October 24: King Noodle

Did King Noodle get its name because it's in King County? Or because it's on King Street? Or because they purport to be the royal ruler of all things noodly? I still don't know, and as a pastafarian this concerns me more than it should, but it made for a cheap and tasty lunch.

Suggested to me by a co-worker who I believe to be the master of Asian foods, King Noodle is enthroned a short walk into the international district -- through the ID's ornamental gate and two blocks ahead. The dining room is clean and small, with about 10 stainless steel tables, hand-painted bluebird artwork, and a TV tuned to AAT's Chinese or Taiwanese news. As a solo diner, I'm directed to the last remaining table, a four-seater. A few minutes later, I'm asked if I mind sharing my table with two others. That's fine with me, and I do my best not to eavesdrop on their conversation about pedestrian traffic flow and transit signal coordination.

I'm handed a two-sided checklist. One side lists appetizers, drinks, pre-defined soups, and "rice stone pot." I'm intrigued by the stone pot options, but I'll do that next time. The other side is the soup or congee checklist: choose two veggies, one soup base, one noodle type, and two toppings. I choose soup: bean sprouts and mushrooms, chicken broth, won-ton noodles, chicken, and BBQ pork. I could have gone exotic, with beef balls or pumpkin or pork kidney, but no. Just no. I also ordered green tea, a mistake, because red tea was served for free, but at least I had another cup of tea to take back to work with me.

The soup arrived just as my table-mates were discussing issues with transit stops between coordinated signals. There's a lot of soup in there. I'm a clueless American, so I expected, you know, a wonton dumpling to be in the soup, but no, Wikipedia vaguely tells me that wonton noodles are the noodles served with a wonton dumpling. So now I know.

The pork was mild; the chicken, tender. A few chunks of chicken skin floated in the broth unobtrusively. The noodles were done well; unlike some phở I've had, the noodles didn't need to continue absorbing broth.

Chopsticks and a spoon are provided, and eating two-handed seems to be a necessity. I suspect that they've got forks available, but I muddled through with what I had.

For the price, yeah, it was pretty good. The rice stone pots sound very intriguing, and will be my choice next time.

King Noodle
615 S. King St.
Soup, tea: $13.28