RED BOWL NOODLE SHOP: FREQUENT STOP FOR NIGHT OWLS AND COMMUTERS

At the corner of Main Street and 41st Avenue awaits Flushing’s iconic Red Bowl Noodle Shop. Word has it that ten years ago—when Flushing was but a sleepy final stop for the 7 Train—a Taiwanese owner took a chance and set up camp at 40-52 Main Street.

The same owner has since entrusted his business to Guangdong cooks to avail late-night patrons to an array of different regional Chinese cuisines besides noodles. Combined with seasoned wait staff, service here is exceptionally fast, even around peak hours like 9:00 PM on a weekday night.

For food, you could sample everything from beef noodle soup (“niuroumian”) for $7.25 to roast duck to some more eclectic options (frog, anyone?!).

Red Bowl’s no-fail congee dish is its sliced pork congee with preserved egg ($5.25). Having had some recently, we chose to order seafood congee ($8.25) instead. Brought piping-hot to our table in under five minutes, this congee option meshed together ginger, shrimp, tile fish, squid, and jellyfish(!) into a symphonic broth not unlike what one might expect from Congee Village.* Flushing Food paired our congee with beef and ox tripe in hot sauce ($7.75; a Top Ten choice).

After polishing off both congee and tripe dishes, we dug into an order of tomato with beef over rice ($7.25). This rice dish was light and slightly sweet:

While Red Bowl Noodle Shop isn’t the most economic option on Main today, its emphasis on speedy service and varied styles of food suggests that it will remain the iconic corner stop for years to come.**

May Flushing Food suggest: rising early for the all-you-can-eat breakfast.

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* Both the Allen Street and Bowery locations.
** http://www.yelp.com/biz/red-bowl-noodle-shop-flushing

Media credits: Helen Y.
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