Noodle Ba

Yet another EL adventure.
I’m not sure why it was decided this would be a good idea… a noodle bar in a casino? … Yeah…
AMBIANCE: Noodle Ba is a super small seating area offset from the rest of the casino. It seemed like most of its business came from patrons ordering food while they were gambling at the tables.
SERVICE: Awkward, but not unfriendly. We were mostly ignored after we received our food.
FOOD: They pretty much ran out of everything (we were there around dinner time on a random weekday). Every single item we initially proposed to order was quickly shot down with «Oh, we don’t have that.» We each ended up settling on phở/​ramen noodles, and the only soup base/​protein available. The noodles were clumpy and gross, J avoided the frozen shrimps in the soup at all costs… and well… it was just an extremely unsatisfying meal.
OVERALL: I won’t go so far as to give Noodle Ba 1 star, but it was a pretty horrible experience. If you do decide to dine there, be aware that you’ll very likely be limited to only one menu item…

Meh. It was super unimpressive and I really wish I had walked the 5 min to the next Phó place. How do you mess up Phó so bad?
It was so bland, even all the goodies couldn’t help much. I’m very sad that I brought visiting company here, especially after talking about how San Jose has the best Phó places stateside.
Service was practically nonexistent. Sit up at the bar so you can get a word in when you need something.
Or better yet, just skip it.

Best place to eat at the matrix
A nommmmmmm nommmmmmm nommm
Beef chow mein on point

last minute stop for dinner after picking up a relative from san jose airport. it’s located inside the matrix casino. if your under 21, i guess tough luck getting in because you have to be over 21 to get in the casino floor.
nice lil ol’asian lady running the place, nice. but i can’t really say too much about the food. what’s the term? it is what it is.
my relative ordered #1 Phở — beef noodle. if your asian and have been to diffrent phở places and have eaten a lot of phở? sorry, this is not for you. i tried the spicy pork ramen for myself instead and i have to say the same thing if you’ve eaten and tried different ramen places, it’s not gonna impress your taste pallet.
the only highlight for me is the spring rolls, pretty descent and it’s the only thing that’s seemed to be really fresh as it’s going to get from this place.
so final take, if you’re just flying in or up for a last resort noodle/​noodle soup, then yeah i guess it can do. descent price.
if you’ve been gambling and all your $$ have been locked and tapped into your gambling and you’re tossed from alcohol while gambling and need to get some descent priced noodle soup/​noodle bowl in your system while in the casino? then yeah i guess it will do. otherwise i wouldn’t really go out of my way to get beef noodle and/​or ramen from this place, when san jose is a pretty descent hotbed for everything phở places.

I came here last night after a concert & I loved my noodles. I’d have to disagree with the low star rating…

Well, the other reviewers are mainly right. It just keeps the gamblers fed. Was hoping for better since it was a nice casino.
7 Words: Not the best phở I ever had.
Had the phở bo, it was like missing something. .
Also came back and ordered a $ 8 plate of egg rolls, but didn’t know they were mini Eggrolls.

This is really horrible. It seems like if all you have is noodles, that you’d at least try to do a halfway decent job. The ramen was total shit.
I’m staying at a hotel nearby and there isn’t shit for decent food as far as I can tell.
I didn’t come here for the casino, but because Unilocal said there are multiple places to eat in here. I chose poorly.
I found out later that just down the road by Chipotle and Subway there’s another noodle place that is 1000% better.

Eek! Yep, me thinks not! Never again! Noodle Ba should change their name to Noodle Bad.
My friend and I went to Casino M8trix to try and find our pot of gold on St. Patrick’s Day. Sadly, we left dissatisfied and with less money in our pockets. My friend hadn’t eaten dinner yet and since it was already 9 o’clock, we decided to give this place a try.
«Do you trust it,» he asked. After looking at the overpriced hodgepodge of asian dishes they served, I should’ve said no. What I hate more than nasty food is wasting a good workout on nasty food. I can’t believe I allowed this stuff into my mouth.
Being open until 11pm, I didn’t expect them to run out of food at 9pm. I wanted something small and cheap so I asked for the Egg Drop Cup; but they ran out of that, so I opted for the potstickers. $ 8 bucks for 6 pieces?! Bah, what a waste. My friend gave up meat (except fish) for lent, so he asked for their seafood noodle bowl. They ran out of that, too. Not many choices left, so he asked for udon with beef broth and tofu.
I watched them prepare my friend’s noodle bowl and saw that his «udon» noodles came from one of those little plastic packaged noodles you can buy at the Ranch 99. This probably explains the strange sticky chew texture his noodles had, which btw weren’t even udon noodles! Udon noodles are big and round, not skinny and flat.
My dumplings were also probably from a package purchased from an asian market. They tasted store bought and were at best served only slightly warm when I received them.
All in all, we should’ve just driven another block down to Phở Viet and had their food. Cheaper and probably better.

Came to M8trix casino on a whim since my friends and I had never been there. I ended up at Noodle Ba because I was super bored and hungry, so my boyfriend and I ordered phở while our friends finished playing. I have to say the phở here is pretty decent for a casino. I didn’t think it would be that great, but it wasn’t horrible. Or maybe I was just hungry, I don’t remember. I’ve definitely had better phở elsewhere, but it was convenient since it was right there inside the casino and I happened to be craving something with broth.

