Here are our 6 favorite places to slurp hot noodle soup in the Hudson Valley.
Saigon Pho
Address: 1582 Route 9, Wappingers Falls, NY
Phone: (845) 765-2100
Hours: Open daily, 11am-9pm
Located in a nondescript strip mall on Route 9, Saigon Pho is not the most glamorous destination, but damn to they make a good bowl of pho. Sit in a pleasantly cheesy dining room, and pick from a range of pho—chicken, beef tendon, Saigon special—to name a few. They also offer hot dishes and a range of appetizers like dumplings, summer rolls, and, of course, bubble tea. If you don’t have time or interest in waiting around (service time could be improved), order ahead and pick up.
Backbar
Address: 347 Warren Street, Hudson, NYPhone: (518) 828-0567
Hours: Mon-Thurs, 4pm-12am; Fri-Sun, 12pm-2am
Backbar, the effortlessly cool, hipster sibling to Zak Pelaccio's Fish & Game, located in the back half of an antique shop, specializes in mouthwatering Malaysian food. Their soup dishes will be less familiar to non-noodle-connoisseurs, but equally delicious. Dandan (AKA tan tan), a classic Sichuan street food, is served in a spicy sauce. At Backbar, dan dan comes with pork, fermented chili, and Sichuan pepper. Their other noodle dish, mee rebus, goes by many names and is popular throughout Southeast Asia. Traditionally made with a thick cloudy shrimp broth, yellow egg noodles, and garnished with hard-boiled egg and a whole mess of veggies, at Backbar it comes with a more locally appropriate
Quinn's
Address: 330 Main Street, BeaconPhone: (845) 202-7447
Hours: Mon-Sat, 6pm–12am; Sun, 6–10pm
Owner of Heritage Food & Drink Jesse Camac calls Quinn's ramen and steamed buns "some of the best in the area." For a classic hot soup option, choose between soy or miso, made with chicken, pork, or bonito base; or opt for the Spicy Miso Veggie. All ramen is served with wakame, bamboo shoots, nori, scallion, fishcake, and stewed egg but you have to pay extra for chaschu pork or chicken. Unlike many places, Quinns also offers a chilled spicy sesame veggie bowl that will keep you ramen-ready all summer long.
Hudson Food Studio
Address: 746 Warren Street, Hudson, NYPhone: (518) 828-3459
Hours: Mon-Thur, 5-9:30pm; Fri & Sat, 5–10:30pm; Sunday 5–9pm;
After a trip to Vietnam, chef David Chicane fell in love with the flavors of Southeast Asia. After a spell at Pearl, an Asian-fusion restaurant and oyster bar in New Hampshire, Chicane opened a farm-to-table eatery with a "Southeast Asian Accent." The Hudson Food Studio has since moved to a larger space on Warren Street, where the menu offers two hot noodle soup options. The chicken pho uses a bone broth made with North Wind Farm chicken and fresh rice noodles ($17). The ramen option (dubbed Big Bowl of Noodles) has pork broth base and comes topped with melt-in-your-mouth braised pork shoulder, noodles, shiitake mushrooms, pea shoots, nori, and egg ($18).
Kimchee Harvest Kitchen
Address: 53470 NY-30, Roxbury, NY 12474Phone: (607) 242-7980
Winter Hours: Saturday, 11am–8pm; Sunday, 11am-6pm
In a rustic interior that befits an upstate inn, Kimchee Harvest Kitchen’s menu offers distinctively Asian-inspired cuisine, influenced by chef Toko Harada’s Japanese culinary roots and co-owner Arthur Warren's Korean heritage. Employing the Japanese concept of “sansai” or “seasonality,” the menu uses the freshest produce for maximum flavor. The ramen options include a meat or vegetable miso broth base with house-made noodles. Gluten-free folks can opt for rice noodle. These steaming bowls of goodness are served with kimchee (grown locallly and made inhouse), seasonal vegetables, pickles, and sprouts.
Ba and Me
Address: 54 Main Street, MountaindaleHours: Friday and Saturday 124 and 6-10, Sunday and Monday 12-6
Phone: (845) 640-2838
Vietnamese immigrant Nhi Mundy is building a tiny empire of restaurants, beginning with her first Ba and Me location in Honesdale. Her newest Vietnamese eatery is located in the radically overhauled Sullivan County town of Mountaindale. (Mundy is something like the town curator in those parts, as well as the editor-in-chief of DVEight magazine.) To her culinary ventures, she brings a casual, hearty, homemade sensibility, built on recipes learned from her grandmother (ba) and mother (me). The three-location mini-chain offers both a vegan pho and a chicken pho, both made with vegan broth and served rice noodles, cilantro, min, onions, scallions, bean sprouts and crispy shallots; as well as a chicken egg noodle soup. The portions are definitely big enough to fill you, but you should order an app or two before get slurping. (Vietnamese tacos, anyone?)
