Critic's Review
The long awaited opening of Noodle Station is over. One thing that hasn't changed is that the parking lot here is a disaster. First, you can't get to it if you're coming from the south. Then, even with Fernando's closed,spots are scarce. The fact that there are trucks and busses parked in the middle of the lot don't help.
Inside it's you're typical bowl restaurant, ala the original failed Italio concept.
Any chance that you'll be getting one of the handsomely crafted bowls on their website is quickly dismissed; this is a bowl of stuff restaurant. You tell them what you want and the spoon it into the bowl. With 1 other customer and 3 employees milling around nobody tried to explain anything to me. I guess I looked smart enough to figure it out.
All of the "hot" food is covered, so I couldn't really see it in advance. I would have gone for the brisket if it wasn't $1.75 extra: $13.50 is enough for a bowl without extra charges.
The pictures of the place they have on their website are deceiving; it's a small, dreary space. The problem with Hot and Soul was bad lighting; here it's a lack of comfort. Two tables in the middle of the room and a dude with a laptop watching over you. A cool mural doesn't quite save the day.
For my $13.50 stir fry, I got ramen noodles, bok choy, mushrooms, chinese cabbage, pulled pork with spicy "nom-nom" sauce. The server-girl asked if I wanted bacon at the end; so she offered me a $1.75 add-on without telling me it was extra. Not a good practice.
They charge $2.71 extra for a stir fry, because they have to send the bowl to the back and throw it into a wok. It took longer than it should; finally after more than 5 minutes in the back, it came out.
I started to eat this in the store, to get the "hot out of the wok" experience. But I don't think they know how to work a wok; this should have been piping hot if it came right out of a wok; but it was only luke warm. Overall the sauce was pretty good, mildly spicy, but the mushy pork and overcooked mushrooms failed to elevate this to anything worth the price. They have this nicely sliced pork on their facebook page but I don't see any way to get anything like that.
braised pulled pork = mush
I expected more vegetables than this; chinese cabbage is green, not purple, and they were cheap with the bok choy. An employee came over and said "That looks good". Really? It's a noodle bowl.
You can get a Bao bun for $3 with a bowl, but I had enough carbs with the noodles.
I re-heated this in some 450 degree peanut oil and some additional bok choy and it was piping hot in the bowl. There's a point to stir frying, people.
Conclusion
My initial impression of the menu that it was too expensive; here you can get a bowl of noodles for the price of an all you can eat Asian buffet with sushi. Isn't ramen supposed to be cheap; isn't the joke "I lived on ramen noodles for 4 years as I worked my way through college"? How does that work at $15/meal?
"Asian Fusion" is synonymous with "Overpriced Asian Food", and this place fits the bill. If the ingredients were fresher or better than some other place you might make a case for it, but they're not. Chipotle has MUCH better meat, and a bowl with beef is literally half the price.
Why is mushy meat with noodles worth twice as much as grilled meat with beans? I can't answer the question.