One of Forest Hills' Best Noodle Places is Planning to Close

 I heard today than XinTaste, located at 72-38 Austin Street, is planning to close in three months. I don't usually do this, but this place is so excellent and its closing will be such a loss to our neighborhood, that I am requesting everyone to do anything possible to convince them not to close. 

I think their closing is of the magnitude of Banter's closing, that is how bad it will be for the neighborhood. I know that there are a lot more important things to be worried about in the world right now, but an awesome bowl of noodles makes life that much better, right?

Anyway, please pay them a visit or give them a call at (718)520-5199 and charm them into staying open :)

When It Rains It Pours - Noodle Edition

A Twitter follower told me that we are getting yet another noodle shop, this time in what I think was the former bank location near Fay Da Bakery on Queens Blvd., around the corner from 71st/Continental.  This follows the apparent 'Forest Hills Law of Threes '-  where we can never just get one or two of a certain place, we need at least three of them to open in quick succession: banks, medical centers, ice cream places.

But, not to take away from the soon-to-open Ren Wen Noodle Factory, as you can read for yourself in the link below. It actually sounds pretty unique and interesting, and quite enticing. I am hungry for it already, actually, just writing this...

Noodle Shop to Open on Queens Boulevard in Forest Hills

Ren Wen Noodle Factory, which opened its first location at 7 Great Neck Road in Flushing in March, will open a new noodle shop at 107-50 Queens Boulevard in late July or early August.

Read all about it here: https://foresthillspost.com/noodle-shop-to-open-on-queens-boulevard-in-forest-hills

Speaking of noodles, I've now tried the two most recent ones that have opened on Austin St.: Xin Taste and Tamashii Ramen. My fave at this point is Xin, but then again I've gone to it several times and Tamashii only once. Xin's hand-pulled noodle soup with chicken is just awesome - the ingredients are so fresh and tasty.

The recently-opened Tamashii Ramen on Austin Street.

Two Excellent Asian Takeout Options on Austin

I just wanted to call everyone's attention to these neighbors over on the eastern portion of Austin St., near Ascan and across from the church: Violet's Vietnamese Shoppe and Xin Taste Lan Zhou Hand Pull Noodle. The two shops, which are right next to each other (photo below was taken from inside La Boulangerie), are both excellent additions to the growing number of quality restaurants that have been opening in the past few years in Forest Hills.

Violet's specializes in Vietnamese cuisine. When it first opened it served mostly pastries. But, its owners rightly summed up the situation here in Forest Hills (way too many pastry and dessert places!! Way too few places for excellent takeout food!!) and righted that wrong pretty quickly. Today, Violet's offers a spectacular variety of Banh Mi sandwiches, from pork to chicken to flounder and vegetarian, along with noodle soups, and noodle bowls and rice bowls. It also offers a variety of specialty drinks and bubble teas.

Right next door is the new Xin Taste, which just opened in December. Given how cold it's been, I immediately dived into their noodle soups, but that is just a small part of their menu. They offer a variety of hand-pulled and hand-peeled noodle dishes (see the link for what I believe is an explanation of the difference. Though, if I am wrong about that, please let me know in the comment section below. I have yet to talk with the owners about the difference and get the low-down firsthand.)

In any case, I'm happy to report that the soups I've had at Xin Taste have been just great. When it comes to soups like these - big, filling bowls of noodles, broth and meat  - the standard against which I always judged has been Ollie's in Manhattan. Well, the roast pork noodle soup I've had a few times from Xin Taste comes damn close to that! The pork is tender, sweet and delicious, the broth tasty, the noodles really good, and the portion size just right.

By the way, Xin Taste offers a decent amount of tables so you can also eat in. Violet's also does, but if I recall, not as many tables.

I'm looking forward to delving further into the menus of both of these excellent additions to the Forest Hills food scene.

Xin Taste's menu