Kettering restaurant makes Yelp's 'Top 100 Places to Eat' list
Jan. 25—Every year, Yelp chooses its top 100 places to eat and drink in the U.S and this year Kung Fu Noodle in Kettering made the list.
Kung Fu Noodle, located at 2801 S. Dixie Drive, opened in 2019 next to the Happy Asian Mart food market. The restaurant specializes in noodle dishes from northern China.
"For a taste of a legendary hand-pulled noodle soup that originated in the Tang Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago, look no further than Kung Fu Noodle," the list stated. "The restaurant's chefs are trained in Lanzhou (a capital city in northwest China), where key ingredients are also sourced for the signature Classic Lanzhou Beef Noodle Soup (hand-stretched noodles, braised beef, sliced white radish, green garlic, and cilantro)."
The noodles are "chewy and perfectly cooked," wrote Yelp Elite Minji K.
Other favorite dishes include the "Bite of China" Ground Pork Noodle Soup (with tofu, kelp buds, dried lily, and potatoes) or the vegetarian Tomato Egg Noodles (with stir-fried tomato and scrambled-egg sauce), according to Yelp.
"I'm half Chinese and have been craving REAL Chinese food, so I was so excited to discover Kung Fu Noodle," wrote Yelp Elite Jasmine B. "The hand-pulled noodles were chewy and fresh; the broth was so flavorful with some slight sweetness from the carrots; and the meat was so tender. The lamb skewers were Xinjiang style — savory with lots of cumin. The cucumber salad was crunchy, acidic, and provided a nice contrast to the heavier noodles. They have...'adventurous' and 'tame' dishes, for guests who are not quite ready to snack on a pig ear salad (though it is delicious)."
Kung Fu Noodle is a small, simple restaurant that seats 22 people.
One other Ohio restaurant made the list — Express Deli in Brook Park near Cleveland.
This is the 11th year Yelp has released a Top 100 Places to Eat list featuring everything from white tablecloth restaurants to food trucks and hot dog carts. Yelp's data science team uses data generated from community submissions to determine the list with the expertise of their community managers and Trend Expert.
According to Yelp, there are several culinary trends leading this years list including noodles, Latin food and Korean fusion.
To view the entire list of restaurants, www.yelp.com/article/top-100-us-restaurants-2024.
