Cheap Thrills At My Aunt's Handmade Noodles, Burwood

My Aunt's Handmade Noodles is the name of a popular and newish Northern Chinese noodle shop in Burwood and now Eastwood. And it's one of the few places where you can get an enormous bowl of noodles, free noodle refills and a free drink for under $20! What is it like and is it worth the queues?

It's a Saturday afternoon when Monica and I arrive in Burwood. We park just opposite My Aunt's Handmade Noodles located on busy Burwood Road and note the large queue of people standing outside the restaurant. As everyone knows, if there's a queue that's usually a good sign. What we don't expect is the staff member handing out complimentary cups of plum drink to people in the queue.

Sipping on the free juice we wait patiently catching up on each other's lives and before we know it, probably around 10 minutes later, we are being shown to our table by the friendly staff. For a popular place they're surprisingly friendly (usually when a place is very busy, friendliness swiftly disappears in favour of efficiency).

Ordering is done by the QR code but you pay after you dine. There are self serve chopsticks, forks, spoons and napkins as well as sauces. Also on offer are complimentary water and more plum juice that you can help yourself to.

"I've got a list of things I want to order. I want to see if you pick the same things," says Monica excitedly. And unsurprisingly we choose the same things on the menu which total 4 bowls of noodles, 1 chicken dish and 1 serve of dumplings. You can also specify if you want the extra noodles when you order or you can order more later with the staff if you want extra and there's no limit to the noodles. There are vermicelli rice noodles, dumplings, soup noodles, dry noodles and stir fried noodles on offer and there are some vegan and vegetarian options.

I start with a lightly sweetened house made yogurt drink which is very nice indeed. They also place a bowl of yuba tofu skin with sesame and chilli oil. And then the first dishes arrive. When they realise how much we have coming they move us to a booth to accommodate the food.

Monica is obsessed with the steamed chicken with chilli oil and I love it too. The chicken is tender and served cold with sesame, chilli oil, coriander and green onion. It's full of flavour and we enjoy this immensely.

The biang biang noodles are their signature and these thick belt noodles are covered in a range of toppings from mince, scrambled egg and tomato, potato and carrot and bean sprouts as well as chilli. The idea is to mix these toppings up into the noodles, tossing them gently before extracting one giant, long noodle.

One biang biang noodle should fill a rice bowl and we carefully extract the noodle painstakingly even though it is completely tangled up and it fills up a rice bowl. These are chewy and thick and very tasty -pure comfort food.

There are several types of boiled dumplings available and we both honed in on the lamb and coriander dumplings. These are really well seasoned and juicy with a sturdy dough outer. The coriander is actually ground coriander seed rather than fresh coriander but we both really enjoy these, especially dipped in the chilli oil.

The pork noodles are served in a cavernous bowl with an extra bowl of noodles as we asked for extra ones. The soup has a good depth of flavour from simmering the pork and although it says minced pork, we see a lot of small chunks of soy braised pork in these. The cubes of potato and carrot also add a nice texture to these thinner noodles and you're best to not wear white when eating these (or any of the noodles really!).

The spicy eel dry noodles are similar to the thick biang biang belt noodles and topped with a range of capsicum, celery, spring onions and eel fillets. There's a pronounced spiciness to these noodles and I enjoy them a lot although like the biang biang noodles they can be a bit messy to eat.

We tried to order some noodles from each section and that included the lamb noodles from stir fried noodle section with chopped up noodles similar in concept to Sri Lankan kottu roti. Although this is the last dish to arrive I dive into them with gusto as I love the seasoning and the soft lamb slices. Cutting up the noodles makes them a bit easier and neater to eat too.

Unfortunately we are too full to even contemplate dessert, even when they have coconut balls and lava brown sugar rice cakes. Instead we split what is leftover and take it home to our husbands who happily devour the leftovers.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you go for places that have long queues or do you avoid them? And drop the name of your favourite cheap eat in your area!

This meal was independently paid for.

My Aunt's Handmade Noodles (Burwood) 胖姨儿手工拉面馆

226 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134

Opan 11am-10pm 7 days a week

Phone: 0432 367 226