Kung Fu Noodle

Tasty and authentic Chinese. This isn’t the place to come if you’re looking for the familiar fare you find on Americanized menus. Their noodle soups are their specialty. Everything we tried was delicious and savory.

Update: I have visited here several times after they changed their menu. The noodles are still salty like always. Remember to tell them if you want it lighter. Buns & dumplings are good, actually, they are the only things I would have here.

Drove by this restaurant when visiting Tucson so decided to give it a try. Food was awesome. Went back a second time the same week and it was even better! First time I had their beef noodle soup, which while very good, was not what I expected. Their soup is not like the Taiwan style beef noodle soup (i.e. does not have chunks of beef and thick flat noodles). The beef noodle soup here has sliced beef and round thin noodles. The waitress warned me it was spicy, but I didn’t think it was. It is more mild than Taiwanese style, but very good. The second visit I ordered fried pot stickers (excellent) and onion pancake (excellent) and chicken lo mein (very, very good).
If you like authentic — style Chinese food, this is an excellent place and I highly recommend it. FWIW, I was the only non-​Chinese person there. Most of the other diners were young groups (5 – 8 at a table — students?) and a few young couples. Everyone except me was speaking Chinese and I got the impression they were regulars.
Service was friendly, fast, helpful, excellent.
Will definitely go again next time in Tucson.

I’m a native of New York living in Tucson about 10 years. I’ve been to China and I know Chinese food pretty well. This is currently the best Chinese restaurant in Tucson. It started out with homemade pasta and homemade dumplings which are superior. But they now have authentic dishes I had the lamb and onions and it was spectacular. Is not a place you want to go if you are looking for General Tso’s chicken or that kind of thing. But the quality is superb and the food actually is seasoned correctly instead of dumbed down for the American palette.

Walked in and every customer was speaking Chinese and classic Chinese pop songs playing… I knew that I was going to find some food I could get excited about. We had some really amazing food that made me nostalgic for my years in China and Taiwan. The service was friendly. My bf wasn’t as impressed as I was, so I can’t tell how clouded I was with joy for finding some favorites.

This is the kind of place you go for certain dishes, and if you get the wrong dish, you might be disappointed.
So what to get at a place called Kung Fu Noodle? Well, being a Taiwanese style noodle restaurant, you can’t go wrong with the beef noodle soup. Flavor wise, it’s as good as beef noodle soup I’ve had in Los Angeles, although I will say that I wish they had more beef. Noodles are nicely done, and the broth is just wonderfully spicy with just a little hint of sweetness from the star anise/​cinnamon and whatever other spices they put in there. It’s awesome.
In addition, it’s the only place in Tucson where you can get Taiwanese street food, like the «Chinese burrito» and various buns. I wasn’t a huge fan of their «hamburger», but the Chinese burrito and the green onion pancake are awesome. Probably the only complaint is that they’re pretty expensive, especially compared to other cities, but I guess when you’re the only show in town you can charge what you like. Not a huge complaint; after all, I’m happy this place exists in Tucson.
Service is actually not bad considering it’s a pretty authentic Chinese place (back in LA, if you go to a Chinese restaurant with good service, you can pretty much guarantee that it’s either overpriced or caters to Americanized tastes).
So overall, go and get the beef noodle soup, the green onion pancake, and the Chinese burrito and you most likely won’t be disappointed!

Best Chinese Restaurant in Tucson. Their dishes are actually better than noodles imo. Looking forward for more variety tho.

Don’t use the online ordering. I arrived 15 minutes after placing an order online and was told that they do not make online orders until the customer arrives to pick up the food (in case you don’t show up). They asked me to wait 15 minutes while my food is cooked.
Once the food was finally cooked, I was asked to pay in the store even though my payment had already been processed online (along with a tip which I wish I could take back). There seems to be a resentment toward customers who use online ordering here. Good food but poor service.

Love the Dan Dan noodle! This place is clean! I love a clean Restaurant! The food is high quality and always tastes great! The only reason why I’m giving it a 4 is Because they don’t give you much meat at all in the noodle bowls. But

Was super excited about Kung-​fu Noodle based on recommendations and reviews. It was, however, very disappointing. Mostly due to the food and price.
Food:
— Chef’s Sauce Noodle: I ordered this because I wanted to try their «homemade» noodles and thought that surely it must be a great dish if it’s made with the Chef’s own sauce. Sadly, it is just a pile of naked, boiled noodles + bean sauce/​small bits of ground meat + a sprinkling of raw scallions + 5 slivers of cucumber. Tasted similar to ramen from the Asian store (salty and meh), but this cost $ 7.95 instead of 60 cents.
— Lo Mein: Friend ordered this. Came with shrimp and chicken I think. Not bad… was much better than Chef’s Sauce Noodles. Nothing special though and could’ve been from any Chinese take out place for cheaper.
Service:
— No major issues
Price:
— A little on the expensive side for what you get
— Would love to try their dumplings and bao but I just can’t justify $ 8 on a few dumplings, especially after being disappointed by their noodles
This place was packed with fellow Asians, so maybe I am missing something. Perhaps worth giving another shot someday. 3 stars for a very average/​okay meal.

