For me, there’s nothing more satisfying to me than a bowl of hot noodles after a long day. All I’m craving is something to slurp on, some meat to fill up on,and some msg to drown myself in.

One sunny Saturday before I met up with some people to watch Bourne Legacy, I really wanted instant noodles. I don’t normally buy instant noodles, since I can buy a pack of 6 under $5 and make it myself. But I was craving flavourful noodles with meat and full of msg. The only place where I could think of was Aberdeen Centre’s Mambo Cafe. Mambo Cafe is a one-stop place for many shoppers since they offer the typical Asian drinks such as Iced lemon tea, iced ovaltine, iced milk tea for a decent price. Their meals are also very decently priced too. I ordered a Satay Beef Instant Noodles ($5.95) to go. It also came with a hot drink so I got a cup of hot lemon tea. Love casual Asian food.

I’m sure if you are really craving something, you will find that it is the most delicious thing in the world in that moment. This bowl of noodle was just that. Salty, spicy, with a lot more meat than I expected- it was so good I called my mom and told her I got dinner before going to the movies. The noodles were cooked perfectly, not soggy or undercooked. I’m already craving another bowl!

So I was kind of dumb to get a hot drink on a hot day, but I could never finish a cold drink, so I didn’t change to cold. A cold drink costs an additional $0.50. The hot lemon tea was very sour after 5 minutes, even though I didn’t really break the lemons and I added a pack of sugar. Two lemons would’ve been perfect!

During busy hours, such as around lunch, can get really busy and you may have to wait 10-15 minutes + for your meal!

Another noodle loving day I had was after the Grouse Grind. By the time I left the mountain it was 2:30pm. I was hungry and grumpy and I really wanted food. My hiker friends and I went to a pho place. We ordered everything quickly- and the server didn’t even note down what we ordered, she remembered it all! And we had 9 people with us!

I ordered a large #17 ($6.95)- which I believe was rare beef,brisket, and tendon. It was so large that I didn’t finish. 🙁

The meat flavour didn’t completely sink into the soup, although it was still satisfactory. The red thing you see on the right is a jalepeno pepper I threw in my pho to give it some kick! Everything else was tasty- but I didn’t actually see “rare beef” – I expected to see beef that would be undercooked and red, but they all looked pretty well done to me already.

Nevertheless, a bowl of pho was exactly what I needed after the Grouse Grind, and Truong Thanh served me the comfort food I was looking for!

Also, if you pay by cash- there is no tax!