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Super Bowl Noodle House (海碗公), Rockville Pike


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I am excited to try this place, but haven't yet, so I am super sorry for early posts; however, the menu they stuck in the Chinese newspaper reminded me of Joy Yee's in Chicago, so I had to post!

They have all sorts of noodles, with some rice bowls, and they also have some cold side dishes priced from $0.99 to $3.29.

I am most excited about their Zha Jian Mian (炸醬麵﹣Authentic Old Beijing Style Zha Jiang Noodle on their menu, or jajiameng on Korean menus?) and their Da Ru Mian (打滷麵 ﹣Northern Pork & Egg Groovy Noodle Soup). I don't have super high expectations here, as Joy Yee's is just nice classics, such as A&J style, but it's nice to see comforting foods on their menus.

There are also good, classic beef noodle soups, such as Tomato Beef Stew Noodle Soup.

Has anyone been yet?

The address is listed as:

Super Bowl Noodle House

785 G Rockville Pike

Rockville, MD 20852

301-738-0086

11:00am to 9:30pm

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Sounds like a good place and I hate to rain on anyone's parade, but if the NFL ever catches wind of a Super Bowl restaurant then the NFL will probably send a cease and desist letter pretty quickly My link. Perhaps it could be called the Really Big Game Bowl.

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JMac... I don't think the NFL will send a cease & desist against an Asian restaurant that serves noodle soups in a bowl. Unless there is some sports theme I don't know about, the likelihood that a consumer will be confused as to the source of the goods or services, or that there is an implied endorsement, is quite low,. (note, this is not legal advice nor should it be considered such. It's my opinion and that's it.)

Here is why I checked this thread: is this restaurant metro accessible? If so, I might have to go tonight!

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I don't think the NFL will send a cease & desist against an Asian restaurant that serves noodle soups in a bowl.

Here is why I checked this thread: is this restaurant metro accessible? If so, I might have to go tonight!

The NFL is incredibly aggressive with defending the Super Bowl name. They have a history of going after mom-and-pops who use the title, for any reason.

The restaurant is about a 10-15 minute walk down Rockville Pike from the Rockville station. You can also catch one of the myriad buses that runs up/down the pike from Twinbrook or Rockville.

I read comments from Yelp and the place got barely OK reviews.

I won't even ask why you'd be using Yelp for reviews, but there are a grand total of TWO reviews, and both of them don't seem reliable.

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The NFL is incredibly aggressive with defending the Super Bowl name. They have a history of going after mom-and-pops who use the title, for any reason.

No, they don't. They have a history of going after people who use the name in a way that is confusingly similar to their use of the name (i.e. a sports bar) or when used to make unauthorized merchandise. Just because the NFL has rights in the mark SUPER BOWL for use on an athletic event (and related products and services) does not give them rights to the name against all users and uses. An owner of a trademark only has rights in the mark to the extent that a consumer can be confused as to the source of the goods or services, or if an endorsement could be implied. Here, it's an Asian noodle shop unrelated to football (from what I can tell). It would be a very unreasonable consumer who could be confused as to the source of the goods or assume that the NFL somehow endorses the restaurant. :)

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[As a general rule, I love the idea of putting the Chinese (traditional, please; not simplified) characters up in the main title for Chinese restaurants. The burden is on us to learn their language; not vice-versa. This is NOT a political statement; it's a cultural one. By all means, let's talk about "Joe's Noodle House," but let's also have the option of folks referring to it by its correct name: 峨嵋小館.

We're all intelligent enough to learn these simple phrases, and what they actually mean - isn't it time we started at least making some effort, in the name of, well, why the hell not?

A whole 'nother world is out there, for us to explore. God, I'm hungry to explore it.

And, to take this a step further, I've been making a counter-clockwise sweep of Eden Center, trying to study and write down and learn all the restaurants and dishes that I'm unfamiliar with. It's paying dividends and is rewarding as hell. Yes, the food itself isn't that advanced, is largely processed, and is all-too-often laden with MSG, but it's also fascinating, sometimes quite tasty, and really not at all unhealthy, chemicals aside.

I'm a loser baby!

(Brasserie) Beck]

(Feel free to disagree or call me a douche.)

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By all means, let's talk about "Joe's Noodle House," but let's also have the option of folks referring to it by its correct name: 峨嵋小館.

...Feel free to disagree or call me a douche.)

Never, sir, but you are too generous with your apostrophes. :) [Fixed and :)]

Edited by DonRocks
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DanielK, his daughter, RK (future star), myself and gelittleman had a nice time here last night. They had only been open 2 weeks as of last night, but for 2 weeks opening, a decent family crowd of Chinese folks were present last night (about 3 tables). I think there were only about 10 tables together--DanielK and I were trying to remember what was there before, but failed.

I really love the fake noodle bowl displays on the outside of the restaurant. It brings back lovely memories and helps those unfamiliar with Chinese noodle soups order more smoothly.

