We ate at the new Noodle Exchange restaurant at Gold Coast and found the
food very good. I think the same people who own Ping Pang Pong are involved in
this restaurant. The restaurant is a bit cheaper than Pint Pang Pong, and
had more of the "regular" Chinese food you might expect at a Chinese restaurant
such as Lemon Chicken (delicious), Sweet & Sour Pork, and so on, as well as
many ramen and noodle dishes.
The restaurant features some "Asian bento boxes" which are a good value at
about $13.95 or $14.95 for most, which includes the entree plus a couple of
dumpling-like-things, some edaname, soup, some lo main, rice, and a cookie. So
this makes for a less expensive meal than something similar at Ping Pang
Pong's. The soup listed is sweet & sour, but since we don't like it, we were
able to get a substitute of seaweed & tofu soup that was good. The menu also
includes a number of appetizers including good lettuce cups with a
shrimp/rice/veggie mixture, and a peking duck appetizer.
Unfortunately the decor is plain, and the service the same sort of spotty
service that makes Ping Pang Pong problematic at times. Our server seemed
intent on not getting us a steamed dumpling appetizer. When I first requested
it, she said that the bento box had a lot of food to discourage me. I insisted
anyway. Then it never arrived. When I asked for it, she said "we don't
have steamed dumplings." I showed it to her on the menu, and she still didn't
seem to want to order it, so I said "forget it" (by now I was on my entree).
She did come by to offer a free soda refill, which was an improvement over
Pong, where you have to pay for a 2nd glass.
Ping Pang Pong has gotten a lot of positive reviews by the press, but for
myself, I find their menu quite limited (though you can ask for other non-menu
items and usually get them if it is something simple like sweet & sour pork).
But I liked the menu at Noodle Exchange a lot more, since I like ordinary
Chinese items like sweet & sour pork or orange chicken. Strangely they didn't
seem to have ordinary won ton soup available, which was too bad.
The Noodle Exchange has taken over where The Oyster Bar was at Gold Coast.
TGIF's is being built where the coffee shop and Cortez room were, and the
Cortez room has moved into Arriva's (and still provides excellent food at
moderate prices).
Since we love Chinese food, we were glad to see the new addition. I'm not
sure how this will affect Ping Pang Pong, but maybe there is a large demand
for Chinese food, so that both places will do well.
By the way, if you play at Gold Coast, you can try asking for a
discretionary comp from a host (they are situated down in the Emerald Players room near
the gift shop). We used to be able to get a $50 comp for about every 20,000
points (old points). Now the comp situation is a bit more confusing. Some
Emerald Card holder friends of ours easily got a $100 comp, but when my husband
asked for one for Noodle Exchange (after some heavy play in the last month,
but he's only Sapphire) he received a puny $25. Still it never hurts to try
if you don't have some other form of comp/coupon, otherwise you can use
points for cash or comps.
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