Situated amidst a stretch of East Side cafes, furniture stores, and produce markets, Legendary Noodle was surprisingly inconspicuous, given its bombastic name.

Noodle master Zhen Li puts the “legendary” in noodle.

According to New York Times food writer Mark Bittman, “Legendary Noodle hand-pulls it’s own noodles…There are probably only a handful of people in North America capable of performing this feat, which involves manipulating dough at lightning speed.” Zhen Li is certainly a showman. He even installed a kitchen window to allow diners to watch him perform. He begins with a block of dough and whips it like a jump rope until the dough forms thinner and thinner noodle strands.

Noodles come in a choice of thick, thin, flat, and cut. They come in soup (with ingredients like brisket, shredded pork & pickled cabbage, or pork ribs), pan-fried, or in a hot peanut sauce with spinach. There are also rice dishes and several varieties of hand-made steamed or fried dumplings. There is even a section devoted to “specially recommend lamb.” Not known to pass on cooked sheep, we ordered hand-pulled noodles with lamb and vegetables.

A chef stir-fried irregularly shaped noodles with soy-soaked lamb chunks, sprouts, red and green peppers, onions, and celery. The oily soy sauce captured the lamb’s flavor to good effect. Yes, fresh noodles pulled only minutes before certainly earned the “legendary” moniker.

For a restaurant that’s so plain outside, it was surprisingly nice inside, highlighted by this decorative wall feature. I’m not sure what to call it, but the red and gold panel was interesting.