Noodle LAH

Mediocre cha chan tang breakfast fare. The chicken «DING», a noodle soup with grilled lemongrass chicken, was bland as could be with barely seasoned protein. My flame fried cheung fun was disgustingly greasy and just too much to stomach right after waking up.
On the upside, good coffee comes with all the meals at just $ 1 HKD and the place is spacious and easy to get to from any of the hotels connected to Pacific Place.

What I ate: Laksa noodle soup, chicken satay, Ice tea
Price I Paid: Lunch special with entrée $ 98 (service charge not included)
Décor: Hipster, too cool for school, very spaced out tables
Service: Average, the waiters seem to have a habit of rushing people out fast (but we were there during the lunch rush)
The laksa isn’t really bad, nor is it really good. The soup stock was just a little bland for my liking and I ended up finding myself adding lots and lots of chilli to give it a kick. The noodles (whilst being at a good chewy texture) reminded me of the Singaporean La mian laksa instant noodles — not a bad thing but definitely not worth it for the price that you are paying here. There was a lack of vegetables in the soup but meat lovers can rejoice because there is more than a substantial amount of chicken (too much for my liking). I did however found myself dipping the pieces of chicken in the soup into the chicken satay sauce for extra flavour.
The chicken satay is also a specialty of Noodle Lah, but like the laksa, the taste was a little safe for my liking and lacked a real punch (more chilli please).
The ice tea as part of the lunch special was the one thing I thought they did really well.

First off, a Unilocaler must understand that the Cup Noodle game in Hong Kong is pretty strong. Instead of flavors like Chicken and Shrimp, HK brands like 合味道 (Nissin Foods) do flavors like Milk Seafood, Tom Yum (that Thai soup), and Cheese Curry. So I guess it would be just natural to expect a full fledged noodle restaurant like Noodle Lah to be greater than or equal to my 3-​minute meals. Well, at least the price was greater lol.
For around $ 65 HKD, you can get noodles on a plate or on a bowl. Under the modern designs of the store and the crafty presentations of the dishes, one might be fooled into thinking that Noodles LAH is pretty legit. But upon the first bite, one would immediately wish that they had ordered hot water for their 合味道 instead.
The noodles themselves were soft and flavorless, and the accompanying meat were dry and too salty. Three bites into the meal and I began to wonder why this place is still in business.
I guess it’s because it’s a comfortable place to see your old friends. The seating is spacious, and the noise level is great for a group conversation. Noodle LAH is also conveniently located in Admiralty and while the food does not merit $ 65, the price is reasonable for working adults.
But beware, they close at 8:30 and they mean it. The wait staff will start subtly ushering you out by handing you the check and then just straight up usher you out by sweeping under your seat while there are still unappetizing noodles on your plate. So I guess you should either plan to come earlier or just plan to not come at all :)

Noodle Lah is one of the regular places for lunch around Admiralty (equals busy at lunch time). I’ve been there a few times and I have always left with the same feeling: it’s okay. If there aren’t any other better options on a given day, I may come back. So you guessed well, it’s not my favorite place.
I’ve only tried their set lunch. You’re given two options: 75HKD for main course plus drink or 98HKD for appetizer, main course and drink. I’ve normally gone for the main only option and gotten a beef curry that came with rice: plenty of rice and little meat (just the way I don’t like since I don’t eat rice). The sauce was good but the meat was hard and too fatty. Other options are noodles and lahksa as mains and satay and fish cakes as appetizers.
For me there wasn’t a single dish that I would order if I did an à la carte so I picked the least bad. This isn’t obviously ideal but at least I hoped I would enjoy the meat on my plate, which I didn’t. When reviewing restaurants it’s hard to judge, sometimes it just comes down to personal taste. Other dishes, as per my colleague’s opinions were very good.
For me is definitely best to walk to Simply Life and get their set lunch (appetizer, main and drink) for just over 100HKD where I have more options, although I may have to queue outside for a while…

Noodle LAH! is possibly one of the most creative names for a restaurant I’ve heard in a while. Inspired by Singapore-​English, or Singlish in which people often add ‘lah’ to the end of their sentences to add emphasis — kind of like we Hong Kongers — except we do ‘lor’ and ‘ah’ too — Noodle LAH! serves local Singaporean and Malaysian cuisine.
I was there for their afternoon tea set yesterday. Since it was a Sunday, I was actually surprised that they were running tea sets, as many places don’t on weekends. I initially wanted to order the Thai chicken salad, but I was told by a waiter that it wasn’t available. Then I asked her what the ‘dessert of the day’ is today, and she told me that you get a choice of cake, but that this wasn’t available right now either — she added that another item, the berry toast, also was sold out. So, not the best first impression created — I settled with the Ipoh chicken soup noodles instead.
The noodles came much faster than I had expected. It was here in less than five minutes! The noodles were just alright — the chicken strips were very tender, but the noodles were a little hard for flat rice noodles, and the soup base was rather oily. The portion was decent though — just right for an afternoon snack.
Since I added money for the set rather than just ordering the noodles alone, I had an accompanying drink. I ordered coffee and was pleasantly surprised to hear that I could choose between cappuccino, latte and Americano! I opted for a latte, which was good but not served hot enough.
So in sum, the quality of food at Noodle LAH! was just average, and I was a little annoyed that three items out of their tea set menu weren’t available. It was reasonably priced though, so if you’re working in the area, this may be worth checking out.