Are These Denver’s Best Hand-Pulled Noodles and Dumplings?

Where:

1400 E. 17th Ave., Denver (City Park West)

The Draw:

Ample portions of zesty hand-pulled noodles at good prices

The Drawback:

Some sauces skew sweet; crowds come fast but reservations aren’t offered.

Noise Level:

Medium

What To Order:

Dan dan noodles, Mongolian beef noodle stir-fry, Iberico pork wontons, crystal mushroom dumplings

Price Per Person:

$25 (before drinks)

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It’s mesmerizing, really: a long, thick cord of dough transforming faster than my eyes can follow. The chef spins it like a jump rope, thwacking it against the table. Then, with a flick of his wrists, it turns obedient, elastic, alive. The rope becomes strands and the strands become many, so quickly it feels like a magic trick.

This is the quiet choreography at seven-month-old Noodles by Nina—or, more specifically, in the window between the kitchen and dining room. It’s there that these hand-pulled noodles take shape, lengthening and multiplying under practiced hands. Side-by-side, a second chef slices another type of noodle—shorter and thicker—straight from a block of dough into a pot of boiling water.

These two noodle styles are the stars of both the menu and the show hosted by Nina Zhang, a restaurateur from Chengdu, the capital of China’s Sichuan province. She’s spent the past nine years in Colorado, running Hana Matsuri Sushi in Westminster. With business partner Sunny Sun, she recently brought her own Sichuan specialties to Uptown, originally calling the restaurant Magic Noodles but rebranding in January (explaining on Instagram that “behind every bowl is a woman who built this kitchen from the ground up”).

Unlike sushi spots and American Chinese restaurants, there aren’t many traditional Chinese noodle shops around town, and she hopes that this location is the first of many for her in Denver and beyond.

Noodles happen to be my Helen of Troy: I’d fight wars for the plump, bouncy strands, whether in the form of spaghetti twirled into a nest or udon lacquered in creamy sesame. So when a shop makes them fresh and sells portions large enough for two meals, well, move aside.

I first tried Nina’s in the eatery’s Mongolian beef noodle stir-fry. You can choose between the thin, very long hand-pulled noodles or the shorter, thicker knife-sliced variety. (If you’re sharing, opt for the latter, lest you find yourself in a Lady and the Tramp situation.) Nina serves a more traditional take on the classic American Chinese dish, the noodles slippery with a mild sauce and not weighed down by tons of peppers and onions.

Another favorite of mine is the beef brisket noodle soup, which, at $19, is the most expensive dish on the menu, probably because of the tender pieces of meat. The noodles are excellent, and the broth forms a layered, aromatic pool that becomes its own sort of ecosystem for everything that goes in. Sichuan peppercorns, star anise, cinnamon, ginger, scallions, and cilantro are just some of the ingredients that flavor the bone broth, simmered for at least eight hours.

Tomato and egg noodles are a rarity in Denver, though they’re beloved across China. They’ll hit or miss depending on your fondness for a sweet noodle; the ketchup in the sauce can get a bit loud, but it works well with the large wedges of stewed tomatoes and clouds of scrambled eggs. I’d go with the recommended knife-sliced noodles here, too; their rugged, toothsome edges latch onto the glossy sauce in a way the silkier hand-pulled strands don’t quite manage.

More familiar are the Sichuan dan dan noodles, less spicy here than elsewhere but still slightly tongue-numbing from the tingling Sichuan peppercorns. If you for some reason steer away from the noodles, the fried rice is solid but nothing transformative, although I did like how all the meats—shrimp, chicken thighs, and ham—were cut into bite-size pieces.

The best dumplings here are somehow also all handmade: Iberico pork wontons in Magical Red Sea sauce (the kicky chile and peanut sauce is indeed magical); voluptuous soup dumplings; large, pan-fried pork buns; and chewy crystal mushroom triangles. Most come with either a spicy chile or vinegar sauce, but the pro move is to swipe the little pockets through both. For a veggie, the cucumber salad slicked with soy, sesame oil, vinegar, and chile garlic sauce and tossed with thin, flowery black fungus (similar to wood ear mushrooms) packs big flavor.

With generous portions of fresh noodles and plentiful dumplings, it’s no wonder Nina’s has been a hit. Even at its most bustling, service is friendly and efficient, with an all-hands-on-deck approach to delivering food and grabbing to-go containers. Well, all hands, that is, except the ones in the window, still looping and snapping dough into endless strands that twist their way to enthralled patrons’ bowls.

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3 More Chinese Restaurants With Hand-Pulled Noodles

Lan’s Noodles & Dumplings

• Address: 1000 S. Colorado Blvd., Glendale

Beneath a row of giant chopsticks, slurp scratch-made noodles in brothy soups and sauce-slicked stir-fries, with hand-pulled and knife-sliced options offering different textures. Don’t skip the thin-cut cold sesame noodles.

Yu’s Noodle Shop

• Address: 9996 Commons St., Lone Tree

If a front-row seat at the kitchen window for Yu’s dough-pulling action is too up-close and personal, tuck into a rattan booth to enjoy a roster of noodle dishes, from homey tomato and egg to spicy zha jiang mian to six different soups.

Mian Fresh Noodle Bar

• Address: 7350 E. Hampden Ave., Denver (Hampden South)

For super-fresh noodles on the fly, this Hampton South fast-casual spot serves house-made strands that way overdeliver compared to most quick-service fare. Noodles even take the place of rice in some traditional dishes; we recommend the lip-numbing mapo tofu.

Read More: The Ultimate Guide to Chinese Food in Denver