South Bay: Lanzhou Hand Pulled Noodles

I'm ashamed to say that even though I have lived at the San Jose/Milpitas border for the vast majority of my life, I have never really explored the food scene just across the city line.  Sure, there are the big plazas in Milpitas that I'm familiar with.  But I've never taken the time to look into the smaller ones to see what gems are hidden there.

It was T who brought me Lanzhou Hand Pulled Noodles one day.  I liked it so much that I later went myself to check it out:

I ordered ahead over the phone and then picked up my order at the front door, pandemic style.  I then brought the goods to CK's house to share in the bounty.

Lanzhou Hand Pulled Noodles has a variety of noodle options.  You get to choose how thick you want the noodles and also whether you want it spicy or not.  Noodle thickness ranges from small round to medium round and from small flat to belt flat.  

Personally, I love thick noodles.  However I learned the hard way not to get the belt flat in a soup noodle to-go.  When T brought me noodles from Lanzhou the first time, I excitedly asked for belt flat.  Only to discover that the ultra thick noodles were super difficult to separate and eat in that take out bowl.

Wiser from that experience, I asked for the belt flat noodle in the lamb chow mein ($13.45) this time around:

For the beef noodle soup ($11.99), I stuck with the regular round.  The soup came thoughtfully packaged separately:

Playing it safe, I also got the regular round with the stewed lamb noodle soup ($12.99):

The soup noodles are so good at Lanzhou Hand Pulled Noodles that it's a waste of stomach space to order the chow mein.  It's not that the chow mein is bad, per se.  But it's a bit on the dry side and not nearly as flavorful as either the beef noodle soup or the lamb noodle soup.  

The lamb noodle soup in particular is freakin' delicious.  I love how lamb-y it is and I especially love the little chunks of lamb fat floating in the soup.

Spicy wontons ($7.99) are a must whenever I see them on a menu:

Lanzhou's chili oil also came packaged on the side:

We actually found the chili oil in the wontons to be better seasoned than the separately packaged chili oil.  There was something added to the wonton chili oil that made it more savory and much more delicious.

I might not be a noodle fanatic, but I can appreciate a good bowl of noodles.  The noodles at Lanzhou Hand Pulled Noodles are perfect in texture and their soup bases are rich and deep in flavor.  There's a noodle thickness to fit everyone's preference too!

It looks like you can place orders through their website, but the menu items are a bit more limited than what's actually available.  Better to just call in.
 

Lanzhou Hand Pulled Noodles

1818 Milmont Dr

Milpitas, CA 95035

(669) 284-3959

https://www.lanzhouhandpullednoodle.com/