Noodle Tramp is Playground’s Asian noodle restaurant located in Downtown Santa Ana’s newly opened 4th Street Market. It’s part of their Lunchbox trio of restaurants which also includes Playground Fried Chicken and Wagyu Chuck. I haven’t tried either of those yet, but I’ve only been to 4th Street Market once so cut me some slack. Sooorrry I can’t eat at five different restaurants in one sitting. I guess that makes me less of a dinosaur. Who are you to judge me? *sob sob* I know I’m a failure. This is why my mom doesn’t return my phone calls.
$10 Khao Soi (With Wagyu Brisket)
The only thing they have on the menu is Khao Soi, which is a soupy noodle from the northern Thai province of Chiang Mai. It’s made up of egg noodles in a Thai red curry coconut broth and topped with your choice of protein. I went with the Wagyu Brisket because it was the most expensive and I’m fancy like that. I don’t usually love when Chef Jason Quinn experiments with cuisines he’s not that familiar with (his attempts at xiaolongbao and ramen have been…not great) but he gets it right with the khao soi. I don’t know if it’s authentic or not, but I do know that it’s delicious. My only complaint would be that there aren’t enough actual noodles. Halfway through you’ve run out of noodles and are basically left with a Thai curry soup. It’s not horrible, but upping the noodles by 50% or so wouldn’t be the worst idea ever. Also, the fact that I ate this thing after drinking a coffee from Portola Coffee Lab and eating a sandwich from KTCHN dtsa shows you just how small the portions at all of these places are.
Noodle Tramp
201 E 4th St
Ste 127
Santa Ana, CA 92701
Phone number: (949) 292-6280
lunchboxdtsa.com
