A server rushes to my table with a pot of very hot chicken broth. “Be careful,” snaps his hovering manager as the young man gingerly places the soup in front of me. Already on the table is a bowl of cooked rice noodles and a tray of dishes holding ingredients to add to the pot: one raw quail egg, one big chunk of iceberg, some sliced ham, canned corn, wood-ear mushrooms, chives, pickled cabbage, imitation crab, something the Chinese refer to as snow fungus but that you can think of as mushrooms; and a pork-based, house-made soup concentrate, for thickening and seasoning.
At my behest, the server quickly dumps the components in the pot, gives it all a good stir, takes away the empty dishes and leaves me at it. Using a big plastic dipper and a pair of chopsticks, this is the way one eats at Yunnan Crossing Bridge Rice Noodle, which since November has been providing Atlanta noodle-heads an authentic experience from its namesake province in southwestern China.
Crossing Bridge is owned by Fu Li Zang and Rachel Yuan, proprietors of the extraordinary LanZhou Ramen on Buford Highway, famous for its hand-pulled and knife-cut noodles. This time, the couple has hooked up with a Hangzhou-based chain, which seems intent on making the previously obscure in America but totally Instagram-ready crossing-the-bridge noodles an international sensation. Zang and Yuan are already at work on Crossing Bridge No. 2, opening later this year in Kennesaw.
You might want to cross this bridge while it’s still a novel experience. It won’t disappoint. Often, it’s pretty tasty.
Some important distinctions: Crossing Bridge is slicker and quicker than LanZhou. You can sense this in the corporate-looking front-window signage; the fresh decor with the casual vibe; the speed at which the noods are rushed to the table, and the checks presented. Right up front, I should tell you the signature rice noodles are commercially manufactured. They come in a package, as you would expect from a high-volume chain. You aren't going to get a LanZhou-level, hand-worked noodle here.
What you will get is a full-meal bowl at an appealing price point (most soups are $12) and the ability to choose from a dozen different broths (beef, curry, kimchi, mushroom, tomato, “hot pot flavor,” Sichuan peppercorn-enhanced at two different heat levels, and so on). Then you get to personalize them with a variety of proteins (fatty beef, chicken thighs, pork ribs, fish). And in most cases, a tray of add-ins to stir in tableside.
If this sounds overwhelming, it can be. I count about 60 soups on the menu. You may hear the clock tick as your party makes its decisions. Still, if you can manage to point to a dish, it’s smooth sailing. The staff will handle the rest.
The best soup I sampled over three visits was the “hot pot flavor” with “beef mixtures,” exceedingly hearty with a nuanced broth. Unlike a true hot pot, there’s no tray of goodies to dump in and no tabletop heating element, though you do get the full steamboat effect: a boiling kettle of broth with billowing clouds of smoke as the kettle is whisked from kitchen to table. The pre-assembled dish cooks en route. Once cool enough to sip, you have a nice but not too intense spice level and lots of texture (shank, tendon, tripe). A fine dish.
I was less enchanted with a customized vegetarian combo of tomato broth and mushrooms. Also pre-mixed in the kitchen, it was a bit like classic Campbell’s out of the can with lots of chewy stems and caps.
Depending on what you order, your protein may come raw for adding to the pot as part of your set — or pre-cooked (as with my delicious beef curry rice noodle soup). Sometimes, it’s lurking in the soup. Such was the case with our “pork chop” in “sour spicy” broth. The so-called chop turned out to be three pork ribs, tender enough to pick up and munch off the bone. I really liked the vinegar-y soup, flavored with sour cabbage and lemon, and its mislabeled meat.
I neither loved nor despised a gently tingly Sichuan broth with fillets of flaky sole. Ditto my Original Crossing Bridge Rice Noodle Soup, with a cloudy chicken broth and, at my request, pre-cooked chicken thighs instead of the slices of fatty beef that normally come with the dish. Maybe the beef would have transformed it; alas, on this particular rain-soaked day, it was hardly the comforting bowl of chicken noodle soup I craved. As for Crossing Bridge’s rice noodles in general, it’s pretty standard rice vermicelli, rather silken at first bite, ultimately strong enough not to go limp with all the swishing and swashing.
Except for the cold appetizers (which are kept ready in the chiller up front), starters can take a while. The sliced beef with beef tendon (seasoned with chiles and oil) was a bit ho-hum, as was the cold bean-curd sheet (except for its hint of toasted sesame oil). The steamed and pan-fried dumplings and pot stickers (look for them under the “authentic dim sum” section of the menu) are almost better than the soups, but they often come in the middle or near the end of the meal.
These dumplings are all house-made, and I take great delight in the lacy little pancake that magically forms at the bottom of the skillet when the fresh-made dumplings are fried. If nothing else, crumble those crispies up and put them in your soup. It will be in good company.
Crossing Bridge is not a perfect restaurant by any stretch. The dumplings are excellent, but I wouldn’t travel any great distance to seek out the noodles. And yet, Zang and Yuan know a thing or two about showmanship. LanZhou has a window in the back of the room, so that visitors can observe, photograph and videotape the noodle acrobatics. Crossing-the-bridge noodles seem custom-tailored for a modern audience that revels in taking pictures of food and posting them on the Internet.
Yes, that includes me. But in the end, I choose flavor over fashion. I’m more likely to head to LanZhou when I’m in the mood for a memorable slurp. But for fun and flash, Crossing Bridge is worth a stop.
Yunnan Crossing Bridge Rice Noodle
Overall rating: 2 of 4 stars (very good)
Food: A Chinese chain specializing in the crossing-the-bridge style of noodles from the southwestern province of Yunnan; locally owned by the husband-and-wife team behind LanZhou Ramen.
Service: Staff is happy to help the uninitiated.
Setting: in the corner of a suburban strip mall
Best dishes: Steamed chive and egg buns. Steamed pork buns. Shanghai pan-fried pork buns. Fried pot sticker dumplings with onion. Beef curry rice noodle soup. "Beef mixtures" hot-pot flavor soup.
Vegetarian selections: Cold bean-curd sheet, tasty shredded potato, seaweed shredded with ginger sauce, cucumber with garlic and vinegar, steamed chive and egg buns. Tomato and mushroom broth soups, can be customized according to preference.
Price range: $
Credit cards: all but American Express
Hours: 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Mondays-Sundays
Children: sure
Parking: plenty in the free lot
MARTA station: no
Reservations: yes
Wheelchair access: yes
Noise level: low to moderate
Patio: no
Takeout: yes
Address, phone: 2180 Pleasant Hill Road, Duluth. 470-719-8448
Website: ricenoodleatlanta.com
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