Winter is coming, and that means noodle bowls! It does for us, and honestly, everyone should be on board for this idea. You already know pho has made its way into every area and suburb of OKC, and while we do have suggestions about the best pho — it’s Riviere Modern Vietnamese — we want to focus on other noodles for this one. At the end, I’ll add a list of five pho spots just to keep y’all happy. By the way, this is not a top 10 list; rather, it’s one of those where we encourage you to diversify your metro dining.

Chinese

Noodleology. The chili oil noodle bowl is worth the drive to Edmond. This new-ish spot has a focused menu, and that’s a good thing, because I’m here for the noodles. They also have dan dan options, but the chili oil noodle bowl is served with ground pork and peanuts, and the heat level is a solid medium, and the umami is off the charts.

Yu Xiang Yuan. Currently the reigning best Chinese in the metro, this Del City spot specializes in Szechuan, and the food is spectacular, but for the noodle bowl, I go with Singapore noodles. The stir fry dish can be adjusted to your heat preference, and you have an option on proteins too.

Filipino

NaGemmas Filipino Cuisine. Pancit is the traditional Filipino noodle dish, with glass or rice noodles as a standard variation. Pancit palabok at this Del City spot is a total indulgence: glass noodles with a garlic-shrimp sauce, ground pork, chicharron and boiled egg. It’s a savory, flavorful, hearty dish, meaning you’ll take some home.

Rezzy’s Lumpia Express. One of the standout operations in The Parlor, they serve their pancit with rice noodles and chicken. Bonus: You also get lumpia on the side!

Italian

Elisabetta. Rachel Cope’s new Italian spot is rightly getting rave reviews, and while my menu favorites are mostly located in the starters, the Taglione, a tagliolini pasta bowl, features delicious pork ragu with pecorino. It’s so good I want a bigger bowl just to take half home.

Emma Elle’s. No noodle bowl list can omit spaghetti — it’s the most American of Italian dishes (or something like that). I love the spicy bolognese version at Emma Elle’s. The heat level is in the medium to hot range, and I’m shocked he’s getting away with that much heat on the far west side.

Piatto Italian Kitchen. It’s impossible to hide flaws in a simple dish, and the test of that with pasta has to be cacio e pepe. At Piatto, it’s house-made bucatini, Parmigiano Reggiano, black pepper and butter, as it should be. It’s simple, decadent, and satisfying with seemingly little effort, but we know it’s harder than it seems.

Japanese

Akai. You don’t typically think ramen at Akai, but if you’ve had it, you can’t stop thinking about it. It’s not just the combo of char siu pork and bulgogi, although that helps. What strikes me most about it is that I could have just that broth and be very very happy.

Awaji Izakaya. Get the beef short rib udon, and good luck deciding if it’s the short rib, the broth, or the noodles that make it magical. I’ve never been happier to take an extra bowl home for lunch the next day.

Sushi Neko. The Western Ave. institution has more than sushi on their new menu, and that includes a couple excellent udon options. We typically opt for the curry udon, and we take ours with chicken, but you can get a vegetarian version if that’s your thing.

Korean

Bulgogi Korean Bistro. This small Edmond spot is not getting the recognition it deserves. I’ve been craving japchae pretty much daily since Gogi Go closed, and they do it right here. You can choose a protein and they stir fry the japchae with veggies, and the lunch special is the perfect way to try it.

Lao

Bar Sen and Ma Der Lao Kitchen combined are the greatest noodle “corner” in the city. Chef Jeff Chanchaleune’s expertise with noodles is under appreciated, but his khao soi at Ma Der remains one of the best dishes in the city, and ditto for his yum sen lown (glass noodle salad) at Bar Sen. In some happy future, Chef Jeff will open an in-and-out, soup-nazi style operation at which we just ask him to create magical noodle bowls, with jaew bong tossed wings and sai oua as sides.

Taiwanese

Formosa Street Food & Bar. Ivan Wong’s beef noodle bowl is like no other Chinese version I’ve had. The ground beef is served in a rich sauce that feels very much like Taiwanese bolognese, and while the noodles here are lo mein, I’d eat this sauce on noodles, rice, toast, or a damn donut. It’s that good.

Thai

Mob Thai’d. One of two places I eat Thai on a regular basis, but only when they’re posted up at an hour more convenient for my senior citizen dining hours. (Yes, it’s a truck.) The khao soi noodles are my go-to order, and I don’t know what they’re doing differently than other spots, but I’m guessing sorcery.

My Place Sip & Savor. The other place I eat Thai regularly, and only for the past few months, because they’re our newest Thai spot. It’s impossible to go wrong with this menu, including the pad thai and khao soi, but let’s talk about their pad see ew. Wide rice noodles stir fried with veggies and your choice of chicken or shrimp, and then you get to pick a heat level. Their 1-5 is very consistent, so I opt for a 3.5 because I tried the 4. Who the hell eats 5?!

United States

Chicken Noodle Soup. Yeah, kinda like the greatest baseball player of all time is Japanese, the best chicken noodle soup in the metro is at Bar Sen, a Lao joint. Chef Jeff’s khao piak sen used to be a Saturday soup at Ma Der, but now you can get it Tuesday through Saturday at Bar Sen.

Vietnamese

Pho Cuong. No, not the pho, not for this list. The real star on their menu, though, is the Cà Ri Bò, Vietnamese beef curry with egg noodles. (You can get it with vermicelli or rice noodles, too.) Rather than the milkier Thai curry or the gravy-esque Indian curries, Vietnamese curry is soupy, and Pho Cuong manages to pack more flavor into a broth than you’ll taste anywhere else.

Pho Saigon. Colder weather means a shift from lighter soups to heavier, richer, and even spicier noodles, and that’s why I switch to bun bo hue in the fall and winter. From central Vietnam (named for the city Hue), this pho cousin has a darker, richer broth and enough warming spice to take the chill out of a winter evening. I typically skip the blood cubes. (Many of our food traditions emerged before we had better ways to deliver nutrition. Pretty sure blood cubes are the Vietnamese version of cod liver oil in the northern U.S.)

Pho

So you’re a pho person. No bun bo hue, banh canh, hu tieu or cà ri bò for you! Nope. Just the pho. Nothing wrong with that, I guess. Here’s our five regular spots, beginning with what I’m pretty sure is the best in OKC.

Riviere Modern Vietnamese
Pho Cuong
Pho VN
Pho 54
Non La Cafe