Restaurant: Bang Bang Noodles
Location: 9355 Culver Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232.
Date: July 21, 2023
Cuisine: Western Chinese Noodles
Rating: Prefer the SGV
One of my last AFFs before I got too busy with work.
Bang Bang has an outpost in this Culver City food court.
I’ve wanted to try Bang Bang for a while — being the spicy Chinese noodle lover that I am — and it was decent. Certainly the cucumbers, dumplings and dry garlic noodles were solid. But I wasn’t blown away. Sigh.
Knife cut noodles. They are fairly heavy and a bit more awkward than one would want them to be. Nice chew though.
The menu. Lamb was out :-(.
Cold chili cucumbers. This shareable side dish is the perfect complement to any of our noodle entrees as it provides a nice textural contrast with it’s subtle sweet chili crunch. We make limited quantities of this daily, so don’t miss out. This was probably my second favorite dish. Nice crunch and a bit of sweetness.
Mama’s Dumplings. Their mom’s recipe for Pork & Chive dumplings topped with our signature sauce & chili oil. This was my favorite dish. Tangy sweet.
Tingling Cumin Noodle Soup. A Chef favorite that holds Northern Chinese Flavors. This is the perfect bowl of our famous handmade Biang Biang Noodles in a tingling cumin soup. This made to order dish is topped with house chili oil, fresh cabbage, green onions and cilantro.
A wonton soup. Couldn’t find it on the menu.
Szechuan Garlic Noodles Soup with Braised Beef. This is their new fan favorite and specially crafted for all those garlic lovers out there that appreciate the aromatics that makes this dish really come to life! And to take it up a notch, they’ve incorporated a signature Szechuan chili that really takes this dish to the next level! Much less flavorful than the dry noodle.
Szechuan Garlic Noodles Dry. This is their new fan favorite and specially crafted for all those garlic lovers out there that appreciate the aromatics that makes this dish really come to life! And to take it up a notch, they’ve incorporated a signature Szechuan chili that really takes this dish to the next level! This was my favorite noodle and certainly had tons of flavor — but it could have had more heat and more garlic :-).
Tingling Cumin Noodle Dry with Braised Beef. This Dish Is Influenced by Northern Chinese Spices. Fresh handmade Biang Biang noodles are made to order in our signature tingling cumin sauce, a dash of homemade chili oil, aged black vinegar, topped with fresh cabbage, green onion, and cilantro. Lots of cumin, but the noodles are heavy and awkward.
Xi’an Tomato Dry Noodle with Mushroom. An authentic Biang Biang Noodle that brings Fresh Flavors from Xi’an. They’ve utilized fresh stewed tomatoes, crisp bok choy, seasoned ground soy, chives, house chili oil and (in this case) mushrooms. My least favorite of the noodles, a bit bland.
Overall, I didn’t love Bang Bang — despite being a Chinese noodle fiend. Part of it was the take out container and food-court format, part was that it just wasn’t intense enough.