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NaiNai's Noodle and Dumpling Bar, East-West Highway in Downtown Silver Spring - Closed


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Definitely hipster Asian joint (in the vein of Momofoku or Toki Underground). I had their steamed pork dumplings and pork bao. Their bao were just like Momfoku in that steamed bun with a taco type presentation vs traditional enclosed bao. Quality was decent.

I'm definitely interested in going back and trying their house made noodles.

http://www.nainaisnoodles.com/

1200 East-West Highway

Silver Spring, MD 20910

301-585-6678

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Tried it out last night for first time. Got two dozen dumplings, dragon which are seafood and pig, which obviously are pork. Wrappers were a little thick for my taste, but OK. What I did not like was that they were hot for the first one, but cooled very quickly after coming to the table. They are just served on a plain plate so I wonder if they are steaming them or just nuking them in the microwave. They came out pretty quickly for being steamed on order so they may have them pre-cooked and just reheat.

Noodle dishes were the special pork belly ramen and pai gow. The $16 price tag on the ramen became apparent when the bowl came out with 7 pieces of pork belly, a little overkill in my opinion, though perfect since we were sharing. Soup was OK, though somewhat skimpy in amount. Where it fell short was the noodles, though they were good, clearly fresh made, they weren't quite ramen noodles. Texture was just a little off and I can't quite place it. Pai gow noodles were almost cold when they came, which is not so good when they are swimming in chili oil. The noodles themselves were very good. Again like the ramen, clearly fresh noodles, not dried packaged, just wish they were a little warmer. Gave me the impression they had been sitting waiting for the ramen to get done, as the ramen was nice and hot.

Everything we ate was pretty good, but not fantastic, nor good enough considering the price tag. Kitchen and service need to work on coordination to make sure food is hot, and remains hot. Probably will not be going back unless we really have a craving for noodles or dumplings and unwilling to go to Rockville.

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Went here tonight after catching a screening of Tampopo at the AFI.

Dumplings were decent with the Year of the Ox being the best out of the bunch with Year of the Rabbit acting as runner up of the 4 total they have on offer.

The baos were all superior to the dumplings. I'd say my favorites were the Ni Hao Bao and Thou Shalt Not Bao edging the others (they were out of the mango salsa for the Luau bao, which we ordered anyway and was still good,but I think the mango would have been a nice touch to that).

The Crouching Tiger Hidden Noodle soup was pretty disappointing. The size was huge, which was fine, because we were sharing. The vegetables were pretty good in it, but they clearly need to train the staff on how to properly wash the vegetables as there was grit both in some of the vegetables as well as at the bottom of the bowl. The pork and bamboo shoots were tasty but not evident in sufficient quantities. The broth was OK, but missing flavor and in desperate need of doctoring with soy sauce and even a little sriracha. But the noodles were quite disappointing. Clumped together, no body or structure whatsoever they were completely falling apart in the broth.

If I come back, it'll be for the baos mainly, and some of the dumplings. Focus on those and you'll be fine IMHO.

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On 4/3/2017 at 9:13 AM, Pool Boy said:

Went here tonight after catching a screening of Tampopo at the AFI.

Dumplings were decent with the Year of the Ox being the best out of the bunch with Year of the Rabbit acting as runner up of the 4 total they have on offer.

The baos were all superior to the dumplings. I'd say my favorites were the Ni Hao Bao and Thou Shalt Not Bao edging the others (they were out of the mango salsa for the Luau bao, which we ordered anyway and was still good,but I think the mango would have been a nice touch to that).

The Crouching Tiger Hidden Noodle soup was pretty disappointing. The size was huge, which was fine, because we were sharing. The vegetables were pretty good in it, but they clearly need to train the staff on how to properly wash the vegetables as there was grit both in some of the vegetables as well as at the bottom of the bowl. The pork and bamboo shoots were tasty but not evident in sufficient quantities. The broth was OK, but missing flavor and in desperate need of doctoring with soy sauce and even a little sriracha. But the noodles were quite disappointing. Clumped together, no body or structure whatsoever they were completely falling apart in the broth.

If I come back, it'll be for the baos mainly, and some of the dumplings. Focus on those and you'll be fine IMHO.

Thanks for this. They were just added to uber eats, but since the better items wouldn't travel well, I now know to skip this one for delivery. 

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23 hours ago, zgast said:

Thanks for this. They were just added to uber eats, but since the better items wouldn't travel well, I now know to skip this one for delivery. 

Yeah agreed. I am not a fan of delivery anything to be honest.

 

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