Our first meal out on our trip to Southern California in June was at the location of Din Tai Fung in the fancy South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa. Our penultimate meal saw us return to almost the exact location for more casual Chinese food. We ate one floor down, literally right below Din Tai Fung, at Mian. A noodle/soup specialist, as you might expect from the name, Mian is a mini-chain spun off by the proprietors of Chengdu Taste several years ago. They now have eight locations in all: five in Southern California, one in Las Vegas, one in Houston and one in Honolulu. At all of them the menu is centered on noodle and noodle soup dishes along with a short list of Sichuan snacks. Portions are generous and prices are reasonable (though maybe they feel more so when eating at the South Coast Plaza). All in all, it makes for a good family meal without having to wait very long to be seated.
In our case, we didn’t have to wait at all. We were there for lunch on a Tuesday and there were not very many people in the restaurant (there was inevitably a line outside Din Tai Fung above). I’m not sure what the story is on weekends or at dinner, or indeed at the other locations. The food, however was very good. We ordered a couple of snacks and a noodle/soup bowl each.
What did we get. To start, the Mian Cold Combo and the Chengdu Style Potato Snack. The menu notes that no substitutions are possible on the Mian Cold Combo and so we were amused to note that we did not receive the billed combo of Spicy Black Fungus, Beef in Chilli Sauce and Seaweed Salad: the fungus had been swapped out for Crispy Cucumber. All three items were very tasty, however. Even better was the Chengdu Style Potato Snack, which is basically thick-cut French fries dressed liberally in a Sichuan chilli sauce.
As I said, we got a noodle dish each. The missus got the non-soup Mapo Tofu Noodles. One of the boys got the Spare Ribs Noodle and the other got the Spicy Beef Noodle (both noodle soups). As both asked for their noodle soups to be made spicy, I got the mild Golden Soup Chicken Noodle—this in case one of them found their soup too hot to handle. As luck would have it, neither had any trouble with their soups—which they both enjoyed very much—and so I got to eat all of the mildest bowl. It was, however, quite tasty and so I only grumbled a little to myself.
For a look at the space, the menu and everything we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much it all cost and to see what’s coming next on the food front.
With tax and tip the total came to $96, or $24/head. It would, of course, be much lower if you were just eating a bowl of noodle soup. Either way, it felt like pretty good value for what we ate (and considering our meal at Din Tai Fung had cost almost twice as much).
Alright, just one more meal to go from that California trip. That featured Korean bbq in Garden Grove. I will try to get that out this weekend. I’m still not sure what next week’s Twin Cities restaurant review will cover. We’re not feeling terribly enthused about going out this weekend, but let’s see how we feel when it actually arrives.