You are seated by either the host or one of the servers, and then you have to order and pay up at the cashier's stand. Near there are also the Pepsi-Co soda machine, other beverages, and the cold small plates.

Of the cold small plates, we tried: kaufou with boiled peanuts (wheat gluten); boiled chicken with spicy oil; and citrus-soaked lotus root slices. Of these three dishes, DanielK thought the chicken lacked a good spicy kick to it, while the weak-spicy moi thought it was a good mini-kick to it. The kaufou was not soaked enough and therefore was not soft and chewy, but still chewy. The boiled peanuts were great! I think lotus roots were not DanielK's thing last night.

For the main courses, we shared: Zha Jiang Noodle; Northern Pork & Egg Groovy Noodle Soup; and Teriyaki Chicken Rice Bowl. I really liked all three -- they evoked comfort to me, but as I said in my first post, it's not going to be of high expectations. The noodles tasted homemade, which is their claim.

The weak parts were: the rice - not soft enough. They used restaurant-supply-style rice, which is too hard for a traditional rice bowl. The Zha Jiang mian was not saucy enough, but overall had a nice flavor. I did not care for its accompaniments of purple cabbage, soybeans, cucumber, onions, and edamame. Although I love soybeans, cabbage and edamame, this was not how I ate this dish at home. Plus, the soybeans and edamame were par-cooked, dashed quickly in hot water and carefully placed in the bowl, but these were reasons why our dish came out in about 5mins after ordering.

Everyone liked the groovy noodles -- it was indeed groovy, even if the presentation looked like hot and sour soup. The ingredients filler were not familiar, but at least the taste of the sauce and flavor profile were.

The chicken was perfect for the teriyaki rice and the noodles and the chicken were the only things gelittleman were willing to try last night.

DanielK thought it wasn't worth driving cross-town for it, and I am sort of inclined to agree, except that this fills a brief little void in my noodle rotation, so, at least for me, it was worth driving from Virginia for it.

Super Bowl Noodle Menu.pdf

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Echo what goodeats said. Nice place, nice addition to the neighborhood, but couldn't currently justify driving across town for it.

Overall, my main complaint is that many of the dishes (pork soup specifically excepted) were very one-note. There isn't that depth of complexity in the flavors that I get, for example, in the Zha Jiang Noodle at A&J, or the cold chicken with spicy oil at Joe's. Homemade noodles were excellent, though.

Kaufou with boiled peanuts (wheat gluten) - Fine, but I like the version at A&J more. My daughter inhaled this.

Boiled chicken with spicy oil - The chicken was tasty, which is more than many places do with this dish, but the spicy oil was incredibly mild.

Citrus-soaked lotus root slices - Too sweet - needed a balancing flavor.

Zha Jiang Noodle - Sauce had good flavor, but not enough of it, and the addition of non-standard veggies would have been more appropriate if they had been properly cooked.

Teriyaki Chicken Rice Bowl - As goodeats mentioned, rice wasn't properly prepared. Chicken was excellent, with some nice vinegared cabbage on the side, but I thought the Teriyaki sauce was too sweet without enough balance

Northern Pork & Egg Groovy Noodle Soup - Groovy indeed. Rich, flavorful, satisfying, and lots of pork belly. Would order this again in a heartbeat.

We were limited with our dining group to no beef and minimal spicy dishes, so there's still a lot of the menu left to explore.

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The NFL is incredibly aggressive with defending the Super Bowl name. They have a history of going after mom-and-pops who use the title, for any reason.

This defense seems somewhat tenuous in terms of noodle houses, the noodles being served in a Bowl, often a Super-sized bowl. There was also a Pho Super Bowl in Springfield (near Gamasot) that closed awhile ago, but I guess this is straying off-topic; I guess "the law" here is whatever the judge says it is.

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I've been back a couple of times, and my opinion has basically stayed the same. This is a nice neighborhood place, and I'm happy to have it 5 minutes away, but it's not worth driving across town for.

Cooking and quality is consistent - no more problems with the rice or savory/sweet balance, but you'll be disappointed by anything labeled "spicy", especially with Joe's a mile down the road. They've also added a dozen dishes to the menu (forgot to grab a menu on the way out) and some chilled small plates. They've also printed real menus and take orders at the table now; the counter is just for take-out.

The Zha Jiang noodles are much improved over last time - back to traditional veggies and they serve a bowl of sauce on the side so you can mix to taste. The small bowl of rich pork stew that comes with the noodles was possibly the best thing we had today! The Hui-style beef noodle soup, kind of like Chinese pho, was very nice. Pad Thai was competently prepared, but there are much finer versions in the area. Two small plates - gluten with peanuts and bamboo shoots with chili oil were ok.

Biggest complaint - if you order hot tea, you get a cup with a plain old Lipton tea bag. Booo.

Lunch, with leftovers, was $10 after tax and tip per person.

Again, decent neighborhood joint, but I'm going to land up at A&J, China Bistro, Sichuan Pavilion, and Joe's a lot more often than Super Bowl.

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