Happy Noodle

I love this place for several reasons:

1.  It's the best place to eat in Oakridge when I visit my parents (except for my folks' food, of course).

2.  Being in a town that if you blink while driving through you miss it, my expectations were low.  Especially because, let's face it, Americanized Chinese food can be pretty terrible.  

3.  This place has delicious food.  I was blown away by the ginger prawns.  It's one of the best meals I've ever had, period.  

4.  The owner and staff are some of the nicest, most genuine people you will ever meet.  They are very concerned that people are actually enjoying the food they prepare because they care about the product.  

5.  Reasonably priced and large portions round it out.

Okay, the interior is lacking, but it makes up for that with everything else.  I can't wait to go back!

The window of this new noodle shop proudly proclaims: Vietnamese Chinese Thai American.

The decor is strictly tacky-divey-suspicious: windows are draped with lacy white curtains covered with cartoon depictions of marine life. The west wall is covered in a crudely-painted New York city skyline. Empy glass cases appear to be begging to be filled with something, and the service here is poor at best.

That said, the food was good and cheap.  Offerings include several types of pho and Vietnamese noodle bowls, chow fun and chow mein, several types of pad thai, and four different Thai curries (all variations on the Panang theme, including pineapple and pumpkin curries), available with rice or noodles.

On my visit, I ordered the pumpkin panang curry with noodles and pork, only to be told that they were out of pork.  So I got chicken instead.  Good, spicy, though the curry sauce seemed to be lacking a little depth at first, the more I ate, the tastier it got--overall not a bad bowl. The serving size was huge, and the curry was full of potatoes, carrots, pumpking, and basil leaves.

My companion had the extra special spicy beef pho which was rich and chile-hot, with big slices of tender beef.

We split an order of potstickers, which had obviously been in a freezer just moments before, but they were good anyway because, well, frozen potstickers are generally pretty tasty.  Of course they can't compare with the ethereal lightness and juicy savoriness of Toshi's gyoza, but that's a tall order to fill.

Overall, we were both satisfied, and I'll definitely be back to sample chow fun and pad thai.