Chef ’s Choice Noodle Bar delights guests, regulars alike
When you have out-oftown guests, what Bakersfield restaurants do you take them to?
We all have our own lists, and they’re probably pretty personal, but I think Chef’s Choice Noodle Bar belongs on anyone’s list, mostly because a true artist named Preeda Piamfa is running the kitchen on a level that is quite impressive.
Our out-of-town guests were my middle daughter and her boyfriend, Hugo, whose parents are from Brazil and Chile but he grew up in Wisconsin, and they both now live in the Santa Monica/Venice area. They were positively impressed by many things, starting with the bottle prices on the wine list, which seemed in some cases half what they were used to, with a Daou chardonnay going for only $28, seemingly close to retail.
We recounted our horror story of paying $25 a glass for a “house chardonnay” at a restaurant in Santa Monica that, they told us, was Tom Brady’s favorite restaurant and they were surprised we got in there.
I mentioned that there are many restaurateurs in Bakersfield who don’t price their bottled wines as aggressively because they’d rather people are enticed into getting a great wine with the food. It’s a philosophy we’ve seen at so many great local restaurants such as Frugatti’s, and it does work on us.
Originally opened downtown in 2011, Chef’s Choice moved to the old Johnny Garlic’s location at The Marketplace last year with a more limited menu. What they offer now seems like the full boat we remember from the old location, and under Chef Preeda it’s one of those places where being adventurous and ordering something new always pays off with a new entree you will remember fondly on your next visit and struggle to resist ordering it again.
What the kitchen does is use the freshest ingredients, particularly the vegetables, and season them in a way that enhances the natural flavors as well as combining ingredients and design dishes in a way that works.
On this visit, my companion had to order the drunken noodles ($19) with vegetables only, I had an old favorite, the pineapple fried rice ($24), while our Southland couple opted for the mango chicken ($22) and the spicy
eggplant bowl with ground pork ($19), as well as some of their amazing appetizers, the crispy avocado wontons ($8.50) and the garlic edamame ($8).
The food was as impressive to them as the wine prices mostly for the reasons listed above, though everyone at the table talked about their affection for eggplant, especially when it’s used in the way they did in the bowl, small chopped bits with
ingredients that worked.
Hugo grew up with a mother who was so talented and a natural as a chef that he struggled to eat meals at friends’ houses as a child because they were just never as good, even if it was something simple like beans and rice. She just had a gift for enhancing the food in ways that made it memorable, and that
pretty much describes the food at Chef’s Choice.
Frankly, if you love avocados, the wontons are a must-order, crispy on the outside with that delicious green creaminess on the inside. Lots of restaurants serve edamame with garlic, but the way they brown it here just makes it irresistible. What makes the mango chicken so great is the coconut rice served with it.
The drunken noodles always deliver with the egg and the Thai basil being the ingredients that make the dish so memorable, and the portion is so large my companion can never finish it.
The pineapple fried rice is on the list of Chef Preeda’s specials, and I love it for the fresh pineapple chunks, the cashews, the pieces of chicken and the three large grilled shrimp, with the raisins and onions rounding out a delectable, savory and sweet dish. That eggplant stir fry has onions and bell peppers, and this is the first time we tried it and it won’t be the last.
We’ve been partial to the garlic lover stir fry ($18, with fresh and
roasted garlic) and the cashew nut stir fry with water chestnuts ($18). All in all, it was a dining experience that left us so satiated we couldn’t even get the mango sticky rice ($10) for dessert, and both parties were speaking fondly of the dining experience the next day.
On previous visits, we have loved almost anything the restaurant does with duck (crispy and ruby roasted versions are particularly noteworthy) as well as the grilled Scottish salmon ($30).
The Thai garlic spaghetti with sun-dried tomatoes and shiitake mushrooms is a great vegetarian choice.
The restaurant has been occasionally doing prix fixe wine dinners, too. Check social media (facebook.com/CCNoodleBar) or call the restaurant for dates.
This review wouldn’t be complete without more details on Chef Preeda. You can read all about him on Chef’s Choice’s webpage, but a short summary is that he was raised on the eastern
seaboard of Thailand and his maternal grandmother ran a curry stand and his mother ran a popular pad thai stand. They taught him from a young age all about cooking. After 10 years in the Thai air force, he came to the United States in 1998 and worked in several L.A. restaurants before coming to Chef’s Choice.
Owners Nick and Pum Hansa grew up in Bangkok and wanted to bring the popular street food
from that city to Bakersfield, and with the help of general manager Nick Panici they have created a real success, no matter what city you call home.
Chef’s Choice Noodle Bar can be recommended for a fine dining experience.