Yup– 2 stars is just about right.
This place really only exists to keep the gamblers fed without leaving the casino. There’s two sides to the menu– the left side is Phở, and the right side has non-​Phở noodle dishes. On the right side were tempting sounding noodle descriptions such as «BBQ pork house noodle» or «spicy pork ramen.» We got these two.
When they came out, they were exactly the same– basically if you’ve ever had won ton noodle soup (without wontons), you’ll know what I’m talking about. Clear broth with BBQ pork, thin egg noodles, and some veggies. The «Spicy pork Ramen» was IDENTICAL, except it had kimchee. Clearly misleading, but I was willing to keep an open mind. OK, it’s not Santa Ramen, we’re in a casino after all. Maybe at least it’ll taste good.
Nope.
The broth was bland and full of MSG. The only redeeming quality was them being rather generous with the pork and noodles. If you’re in the casino and need some noodles, do yourself a favor by taking a break and trying Phở Viet, which is half a block down the street. While not spectacular in itself, compared to Noodle Ba, it’s heaven.

I ordered the pork ramen and theres absolutely no flavor at all. The soup is bland, but the condiments they put in there is quite generous. They added a lot of corn, fish cake, and pork in the noodles. Maybe the noodles would’ve tasted better if i was on starvation mode and havent had anything better to eat for days.

Keyword: Worst ramen ever.
I guess that’s what i get for gambling and craving ramen. When I got the dish, it looked like Phở, like a bad tasting Phở. IDK how the other items are, but i assume its not great either.

Short Story:
Okay food, though there are definitely better places. Not open as late as Noodle Ba.
Long Story:
I came here on a Saturday night at 12AM, and I got the lemongrass chicken. The chicken was bland and I did not like their noodles. It was cold and clammy. Also, it was overpriced. The service was fine though. I’ll give them that.
Verdict:
I will not be back.

The worst phở we ever had. My girlfriend said it was the worst phở she ever had in her life. She complained about the dish the entire time because the broth didn’t have any taste, noodles were disappointing. The only thing she ate was the little bit of meat that they gave you. Basically felt like it was just hot water. The only reason why we even ate here was because we came to the casino to watch the NBA Finals and they actually had opening seating in here.

Chicken phở is dry. Only white meat option.

This may be one of the worst bowls of phở I’ve ever tried… in my life. Instant phở from grocery stores taste better.
–Soup is just hot water
–Noodles are soggy and flavorless
–No seasoning in anything
–Barely any meat
DO NOT ORDER THIS — NO MATTER HOW DRUNK YOU ARE… you will regret it

You know how in Vegas, restaurants try to make Vietnamese food upscale? Yeah… that’s this place. A tray with dividers for each topping or sauce. Bowl that’s… not plastic? Bar stools? What is this nonsense?
Overpriced and disappointing. OK while drunk. I wouldn’t know how it is sober, but I’d imagine not very good. The broth is ok, but the noodles aren’t chewy enough for my taste. The meat was ok. Again, it’s weird how they bring it out on a tray with hot sauce, hoisin sauce, bean sprouts, chili peppers, and lime in its own divider… I can’t get over how weird that is.
Tastes great with free money though. If you’re up, it will taste fine. If you’re down, this place will probably make you sadder.

Nothing special. Not even average. It’s a bit crazy to think they charge for subpar phở in San Jose. I’d give it 3 stars if it was free. Lol. Not worth it. Just walk half a block to find better phở options.

First time coming to this place. It was pretty big disappointment.
1. When you hear about a restaurant you think okay more then 5 tables but no this place had two tables and they weren’t very big either. Then theres a bar that sits about 8 (thats if your okay with eating almost elbow to elbow). I’m sure they could have added another table in the empty space that were available. I guess you can’t really complain if your there to play instead of eat.
2. As i watched the waiter bring some food out to the table some soup spilled because the entrance of the door way was two small for more then one person to go through and you can’t really see the corners obviously if two people bumped into each other.
3. We ordered the ramen and udon. The ramen was flavorless and the meat was just regular pork like pork bun pork. It did however come with kimchi which was probably the best part of that meal. My dad had to add soy sauce and chilly for some flavor to the broth. The udon soup was better but there was practically nothing in there. At least when you eat phở you have enough meat to fill you but in the udon it was only vegetables and there wasn’t even a good amount. The best part about the udon was probably the poached egg.
4. We also got the dumplings they were good. Probably better then the soups for what its worth. also the egg roll which was greasy.
5. The place just looked too cramped in general.
Unless there is some improvement I wouldn’t recommend having dinner there unless you just want a quick meal to fill the hunger and go back to the tables.

We went on the first Friday, and it wasn’t bad. The fact that it wasn’t bad really impressed me, to be perfectly honest.
Got the Spicy Pork Ramen, which is a bit of a misnomer, since they use BBQ Pork in it. The broth was light, but tasty. And it was pretty cheap for the quantity of soup provided.