Nothing But Noodles - Review

September 24, 2009

Nothing but Noodles is located on 1605 Elizabeth Avenue right off East 5^th Street. It is just down the street from Presbyterian Hospital and Carolina Medical Center.

In order to assist my poor typing abilities, I will refer to Nothing But Noodles as NBN throughout this review.

My first visit to NBN was on a rainy day about 6 weeks ago. Elizabeth Avenue was still under construction and parking was limited and somewhat difficult. I walked in with expectations of a franchise similar to Noodles & Company (of which I am a big fan) only to find a much larger and louder establishment. Not only was NBN physically larger but the menu was much more expansive. I wound up over ordering for lunch and never truly got a sense of the food or the restaurant itself.

So, today it was drizzling and I wanted something different, yet familiar for lunch. I was about to head to Noodles and Company when I decided that NBN should get a second chance. I walked in with a purpose to order something light, yet tasty. I started with half of a Pear & Balsamic Spinach Salad ($3.89) and their Margherita Pasta ($6.50, I believe). Below is the description of each dish taken from their menu online:

Pear & Balsamic Spinach Salad
Fresh cut Bosc pears, crunchy walnuts and spinach tossed with Bleu cheese crumbles and a tart, balsamic vinaigrette.

Margherita Pasta
Farfalle pasta smothered in our own made-to-order sauce of ripe tomatoes, fresh basil, fragrant garlic, red pepper flakes and extra virgin olive oil. The dish is garnished with basil and fresh Parmesan and Romano cheese.

NBN is a large “not so fast food” restaurant where your order at the register and a server brings your food and utensils. You fill your own drinks and empty your tray but you get a real dish and silverware. As I wait for my food, I notice the abnormally high ceiling which echoes sound throughout the restaurant giving it a high school cafeteria feel, while the tables and chairs insist that you have moved on to graduate school.

My Pear & Balsamic Spinach Salad is the first to arrive in what seems to be a deep soup bowl. The half salad is somewhat deceiving and spinach is stuffed into the deep bowl. There is a light coating of Balsamic dressing on the spinach with 2 thin half slices of pear on top. As I eat the salad I find too few Bleu cheese crumbles and too many crunchy walnuts. The taste isn’t bad but it seems to have so much more potential. I wonder if the full salad in a larger (salad type) bowl may have the proper proportions to make this an outstanding salad.

Now comes my main meal, the Margherita Pasta in a nice oversized pasta bowl; and it’s a three footer. You cars guys out there may be familiar with a 20- footer. The car looks cherry at 20 feet and starts to deteriorate as it gets closer. Well, that is pretty much what happened with this dish but in a 3 foot span. As it got closer, the first thing I noticed was the generic silicon coated Parmesan and Romano cheese. Perfect little sticklets of cheese about ¼ inch long and as thick as a sewing needle. In the back of my mind, I knew this was the type of cheese that was coming but for some reason it now disappointed me. As the bowl was being placed in front of me I realized why: the tomatoes. They weren’t red, but rather orange and they were perfectly cut little cubes. These were semi-fresh tomatoes. It is September and nearing the end of tomato season but these weren’t just picked and diced. These tomatoes were picked and diced and packaged some time ago and purchased from Sysco or some other food service company. That isn’t ‘fresh’ as far as I am concerned. Finally the pasta was in front of me and the smell came wafting up and I knew that it was over. Only one thing has this bitter, burnt smell and that is jarred, chopped garlic. Yep, the one in the little jar that the grocery store has the nerve to sell in the fresh produce section. This garlic was chopped months before and put in a bottle with preservatives and liquid. No bulb, no paper, not fresh.

The Margherita Pasta tasted just like it was; a plastic copy of something good and fresh. The ingredients are so simple and so affordable for this dish. Couldn’t they find an illegal alien or two or maybe a Johnson and Wales dropout who could dice fresh tomatoes and peel and chop fresh garlic?

I may come back to NBN and give the Pear & Balsamic Spinach Salad a try in its full portion form. But if I feel like quick, affordable, fresh pasta for lunch, I think I’ll just go to Noodles & Company. The menu may be smaller, but the ingredients are fresher, the sound is quieter plus they have a friendly staff.

Website: http://www.nothingbutnoodles.com/

Recommendation: Maybe for a salad, but doubtful for pasta

Instead try: http://www.noodles.com/