One good thing about speaking elementary Chinese is that I can get away with asking people elementary questions, like, "Ni cong na li lai?" or "Where are you from?" In this way, I discovered that the driver of my moving truck was from Shandong. As soon as he said that, I nodded in recognition and told him I knew about the famous Shandong noodles.
He got pretty excited and told me that if I wanted to try some really good Shandong-style hand-pulled noodles, or sou la mian, I had to try this place, which he couldn't remember the name, which was on "Irwin between 17th and 18th." Turns out he was talking about La Mian Wang or King of Noodles at 1639 Irving St., between 17th and 18th.
My family and I knew we hadn't gone wrong when we got there late on Saturday night and found the place packed (well, it's tiny, but still) with people slurping up steaming bowls of long noodles in broth. We waited a long time, and there wasn't even anyone in front of us. Service is really slow, I guess.
We got the spicy beef tendon, which was cold and thinly sliced and super flavorful, along with the shrimp and chives dumplings (yummy texture, but next time I will get something with pork) and three noodle dishes: zhajiang mian (too beany in flavor and had weird additions like zucchini), tendonous beef noodles in a clear broth with veggies (deliciously flavored and nowhere near as bland as it looked; I think it was the addition of five-spice that did it), and a pan-fried chicken noodles (the noodles were excellent but the sauce was hohum. Next time will try the "house special" sauce with chicken and mushrooms). All in all, a fantastic comfort-style meal to end a long day of packing and moving.