Yang's Noodles

Synopsis: While I really wanted to love Yang’s based on its collective reviews, my recent and past experiences have been ultimately lackluster and disappointing.

The Location: Yang’s sits across from a couple of my go-to dim sum restaurants on Stockton Blvd. For those who haven’t traveled down Stockton, parts are nice, and other parts are not so nice… Granted, there are often weathered homeless people with giant trash bags full of cans riding around on bikes, panhandlers at some of the major intersections, and beggars that troll the parking lots.  Aside from that, it’s a sort of safe but rundown street.  The building that houses Yang’s is rather non-descript. They recently remodeled the restaurant, but didn’t seem to do much if anything to its façade. That’s OK though, I certainly am not going to judge a restaurant based on its looks, especially if it’s on Stockton Blvd. What was an ominous sign when I arrived today for lunch today (3/21/2015) was a dead orange and white cat lying out in the middle of the parking lot. After I parked, which do to the small number of available spaces happened to be eerily close to the deceased Garfield, I did notice what I believe to be a young worker at the restaurant coming out to clean it up. As I was entering the restaurant, I saw him out of the corner of my eye lifting the cat up sans gloves or any other plastic protection. Regardless, I refuse to let the memory of an unfortunate fated feline spoil my lunch, so on I went. The inside of Yang’s, which can be seen from any of the numerous of pictures, is bright and clean now since the remodel. I noticed that they have newly printed menus since I was here last (see Becca W’s photos), and new standard black t-shirts for all their staff.  

The Menu: Yang’s has an interesting but somewhat tight menu. They have a number of exotic sounding appetizers, a handful of dry and wet noodle offerings along with your standard chow mein and chow fun, a couple of different dumplings and Taiwanese snack foods, and some standard Chinese mainstays on the back. I noticed that it had been paired down a bit from when I was here last, especially in the soup department. The main thing everyone seems to rave about is their signature beef noodle soup. I heard a description of the “Da Lu noodle soup” by one of the servers and was sold. Since it isn’t described on the menu, the Da Lu noodle soup contains thinly sliced chicken breast, shiitake mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, bok choy, thinly sliced carrots, egg, and their standard hand-cut noodles. With dumpling week on Serious Eats just finishing up, I felt I had to choose an obligatory order of these little delights. Xiao Long Bao (XLB), described on the menu as “juicy pork buns,” but are more commonly known as soup dumplings, have long been lauded as one of the kings of this Chinese staple. On previous visits, I have had their beef noodle soup (twice), there noodles with ground pork and cucumber, and two varieties of their boiled dumplings.

The Food: I can forgive almost any offense a restaurant delivers, even a dead cat in the parking lot, if the food is good. Sadly, most of what I have had at Yang’s is not worth the trip. Here is the breakdown:

Xiao Long Bao – What I was expecting and what I received were markedly different. Everything I have read about XLBs told me to expect a thin skinned, medium sized dumpling containing piping hot broth served with a side of ginger and vinegar. I was told when I ordered these that they take 20-25 minutes to make. Fair enough, the king of dumplings needs some time and I’ll have a giant bowl of soup to keep me company until he makes his grand entrance. When the XLBs arrived, they looked the part, at least like all of the pictures that I have seen. But I could tell something was wrong when I took one of the dumplings up in my spoon, bit off the knot at the top, and was not treated to any soupy steam or porky broth flowing out of it. Additionally, I noticed the skin was rather thick for a dumpling, and had a somewhat sweet and doughy texture, almost like a steamed BBQ pork bun. They reminded me of the Shanghai dumplings that I have had previously at Happy Garden with a slightly different filling. The dumplings were filled with a pork mixture generously mixed with chive. Unfortunately, my first one was not an aberration; none of the dumplings in the order contained any noticeable portion of broth. They didn’t taste bad, they were just a very far cry from what I was expecting for my first taste of Xiao Long Bao. I would rate them to be better than their boiled dumplings, but nothing to make a special trip to try.

Noodles – This section covers the noodles in all of the dishes that I have tried so far. They are thicker than chow mein noodles, but not as broad as chow fun noodles. They are not uniform, and definitely have a homemade appearance. However, they taste pasty. They are not mushy, but being relatively thick, they have that certain slimy sheen, texture, and feeling of being overcooked.  This was the case with each of the noodle dishes that I have tried here, in soup or with a meat sauce. I was hoping that in my previous visits that I was just unlucky, or perhaps they sat in the broth too long before I was able to get at them. But no, each time they were the same as the last. Pasty.

Da Lu Noodle Soup – Probably the best thing I have eaten here. Albeit for the noodles as mentioned earlier, the soup was pretty good and chock full of chicken, bok choy, and mushrooms. If I came back, I would order it again.

Beef Noodle Soup – This soup has good flavor, but it suffers from two big flaws. First, the chunks of beef tend to be scraps interlaced with thick layers of chewy fat, and second, the noodles as described above. I can certainly understand using the lesser cuts of beef for stews- that’s what you are supposed to do. Long cooking times means the intramuscular fat in these cuts has a chance to break down and provide both depth to the broth and make the meat extra tender (whereas leaner cuts will just seize up and be tough). I don’t even mind untrimmed chucks of meat with a little fat on the outside, provided the meat and fat have been cooked long enough that they just melt in your mouth. What Yang’s serves you is scrap chunks of meat with huge quantities of gristle and chewy fat. The first time I had this dish, it wasn’t that bad. The third time I visited, I took a friend to try the restaurant, and by the time we left I was just embarrassed I had recommended that we try the place. We probably picked out ¼ of the volume of the soup each as inedible chunks of fat with some vestiges of meat clinging within. Sure the soup was cheap, but come on. I get rustic dishes. I heard British food critic Simon Majumdar say that “rustic” tends to be another word for “lazy.” While I think the rustic nature of food can add to its character, with this soup, I would agree with Simon. Someone in the back picked up a box of the leftover cuts from a butcher and just heaved them into a soup, forcing the diners to do the tedious work for themselves.

Minced Pork with Cucumber Over Noodles  – Besides my consistent disappointment with the quality of the noodles, this dish was alright. It consisted of a somewhat scant amount of a minced pork ragu with matchsticks of cucumber as an interesting addition over noodles.

Boiled Dumplings  – Another dish that I wanted to like, but was disappointed with what I was served. These reminded me of the cheap dumpling orders I used to get in Houston’s Chinatown while attending school. Thick skin, flavored ground meat fillings, but ultimately very bland, even when dipped in their accompanying sauce. The dumplings are not bad tasting, but extremely mediocre.

Prices: For Stockton Blvd., I think this place might have higher prices than average. The prices of dishes have definitely been raised since the remodel.  But that being said, the prices are reasonably low on the whole for being a restaurant in Sacramento.       

          

Verdict: While disappointed in the quality of the Xiao Long Baos and the beef noodle soup, the up side it that Yang’s has never given me food poisoning. But its highs and lows collectively make it pretty unremarkable among the vibrant Stockton Blvd. food scene.