Lulu's Thai Noodle Shop Review

Today was an amazing day! We had pastries and coffee at our favorite bakery, LeMonde, in North Kansas City, a quick look around World Market in Westport, and lunch at Lulu's Thai Noodle Shop off of Central Street. I love spending the day in the city!

 I have been eyeing Lulu's for a while now because I literally drive by it every week!
I'm going to change things up a bit and give my rating for Lulu's first. I give Lulu's a restaurant rating of 6. I would so recommend to my friends. In fact, I was thinking about how this might be a new place to go with my girls! There are options for everyone; Even gluten free options. I have to say this because a few of my friends are vegetarian/gluten free so I am trained to look for tasty veggie gluten free options! I loved the atmosphere at Lulu's. The relaxed feel made it a perfect place to really enjoy your meal and your company. (It's always easy to enjoy my company J )  There were many moments where my sis and I did a little more laughing than eating! The decor was perfect for this little noodle shop fun, artsy, and unique. Got to love the wok table lights! (Yes, LOVED those!) We had really great service, very friendly and understanding of the newbies trying Thai for the first time! Enough said about the restaurant, now onto the taste rating!

 I ordered the Drunken Noodles: rice noodles with Thai basil, peanuts, bean sprouts, lemongrass, red and green bell peppers, egg, and a lime. We were told this was one of their most popular dishes. My first impression of the Drunken Noodles was "What is that awful smell!?!?" (Smelly feet!!) No joke, I wasn't expecting it, but I didn't let the smell scare me away! (I was so glad that was yours and not mine LOL!!) After I tasted it I completely forgot about the smell. I was definitely surprised by my first bite, I guess I had imagined beforehand what I thought Thai noodles would taste like and I had imagined wrong. It was different, but tasty. (Mine was so much better!) I ordered my noodles medium because I had no idea how hot medium would be. I was happy with the medium because their heat was flavorless but made your lips tingle a bit! I wasn't terribly impressed with what I ordered. I am surprised it is the most popular dish because once I tasted my sisters' I was so over the Drunken Noodles. (Yea, mine was bomb!) I have to say that when I got down towards the bottom of the bowl where all the sauce was and I had a taste of the Spicy Beef Jantaboon I wasn't a huge fan of the overall flavor. I would give the Drunken Noodles a 3. 

The Spicy Beef Jantaboon was delicious! The soy and rice wine sauce and the cilantro gave this dish the perfect taste. On the dinner menu you have the choice of chicken, beef, pork, or tofu on their dishes; after tasting the beef in my sisters dish I will probably choose beef from now on in whatever I order! I give the Spicy Beef a 7! I am actually thinking about the left overs in the fridge for a midnight snack! (Hey! Back up off my Spicy Beef!!)

Last and surely least we ordered the Crazy Noodles Soup! Sounds so fun right? Here is a quick menu description...Rice vermicelli noodles, Thai basil, kaffir lime, lemongrass and fresh vegetables in a creamy coconut milk broth. Must LOVE coconut milk to enjoy this favorite (Thai hot only!!!) 

I was intrigued because of the coconut milk and just had to order it! The soup only came in one size, huge! Again, I tried to imagine what it would taste like; I was banking on a sweet and spicy duo. I was wrong again! (0 points for you!) I did not like the soup at all, it didn't really have a flavor other than hot. My mouth was on fire, but not unbearable. May I mention that the Crazy Noodles Soup was not very soup like? There was hardly any juice at all in the bottom of the bowl. So the soup for me gets a 2, definitely will not be eating this again. (NEVER again!)


 I would like to thank Lulu's for being such an awesome place, we had a great time and our service was amazing! We will definitely be back! Can't wait to try some of your other options!!

Ok, so Amanda has been wanting to try Lulu's Thai Noodle Shop for a while now, and since we were in the city we decided to give them a shot.

Now if we could only find a place to park! As you know, parking in downtown Kansas City is an adventure on its own. (This is why I always drive! We all know you are scared of parallel parking!) We pulled into a small yet very full parking lot right in front of Lulu's only to discover someone's car being towed off the lot! We quickly decided that we should probably find a different place to park. (I feel so bad for those people, but I was so laughing a little on the inside. I mean the signs are very clear!) We drove around the block looking for parking only to end up in the same parking lot we started in, but this time we notice a little sign reserving a spot for Lulu's customers!  

My first thought as we walked into Lulu's was I’m in LOVE! 

I loved the artsy feel to this cozy little noodle shop. It had pops of bright fun colors everywhere! I mean you just gotta love a place that has teal bar stools!

We ordered from the lunch menu which was reasonably priced.

 I ordered the Spicy Beef Jantaboon, and Amanda ordered the Drunken Noodles which our server informed us was one of their most popular dishes. We were also eyeing their Crazy Noodles soup so we asked if we could order a cup with the lunch specials. Apparently this soup cannot be ordered by the cup, only by the pot.  Slightly disappointed, we decided to walk away from the soup and just go with our lunch specials. (A decision I wish we would have stuck to.)

Very shortly after ordering, our food arrives! Everything looked so good, however, an aroma of stinky feet started to take over the place! After quietly scanning the room for the barefoot culprit, I realized the smell was coming from Amanda’s bowl!!! (Not going to lie, I was really hoping the smell was coming from you and not my food!) It was awful! All I could think about was I am so glad I don’t have to eat that!!! LOL!!  The Spicy Beef Jantaboon, on the other hand, smelled and tasted DELICIOUS!!  And to my surprise, was not very spicy. (Maybe because every time you saw a pepper you said "Not eating that".) I loved everything about this dish, but my favorite part was the fresh cilantro it was topped with. Oh how I love cilantro! After savoring several bites of the Spicy Beef Jantaboon I hesitantly sampled Amanda’s Drunken Noodles, and to my surprise, it was not terrible. I mean it wasn’t near as good as mine, but it wasn’t terrible either.  

During our meal we just couldn’t seem to shake the thought of trying the Crazy Noodles Soup, so we decided to just go ahead and order it. The soup came out in a large serving bowl and was piled high with veggies, chicken, and noodles. This looked more like a big bowl of noodles rather than soup. After digging down deep into the pot of noodles we finally found some soup! Amanda scoops a big spoon full into her bowl. (This may make me slightly less adventurous!) I, being the less adventurous one, barely scooped enough out to try. Amanda then confidently takes a big bite of her soup as I quietly await her response before I will give it try. When the look on her face wasn’t a pleasant one I decided that I should take precaution by only slightly licking the outside of my spoon. (I can't imagine what my face looked like! No joke people she only licked her spoon!!! See what I am dealing with!) It was VERY hot and not tasty at all. In fact I thought it kinda tasted like dirt. It reminded me of the dirty taste of a fresh beet. (This girl is such a beet hater!! I guess its pretty obvious who is Sweets and who is Beets!!)

All in all, I was very pleased with Lulu’s. I mean after all, my dish was DELICIOUS and I would definitely order it again. 

I give the Spicy Beef Jantaboon a 7 and the Drunken Noodles a 3 on the taste rating scale. 

As far as the Crazy Noodle soup goes I would have to give it a 1 L. 

 As a restaurant over all I rate Lulu’s at a 6! 

The service was great, the people were friendly, and I loved the ambiance! I would also like to give a special thanks to Zack our server for making our experience at Lulu’s a good one.