The first thing you notice when you walk into Huey Yang's Tiger Noodles is the open kitchen. A rarity among Princeton's Asian restaurants, the open kitchen not only provides theatrical entertainment, but fills the dining area with scrumptious smells. If you flag a waiter and sit down to order, you will discover that the smells deliver on their promise.
When Yang bought the restaurant after immigrating from Taiwan four years ago, he changed the name, the décor and the menu, and judging from the current quality of Tiger Noodles, I'm sure all these changes were for the better. Though this is his first foray into the restaurant business, he's long since ironed out any glitches he confronted early on.
Today, he gives us the sort of food worth abandoning an eating club for.
The menu covers the Chinese staples — egg rolls, hot and sour soup, General Tso's chicken — and the chef prepares them competently, but it also branches out a bit beyond boilerplate Chinese-American fare. If you're feeling adventurous, sample the Szechuan noodle appetizer of ground beef and tofu simmered in a medium-dark, moderately spicy sauce and served over rice noodles. Also try the scallion pancake — though it is a little bland, as far as I can tell Tiger Noodles is the only place to offer one within walking distance of campus.
For an entrée, Yang recommends the chicken in garlic sauce, but I think the restaurant showcases its best work with its noodle dishes. I especially recommend the chicken chow fen — broad noodles sautéed with chicken, onions, basil and a special sauce — and the mild but colorful and deliciously-spiced Malaysian-style noodles. I suspect that even Tower or Charter members will miss these two dishes when they head back south to Prospect Street. There's nothing I particularly recommend you avoid, though Thai Village offers better curry dishes.
Though the flimsy plastic deck tables and chairs will never win charm awards, if you snag an outdoor table on a warm night after the Nassau Street traffic has faded, you should be content whiling away an hour or more over your meal. The waiters will try their best to be helpful, but, like most of the under-$30-per-person places in town, occasionally you will feel neglected.
Indoors, the restaurant reminds me of a greenhouse, but minus the tranquility — the limited space is crammed full, with waiters scurrying about madly and customers waiting to pick up takeout orders. Expect to be jostled somewhat if you're eating between six and eight at night. Also, I have often encountered professors eating at Tiger Noodles. So if you just skipped precept, you should consider waiting a day — or doing the reading — before heading over to dinner.
Tiger Noodles will never recreate the romantic atmosphere of a family-run Parisian café or the vivacity of a trendy TriBeCa eatery. But by producing consistently top-notch meals, Tiger Noodles earns top honors for Princeton Chinese food.
Is there a restaurant that you would like to see reviewed? E-mail pharrell@princeton.edu.
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