I went here with my friends, one of them a child, and it was quite an experience. The location felt like it was a chain, but it’s the only restaurant in town. The atmosphere is basic, and the food delicious. The waitress was eager to please and curious and tried her best to make everyone happy including judging what would be too spicy. My friends had the big beef noodle bowl which was about $ 11 and included pasta made in restaurant, which chunks of beef and bamboo shoot and spicy brother (which was mild, but still spicy). I had the tofu szechuan for $ 9 and it was so good, some of the best tofu I’ve ever had, cooked to perfection, sweet and savory with decent white sticky rice. My buddy tried a piece of the tofu and, being a meat kind of guy, was surprised how much he liked it. The 10 year old kid refused to try the tofu but he loved the bamboo shoot and beef.
Though not cheap (no apparent lunch specials) I enjoyed this and would return!

Their potstickers are addicting. I order them just for myself, plus they deliver which is even more awesome. I haven’t had an entrée that blew me away… But I’m pretty sure the potstickers have some addictive substance in them, as I have eaten a whole order alone twice this week. Yummo.

What a nice surprise. I thought I was going to be eating at the mediocre joint that used to inhabit this space. (We hadn’t been there in a while.) Instead we found a different restaurant and the food here was quite good. Space is updated and hip. Service was friendly.
We ordered kung pao chicken, cumin lamb, and a scallion pancake. The chicken was extremely flavorful, with a mild degree of spice, and the peanuts and scallions tasted very fresh. It seemed like a much more carefully seasoned dish than I expect from kung pao, and much different (and better) than what I expected. The lamb was tender and tasty, although the low point of the meal for us was the nearly two cups of cilantro with which it was plated. I absolutely refuse to believe anyone likes cilantro that much.
The pancake was also different from other scallion pancakes I’ve tasted: I generally expect this dish to be eggier. But the scallion pancake at kung pao is a perfect pastry, flaky and fried to a crisp without being greasy. Crunchy and delicious.

I tried Kung Fu Noodle with high hopes, especially because the list of authentic Chinese noodle/​dumpling restaurants in town is pretty short. They do eat-​in or take out, and I hear they do delivery but I’m not certain.
I ordered the chef sauce noodle, and while it was decent it just didn’t seem ~$ 9 good which is what you end up paying after tax. The dish was mostly noodles, lacking much of anything else. The sauce, meat, and green onions were practically condiment portions, but still managed to leave a large pool of oil/​grease at the bottom of the container they were placed in. I put more sriracha on stir fry that already has sauce on it. The noodles were decent but nothing to write home about, and for all I know could’ve been bought from a store.
The people running the counter were nice but for lunch time with no one in the restaurant when I arrived, service was pretty slow (I got mine to go).
Overall, Kung Fu Noodle isn’t bad, its just okay. With China Pasta House being only 10 minutes away with higher quality, quantity, homemade, and cheaper noodles + potstickers, I have hard time thinking I’d choose this place first.
Worth a try, I’d take it over Americanized Chinese food any day, but the prices are a bit steep for what you get.

Surprisingly authentic noodle soups! The fiancé loved his beef noodle soup, (which I thought was insanely spicy for «mild»), and my mom loved her Tomato Noodle soup, which was had a very tasty broth despite being a vegetarian soup.
My second time here I brought my visiting friend here who eats beef noodle soup wherever he travels and he was very surprised/​impressed that Tucson had such delicious beef noodle soup!
My potstickers were okay– nothing I need to order again.
The Chinese burger was interesting, but a bit on the dry side.
Only complaint is that the service and food were very very slow, painfully slow. We came after the lunch crowd, much after 1pm, and there were only two other couples there, but to get us water took a good 15 minutes and the food took more than 45 minutes, maybe longer.
* On our second visit, the food came quite quickly– so I guess it really depends.

