Mian Sichuan Gourmet Noodles
Polarizing Sichuan-style Chinese dishes at Chengdu Taste's more casual sister chain
As the ancient Roman saying goes, “we eat first with our eyes,” as our brains initially assess the suitability of food for consumption based on its appearance – if something looks great, it’s already half of the way towards making us happy. Mian Sichuan Gourmet Noodles practically declares victory before you’re even served your first plate.
This casual offshoot of James Beard-nominated, Jonathan Gold-praised LA Chinese hotspot Chengdu Taste arrived at South Coast Plaza in late 2022 with a wonderful interior design evoking street scenes in China and a digital menu full of appealing noodle dishes. On day one, the first floor location had long lines, looking like it was more than ready to go toe-to-toe with Japanese noodle shop Marugame Udon next door, and possibly even perennially popular upstairs neighbor Din Tai Fung. Those lines died down considerably over the next year.
On our visit, the biggest hits were the Chili Oil Dumplings, warm inside and resting in a spicy broth that we wanted to use for other dishes, and the Sichuan Cold Noodles, an entree-sized portion that somehow enabled the fresh cool noodles to shine in texture and flavor despite the peppery and nutty hot sauce. We also really enjoyed the deluxe Coconut Jelly dessert featuring two layers – coconut cream and jelly – served inside a young coconut.
Pretty much everything else we tried was good: a mild Clear Broth Beef Noodles soup fit for the spice-adverse, garlicky Pickled Cucumber, cold Beef in Chili Sauce, and red peppered but otherwise generic Chengdu Fries. The only disappointments were a second dessert, Brown Sugar Sticky Rice, which was pretty plain, and a “Hand Smashed” Lemonade that mixed green tea and lemon juice in a ratio that was more visually interesting than compelling in flavor.
While we were very early customers, we enjoyed virtually everything about our Mian experience: In addition to the good food, its prices were reasonable across the board, and service was quick and friendly. So we were somewhat surprised in subsequent months to see more than a handful of negative reviews complaining about everything from dimensions of the service to quality control issues and the heat level of the Sichuan dishes – varying from too little heat to too much, depending on the person. We would gladly return to give it another shot, but Mian is clearly polarizing and seemingly not consistent, so we’re not sure what we’ll find when we visit again.
Stats
Price: $$
Service: Table
Open Since: 2016 (LA), 2022 (OC)
Addresses
3333 Bristol St.
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
714.265.7997
Instagram: @miantaste