Have you heard of Shanghai-Pulled Noodles?

Location: Retiro

Watch a Shanghaianese make hand-pulled noodles while eating! Currently it has two branches but both of them are in Banawe on the same street. The logic of this escapes me entirely, but what I know is the mother branch across Tasty Dumplings is cramped and has a horrible exhaust system. The branch in Retiro is more decent, plus the Chinese making the noodles is friendlier.

On my first visit I had Chicken Noodles. The chicken component is an entire part, complete with bones, unlike in other noodle houses where it's just sliced chicken meat. The chicken meat was very tasty too, something like adobo without the sourness.

Pictured here is the Beef Noodles. They also have Special Beef Noodles, with the difference of the beef being entire chunks instead of sliced.

I ordered Dumpling Noodles, which was redundant given that we also ordered a side of dumplings (choose between 7 or 14 pieces). In the noodle houses I've been to before, the dumplings are synonymous to siomai. Here, the version of dumplings is exactly like Korean jinmandoo, which can be steamed or fried. True enough, Shanghai-Pulled Noodles also has that option.

For a minute I wondered if the restaurant is cheating and the dumplings were storebought. Visit any Korean or Japanese grocery and you'll see premade dumplings in the frozen section. But I noticed that the dumplings are not perfect; some are misshapen, some are smaller than the others, and some have thicker wanton wrap than others. This means they are not made from a factory.

The noodles are also inconsistent; some strands are thick, some portions are clumped together. To me, this is a novelty and makes the restaurant interesting. I like the idea that a person is really making my food.

Serving portion: huge; the ingredients generous
Service: very good
Interiors: could use some improvement (why are all restaurants nowadays opting for modern, mocha walls, black chairs and couches look??). They should learn from Masuki.

If you insist on going to the mother branch, you have to be forewarned that the chopsticks they provide are like the brother of the toothpick. I had a really hard time because they were too short and thin for the heavy noodles! What a memorable experience.