The kitchen
Needing lunch, we settled on noodles at
Liu Xiaomian, which has been cooking in the basement of the Jackalope pub in a quiet Marylebone mews for a few years now. This really isn’t one of the modern, polished, faux-street-food restaurants that have been springing up all over the trendy corners of London recently (most of which I love, to be fair), this is a big kitchen hatch in front of a tiny kitchen in a pub basement with a handful of tables and a simple “order at the counter, collect your bowl when it’s ready” approach. Little notices printed on an office printer explain the heat levels and lay out the terrifically simple menu. Drinks options are a few cans or bottles from China, or the bar upstairs.
We go for one of each: a bowl of the wheat noodles (beef), a bowl of the glass noodles (mince pork), and a bowl of the wonton soup (pork). The spice levels are bombastic. Not the chilli, though. There’s a good glow of chilli in there but a lot less than a hot Thai or Sri Lankan dish. It’s the sichuan peppers and, presumably, some other regional earthy Chinese spices that I don’t know. But the peppers, citrusy and earthy and astringent, they really are numbing – just as it says on the menu.
Wonton soup
It’s all utterly delicious. The wheat noodles are perfect, nice springy bite to them, although the thick slippery-silky-gelatinous-translucent glass noodles that squirm in your mouth really have to be tried to be believed! Those wontons are surely among the best I’ve ever had too, soft and satiny.
Full disclosure: my digestive system wasn’t too pleased at having to deal with this much spice, and let its feelings be known for an uncomfortable few hours afterwards! I am a delicate flower. Anyway, at £12-14 for a bowl of superb noodles, you should come and enjoy the sheer spiky authenticity yourself.
Glass nooooodles