It’s true, the prices here are HIGH. Especially for what is considered normally Chinese street food. With that said, it is one of the few places you will find in Tucson with homemade dumplings and noodles. It is also one of those places where everyone is Asian, if not all Chinese. Meaning… it is SUPER authentic and most Americans probably will not like the food. Their menu is pretty small so let me break it down for you.
Noodle Soups — Beef Noodle Soup (def. their best one), pass on the intestine soup it was pretty bad and too spicy. Intestines is one of those food types that people need to know how to make it right or it just simple taste gross. I feel the same about Mexican Menudo.
Buns — Not a fan of their dumplings. I feel the ones I make at home are better. Their leak pocket was decent and the Chinese burger was ok too.
The food and service here is VERY slow. The servers seemed inexperience and don’t know how to multitask. With how slow the food comes out, they ought to be able to get drinks and checks out just fine. During the times that I went the owner (older gentleman that didn’t speak English) just walked around during the busy hour and didn’t do much. He ought to be helping clear tables or help out in the kitchen. They def. need to get their act together. It shouldn’t take so long to boil dumplings or fry pancakes.

Highly recommend Yummy Intestines Noodle.
Will try other dishes next time.
！！！！！！
十五字！！！！！

I’ll start by saying that this place is rather expensive. Whether it’s unreasonable or not is left as an exercise for the reader, but my goodness… if my ancestors knew I was paying $ 20 for dan dan mien and steamed dumplings, they might call General Tso and his army of chickens to come give me a whooping.
The dumplings are good here. If the whole noodle thing doesn’t work out, they could rename the restaurant to Kung Fu Dumpling.
The noodles… well, they’re noodles. They’re likely from a factory, which is OK in many regards, but not so much when there are places in town offering handmade noodles.
Every review so far is spot on about the broth. It’s as spicy as you want it to be but it lacks flavor and depth, and it’s also quite oily.
The menu has changed each time I’ve been here (printed multipage, handwritten, printed single page) so who knows what it will be when you go, but the staples should remain. Many of the appetizers are traditional Chinese snacks /​foods and are worth a go.
Rich’s recommendation: steamed dumplings. The noodles are fine but keep a low bar going in.

This place is totally delicious. I was a little bit peeved that it had taken over the Chinese restaurant I really liked (because I could get takeout at MIDNIGHT), but boyfriend and I tried it a couple times and we enjoyed ourselves.
The first time we had the beef noodle soup, dan dan noodles, and spicy pork wontons – we weren’t really a fan of the soup (it was spicy but otherwise bland), but the pork wontons have an AMAZING chili sauce and the dan dan noodles are also fabulous. This time we both got dan dan noodles and split the pork wontons, and to drink he also had a can of (tasty!) iced tea. The dan dan noodles have minced pork that’s REALLY WELL cooked, so it’s a little tough and hard – but mixed generously with garlic and other seasonings, so it really doesn’t matter. I meant to try something new today (the chef’s special noodles!), but I’d been thinking long and hard about those really delicious dry dan dan noodles, so nothing new for me!
The menus are also no longer handwritten! The menu photos in the photo section are accurate depictions of what they look like as of today.
I could see that this place might be a little intimidating for kids, but that’s not on my list of priorities. This doesn’t have what you’d expect if your primary Chinese food experience is Panda Express, Pei Wei, PF Chang’s, or the like; instead, I’d be willing to bet that it’s a little less American and a little more authentic, so expect new flavors and new looks for the food.
I’m looking forward to going back! Prices are reasonable for a grad student budget, and if I hadn’t wolfed down my noodles, there’s enough for about two non-​gluttonous meals. It’s even better (worse?) that it’s super close to my house. So even though it’s not open until midnight or later, if I really require takeout Chinese so that I can go back home to watch a hockey game (or do boring grad student stuff like cry in private about how much I have to do), that’s definitely going to be my go-​to place.

This was one of my first meals as a resident of Tucson, and I’m so glad because now I don’t have look for another place like it. Coming from a big city, I was skeptical of the Chinese food in the area so asked one of my local friends who had also spent some time in China, and he recommended Kung Fu Noodle. «Silly name, great food», he said. Since my dad was in town, I took him here.
Kung Fu Noodle offers ~10 dishes on a hand-​written menu all price around $ 8, and I imagine they do them all really well. They offer noodle soups, dry noodles, and an assortment of dumplings and bao (Chinese buns often filled with stuff). I shared the chef’s special sauce noodles and bao with my dad. The noodles were in a brown sauce, tossed with ground meat, scallions, and chili sauce. They were perfectly cooked and had that unique flavor of home-​made noodles. The bao were crispy on the outside and had juicy pork on the inside. Plus, one order came with 6 huge bao for only $ 8. These dishes really transported me back to the time I was in Beijing. My dad, who grew up in China, was equally impressed.
The table next to us got soup noodles and the servings were HUGE. I will definitely come back in winter time when I need something hot.
Service was great. We waited a bit for the bao since they make them in-​house and ready to order, but the waitress kept coming to update us and ask if we needed anything. Place was very clean and nicely decorated.
This will definitely become one of my regular spots. And if any of my relatives or Chinese food-​loving friends come to visit me in Tucson, I will definitely take them here.