Mr. Noodles

I sit there in Mr. Noodles (272-3024), Salinas’ new noodle shop on South Main Street. I’m fruitlessly wrangling a massive white blob of egg noodles with chopsticks. I’m not doing well. I’m new to pho – I’ve only had it two or three times.

But so is Salinas. With the restaurant’s April 2014 opening, there are a whopping two places in the city to get the stuff.

By the end of my visit, though, I’m hooked, and Salinas is likely to follow.

My newbie status must be clear to the whole the restaurant – the young skater couple, the Chinese family in the back, the chattering professionals. Luckily, Mr. Noodles himself, co-owner Quan Pham, offers me a lifeline.

With his swoopy black hair, big arms and gothic-print polo, Pham looks like a vampire, but like his killer chicken and beef phos ($6.25-$8.50), he is all warmth. He shows me the ways. My first mistake: I’m using the wrong utensils.

“Use this,” he says, handing me a black, shallow-bottom spoon. “Then you taste the broth.”

It’s a whole new world of dining ease. I take a couple more spoonfuls of the smooth pho. I ordered the small special ($7.50), a generously portioned soup of flank steak, eye of round, tendon and tripe, and each component lent its essence to the beef symphony humming in my mouth. The tendon goes in raw, and the heat from the soup cooks it. While not the most visibly appealing – it’s sinewy and chunky – it’s a decadent, chewy mouthful. The meat gives the soup a solid, almost starchy base, while shallots, bean sprouts and cilantro add a punch at the beginning that excites the palate.

Pham sees room for improvement in my broth too. First of all, instead of hamfistedly using the whole cilantro stalks that came on the side, he says I should pluck off the leaves and sprinkle them in the bowl. Then he takes my broth game even further by adding spice.

Hoisin and Sriracha chili sauce are at every table for good reason. A drizzle of each, plus a squeeze from the included lemon, turns a simple, satisfying bowl of pho into a dazzling one. The Sriracha is shrill, sharp and spicy, while the hoisin is a sweet, gummy complement. These competing flavor profiles – citrusy, spicy, sweet, meaty – battle to be the king of the hill on your taste buds, and it works. It’s a mercurial experience, but that’s what makes it interesting. If the heat’s too much, there’s always boba ($3.75-$4.75) or cold vermicelli noodles ($7.50-$7.95) to cool down with. The boba ranges from predictable tropical flavors to the more exotic, like lavender and avocado. Weird but good.

The vermicelli delivered too. On my second visit, I ordered the pork ($7.50) and received a generous portion of well-seared meat on top of a bed of noodles, sprinkled with peanuts and accented with pickled carrots, cucumbers and cilantro. The pork was chewy on the inside, crisp on the outside, with a finger-licking good marinade that fell between teriyaki and hoisin on the umami spectrum. I tried to get Pham to tell me what it is, but it’s a secret: “I want you to keep coming back,” he says with a wink.

Pham’s cheer isn’t just out of pity for my poor noodle-handling skills. The whole restaurant is filled with family cheer. Quan runs the place with his two brothers, Phillip and Johnny, and all three learned the craft from their family. Their parents worked in restaurants for decades, and every Sunday saw the whole Pham fam packing into the kitchen and cooking together.

“It brought the family together,” Quan says.

Now that spirit is bringing families together in the Salinas noodle shop. Prices are reasonable on a family budget – with fried rice ($6.25-$8.50), chow fun ($6.50-$8.50), udon ($6.25-$8.50) and pho ($6.25-$8.50) and other entrees for under $7. Plus, the restaurant is sparkling-clean and cozy, with friendly, attentive service, an oasis in a modest but conveniently located strip mall.

“We’re like the three amigos,” Phillip says with a laugh, describing the fraternal atmosphere.

“Don’t lie,” jokes a passing server.

One thing that’s not a joke is Mr. Noodles’ seafood egg noodles ($8.50). If the dynamic pho is the guy at the party wearing a Hawaiian shirt, the egg noodles are in the back playing it cool. No flash here. The noodles come with mounds of fresh-tasting shrimp, scallops and squid, plus bok choy, mushrooms and snow peas. I don’t add any Sriracha or hoisin; it would be like adding sparkly stickers to a black and white photo.

As a complement to all the noodles, I can’t resist an order of chicken wings ($6.25). I always order the wings at Asian restaurants, because they do it right. They don’t bury the chicken in batter and sauce; it’s just chicken wings and oil. Mr. Noodles’ came sizzling to the table, a plate of awesome, crunchy, dimpled-skin deliciousness.

In a town, or a life, without pho, Mr. Noodles is a welcome addition, whether you’re slurping their knock-out, family-recipe soup, getting a good deal or just joking with one of the Pham brothers.

MR. NOODLES • 1176 S. Main St., Salinas • 11am-9pm; closed Sunday. •272-3024