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Noodle King opened in Autumn 2005, bringing a new concept to the UK from Australia. The restaurant specialises in 'fast food', but forget everything that you know about fast food, because Noodle King definitely do it differently! Their concept is to offer freshly cooked nutritious Asian food, but with super fast service, so it's perfect if you need to eat in a hurry, but can't bear the thought of the unappetising offerings of any of the burger chains.

We tried it on a midweek night, when it appeared to be doing a thriving trade. It is ideally located at the Hunter's Bar end of Ecclesall Road, so parking is nice and easy, as there are spaces just around the corner. Noodle King seats about 50 and the mix ranged from couples and small groups to a party of about 12. It was buzzing in a nice relaxed sort of way and it really had a very chic cosmopolitan feel to it. Decor is modern and stylish, but is practical enough to easily keep clean and fresh between the regular turnover of diners. The kitchen is open plan, so you can see all the red hot wok action, which makes for quite a show. You can't help marveling at how clean and organised the kitchen is too.

There is an extensive menu with a wide range of different noodle, soup, rice, salad and curry dishes. Vegetarians are very well catered for and eating here is a great chance to try a good range of Thai food without breaking the bank. If you want to stick to noodles, you can select from several types of noodle, then add chicken, prawns, vegetables or one of several other options - the permutations are numerous.

To keep things moving quickly, all food is ordered at the counter, at which point you are given a pager style 'buzzer'. When your food is ready, your pager buzzes and you go back to the counter to collect your food. We found that the time between our starter and main course was ideal for a quick meal, we had just enough time to eat spring rolls and let them settle before the main course was ready. After the main course though, there was never any suggestion of being rushed out, so it was still enjoyable and relaxing. All in, we probably took about an hour over our starters and main courses and this could no doubt have been cut to about 30 minutes if we had just had a main course.

The food tasted terrific, with clear evidence of fresh ingredients, herbs and spices. As main courses we tried wholemeal noodles with stir-fried chicken and pad Thai noodles with king prawns. The portions were very generous and we couldn't have managed a pudding of any sort. Prices are not fast food cheap, but do seem to be good value, given the ingredients and style of food. It is possible to eat for about £5 but most main courses are a pound or two more than this. Customer service was excellent throughout - we had cause to query one of the ingredients in a dish and the staff response was superb and very friendly, they offered to swap the food and assured us that they just wanted us to enjoy their food - a swap wasn't necessary, as we had just wanted to double check an ingredient and once it was confirmed, both meals were happily enjoyed.

We'd definitely recommend it for good Asian food, it knocked the socks off many other noodle restaurants we have tried over the years.

December 2005

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