Cui Hua Gui Lin Noodle House is a Chinatown restaurant specializing in – as its name suggests – noodle dishes. The menu consists of a variety of soups (which include noodles), vermicelli dishes, and house specialty noodles. The proteins in most of the dishes include beef, pork, and chicken, as well as lamb in a few of them.

Gui Lin refers to a style of cuisine that is a mixture of Cantonese and Hunanese. It utilizes sweetness and spices, especially chili. It is also a city in China known for its rice noodles.

Since Gui Lin specializes in noodles, I ordered house noodle dishes for delivery: a Chicken Lo Noodle and a Brisket Lo Noodle, to be precise. The noodles were flat and almost clear, with a slightly chewy texture. They mixed in well with the protein, peanuts, bamboo shoots, and parsley that adorned each bowl.

Each mouthful resonated with notes of sweet, spicy, and sour in different levels of intensity. The flavours were balanced, and as someone who has a low spice tolerance threshold, I was not overwhelmed with heat, but felt my taste buds tingling just enough. While the chicken mostly tasted from the hot and sour flavour soundtrack, the brisket was tender and maintained some of its meaty notes, although it also had the same flavour combination underscoring it. The person who ate the rest of the Brisket Lo Noodle raved about the dish’s flavour.

I also ordered one of the restaurant’s appetizers, the lemongrass chicken. What looked like the equivalent of two thighs were cut up in bite-sized pieces and cooked in the tangy and mildly spicy lemongrass, served with a sweet and sour dipping sauce. Definitely flavourful and satisfying.

Overall, after finishing my lunch I felt like I had taken a culinary journey, which I hope to explore again.

Most dishes are in the $15-$19 range. If you’re nearby, take-out is your best option. Delivery is also available via Uber Eats.