There’s something about a long line of customers outside a restaurant that always spikes interest.

The Ah Niang Noodles Shop (阿娘面) at Sinan Road is only open during meal times for about 2.5 hours each time, and the snaking queue outside it everyday is testament to how popular it is. The process of queuing, getting your order taken, finding a seat, and finally getting your bowl of noodles is about half an hour to an hour, depending on the time you arrive and how many other customers were thinking of having Ah Niang noodles for their meal too. Going near the end of the mealtime seems to be a better bet as the crowd dissipates.

Popular choices are the yellow croaker fish (or Huangyu Mian 黄鱼面) for 22RMB a bowl, and noodles with crabmeat and roe (Xiefen Mian 蟹粉面) for 39RMB a bowl. Try mixing in the preserved vegetables and shredded pork side dish (咸菜肉丝浇头) for added flavour (only 4RMB).

The Ah Niang noodles shop is cleaner and bigger than your regular greasy spoon, but not quite what we’d call a restaurant. Nevertheless, there’s an unspoken system in place. If you’re eating with another person with you, it’ll be more time efficient if one of you joins the line to order while the other joins the crowd inside the restaurant itself to pick a strategic spot to stand around waiting for eating customers to finish.

The three steps to enjoying your Ah Niang Noodles:

 

Address: 36 Sinan Road, by Nanchang Road 卢湾区思南路36号(近南昌路)

 

Open Hours:

Breakfast: 7 – 9.30am

Lunch: 11am – 1.30pm

Dinner: 5 – 7.30pm