia. There is also a wonderful vegetable dish served here, mustard greens with oyster sauce.

Mein in the Rio is quite casual, a come-as-you-are noodle house with a Chinese heart. It, too, has a long noodle counter for casual dining. The sleek, modern design also features lots of blond wood and an open kitchen. The mostly Cantonese menu excludes flat rice noodles, and this food, too, is reminiscent of what you eat outside in Hong Kong on a steamy evening in south Asia.

Standout dishes here include beef stew and tendon with thin rice noodles, a crunchy beef ball noodle soup made with mein, a first-rate Hong Kong-style won ton noodle soup and a very Chinese shredded duck and pickled mustard green noodle soup, with a salty, satisfyingly rich broth.

Noodles, Noodle Asia and The Noodle Shop are all open daily, from 11 a.m.-3 a.m. Mein is open daily from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. for lunch, and for dinner from 6-11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, and 6 p.m.-1 a.m. Friday-Saturday.