NoodleBird, An Asian-Inspired Diner at Fat Rice

Just received an email blast from the Fat Rice team about their new restaurant, coming in August:

Introducing NoodleBird: An Asian-inspired diner at Fat Rice. NoodleBird brings to life our take on vibrant street food, inspired by Macau and Asia. You can expect similarly great food and service of the original Fat Rice, only now, with a fast-casual approach. You will find an exciting menu filled with signature flavors as well as new offerings.

Housed in our existing space at 2957 W Diversey Ave, Chicago, Il, NoodleBird has a fun and lively atmosphere, where you order at the counter overlooking the kitchen and watch the action as your food quickly comes to life. Guests may grab one of 25 seats inside, dine outside on the patio or take it to go.

We welcome you to come and enjoy our signature live-fire charcoal-grilled chicken with a house-made cocktail, canned sparkling wine, or local beer. Try handmade rice noodles topped with crunchy peanuts, pork and ginger dumplings, or sweet glazed Berkshire barbecued pork. Our famously flaky egg custard tarts are back, and so is our milk tea, a fan favorite.

https://www.noodlebird.com/

Darren72 wrote:Just received an email blast from the Fat Rice team about their new restaurant, coming in August:


https://www.noodlebird.com/

i have to say that i was relieved that abe conlon wasn't also accused of sexual harassment of his employees. it's bad enough that his anger issues shut the place down. i'm willing to give the new place a chance: i wouldnt be if sexual harassment had been part of the problem and abe was still an owner.

So sexual harassment is a dealbreaker, but repeated verbal and psychological abuse is A-Ok?

js03618 wrote:So sexual harassment is a dealbreaker, but repeated verbal and psychological abuse is A-Ok?

When straining to separate the art from the artist, I guess we sometimes tend to draw arbitrary lines?

And FTR, I'm not making a judgment call one way or the other. I'm not up to date on what went down at Fat Rice; and I've probably been guilty in the past of making up some of those lines.

Friends and family is going on, I believe, through the weekend, with the 'official' opening scheduled for Thursday August 5. I think that each diner received a $25 credit from the house, with the remaining balance being paid by the diner.

The space is largely the same as when it was Fat Rice. The decor seems scaled back just a bit and there are fewer seats. The aesthetic of the food is very much in line with Fat Rice. Even though it's a mostly-new menu and many (most?) of the dishes seem to have fewer components, the flavors remained bold, intense and complex. It was F&F, so the number of diners and times they were to arrive was known. That probably made it even easier on the house than it might be during a typical service but still, our food was in front of us no more than 5 minutes after we ordered it at the register. Once we did order, we took some open seats at the counter and our food was brought to us.

The objective here is fast casual and the framework seems to be firmly in place. Since one of the biggest negatives about Fat Rice was how hard it was to get in, this approach seems to make sense. Not only did the food come out quickly, much of it seems better suited for carry-out than Fat Rice's did. That should all help their throughput.

Here's a quick glimpse of what we had . . .


Printed Menu - 21.0730


Tray One
Half Charcoal Chicken, Spicy Jumbo Shrimp and Pork & Ginger Dumplings

Chicken and shrimp were from the 'From The Fire' section of the menu. Dumplings, as tasty as ever, were boiled.


Tray Two
Wok-Seared Char Siu Pork Noodles, Egg Tarts, Sweet & Sour Eggplant and Spicy Cucumbers.

Everything was great but I don't think we had a clear favorite. Mrs. Suburban enjoyed the noodles the most. And on that dish, the smoky-seared wok hei was there in droves. For me, it was probably the shrimp but both cold vegetable sides were also outstanding. We were too full to eat our Pastéis de Nata while we were there but they were as amazing as always a couple of hours later.

=R=

Looking fwd to the noodles and tarts. Do you know when they open?

Thank you for posting. It appears online ordering is available today from their website. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays

Jazzfood wrote:Looking fwd to the noodles and tarts. Do you know when they open?

I was told Thursday August 5.

=R=

I am so excited for this, and I know all about their past but I fricken loved their food. I am willing to look the other way the same way friends of mine continue to eat at chi-fil-a even though it arguably tastes bad (never liked the place while living in Atlanta) while looking past their politics or whatever.

They're back and they're spectacular.

The food here is really good !

I rehearse not far away and vouch for the delicious smells emanating whenever I go in for my pastel de nata fix to bring to my fellow players, who put their gear down and devour w/i minutes.